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Original poster

No messing about in the queue! Tell me your school dinner order

158 replies

WomanhoodIsABirthright · 09/01/2023 09:28

I'll have sausage roll, chips and beans please, with butterscotch tart for pudding.

And seconds of cracknell and custard.

OP posts:
commanderprimate · 09/01/2023 20:03

WomanhoodIsABirthright · 09/01/2023 13:09

Cheese flan. I never tried that, I didn't like the look of it.

Show quote history

Is this the cheese flan? This is from a Milkmarketing Board recipe book given to my Nana in the 70s, when she was a school dinner lady. Every recipe uses far more milk and/or cheese than necessary but they're very nice. My son came home asking if he could have the Cheese and onion pinwheels he'd had in school and we found the recipe in this book - cheese and onion Catherine wheels then though.

No messing about in the queue! Tell me your school dinner order
madnessitellyou · 09/01/2023 20:06

Primary: arbitrary as I just used push it round the plate. It was all utterly revolting. Even the puddings were awful. I hate custard and you were not allowed to not have custard. Cornflake cake was nice though and they didn't cover it custard. Eventually - after another week of being in the dinner hall for the entire break because I refused to eat - I went on packed lunches. Then it was a peanut butter and jam sandwich (still my absolute favourite!), a banana and something like a Blue Riband bar.

Secondary: I only ever had enough for a sandwich, a yoghurt and a drink so it was tuna or cheese sandwich, a Langley Farm strawberry yoghurt (they only ever had strawberry) and a carton of orange juice. Mum didn't want me eating "fattening food" (i.e. chips/pizza/cake etc) so I was only given enough for a sandwich. In y9 I realised I could forgo the yoghurt a couple of times a week to be able to afford chips.

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 09/01/2023 20:19

A cheese and cucumber bap ( I've never had one as good as the ones they made at my secondary school) and a massive slice of chocolate concrete.

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Daisychainsandglitter · 09/01/2023 20:25

I'll have a slice of pizza and a chocolate crunch from the snack bar and a packet of tangy toms (6p) from the tuck shop.
I don't want to spend too long eating as I spend most of my lunch at the shop smoking Marlboro Lights.

Original poster
WomanhoodIsABirthright · 09/01/2023 20:34

NeverDropYourMooncup · 09/01/2023 17:27

At primary; 'You'll have what you're given. No, you can't have the dry baked potato and a tablespoon of grated cheese, that's for the Muslims. No, you aren't allowed to have just the vegetables, there are Africans who would eat this and be grateful, you know, I'll tell Mrs Young you're being fussy again and then you'll lose your playtime. You're so ungrateful complaining that this stuff makes your tummy hurt when you're getting it for free. When your Mum gets a job and pays for your dinners, you can pick and choose'. (NB, turned out to be coeliac).

At secondary: If it was the right dinner lady 'Don't tell anybody and make sure to go to Mrs James to wave you through' (produces a giant jacket potato, four packs of butter and a mound of cheese or a giant plate of chips and two bananas from their hiding place under the counter). Do you want a drink as well?' (Puts a carton of orange juice on the tray). If it was the wrong one and I hadn't managed to steal obtain an early dinner pass 'Nothing left, can't give you stuff that isn't for free dinners, it's more than your token, you'll just have to get here earlier (when the lower school weren't allowed into the canteen and I'd then have to spent 15 minutes waiting in the Poor Kids' queue for a free meal token before joining the food queue five minutes before the end of lunch) if you want food tomorrow'.

Got used to going without.

You've just jogged my memory, if I'm remembering correctly, all of us that had free dinners had to queue. At a certain point there was a table and you took your little card out of the filing case thing then continued to queue and handed the card back to the till lady at the end.

You were only allowed certain things or the meal of the day I think. You had to pay extra on top if you went over £2.20, which was the fsm allowance.

But people that paid could bypass the queue and enter it at the point just before the food counter.

I think surely I must be misremembering, because this is outrageous, but I don't think I am - actually, thinking about it, my friend who paid used to wait and queue with us instead of going ahead, so this must be correct.

OP posts:
Original poster
WomanhoodIsABirthright · 09/01/2023 20:39

commanderprimate · 09/01/2023 20:03

Is this the cheese flan? This is from a Milkmarketing Board recipe book given to my Nana in the 70s, when she was a school dinner lady. Every recipe uses far more milk and/or cheese than necessary but they're very nice. My son came home asking if he could have the Cheese and onion pinwheels he'd had in school and we found the recipe in this book - cheese and onion Catherine wheels then though.

Show quote history

It was this. Vile looking stuff.

OP posts:
iklboo · 09/01/2023 20:48

In college they did the world's best potato cakes - all fresh ingredients. I'd just eat several those with loads of butter. Or go to the nearby chippy for a cone of chips with a metric fudge ton of vinegar on.

hugoagogo · 09/01/2023 20:50

Sausage, chips and beans. Glass of tizer. [One of those stumpy ones with a number in the bottom) Bananas and custard.

FoxCorner · 09/01/2023 20:51

Beef with cheese crumble on top followed by ginger sponge and lemon sauce

hugoagogo · 09/01/2023 20:53

Sausage, chips and beans. Glass of tizer. [One of those stumpy ones with a number in the bottom) Bananas and custard.

iklboo · 09/01/2023 20:54

In college they did the world's best potato cakes - all fresh ingredients. I'd just eat several those with loads of butter. Or go to the nearby chippy for a cone of chips with a metric fudge ton of vinegar on.

BraindeadLefty · 09/01/2023 20:57

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Original poster
WomanhoodIsABirthright · 09/01/2023 21:22

WomanhoodIsABirthright · 09/01/2023 20:39

It was this. Vile looking stuff.

Show quote history

With pic this time, hopefully!

No messing about in the queue! Tell me your school dinner order
OP posts:
RoobarbandCustud · 11/01/2023 09:19

Then - Spam fritters, funny little chips and baked beans with chocolate concrete and ice cream for pud.

Deathraystare · 11/01/2023 10:00

Right! 1sts, 2nds and 3rds of Cheese flan, mash potato and tinned tomatoes then 1sts , 2nds and thirds of Gypsy tart please!

Deathraystare · 11/01/2023 10:01

@WomanhoodIsABirthright

More for me then!!!

PollyPrissypants · 11/01/2023 10:05

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This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

AngelaoftheNorth · 11/01/2023 11:03

We had the square squidgy soggy "pizza" too, mid-eighties. Sometimes even with "salad". Such a joyous respite from the otherwise daily slabs of unidentifiable meat, boiled potato and cabbage.

TaRaDeBumDeAy · 12/01/2023 08:14

Chips, cheese, beans on top and sponge send custard.

onyttig · 12/01/2023 08:17

The best thing on the school dinner menu at my high school was vegetable spring rolls, weirdly served with chips and no sauce. So a plate of beige.

TaRaDeBumDeAy · 12/01/2023 08:35

I loved my school spring rolls. I found a chip shop that did the exact ones once, and then I found them in farmlands!

TaRaDeBumDeAy · 12/01/2023 08:35

Farm foods

onyttig · 12/01/2023 09:10

Farmfoods sounds like exactly where my school spring rolls should be found!

I loved them. But I’m not sure that early 90s me had brilliant taste in food.

Workinghardeveryday · 12/01/2023 09:37

Sausage, chips, beans. Sausage hidden under chips so I wasn’t charged for it 😬, beans over the chips.

pink pudding which was like angel delight but much better and has cream on top, or treacle sponge and custard.

Failing that, crisps and highland bars from the ice cream van that came into the playground every lunchtime and afternoon break.

Also spent many a lunch break in the chippy eating a huge chip butty

IncyWincyGrownUp · 14/01/2023 20:39

WomanhoodIsABirthright · 09/01/2023 20:34

You've just jogged my memory, if I'm remembering correctly, all of us that had free dinners had to queue. At a certain point there was a table and you took your little card out of the filing case thing then continued to queue and handed the card back to the till lady at the end.

You were only allowed certain things or the meal of the day I think. You had to pay extra on top if you went over £2.20, which was the fsm allowance.

But people that paid could bypass the queue and enter it at the point just before the food counter.

I think surely I must be misremembering, because this is outrageous, but I don't think I am - actually, thinking about it, my friend who paid used to wait and queue with us instead of going ahead, so this must be correct.

Show quote history

Everyone had to queue to get into the dining room, but FSM kids, of whom I was one, had to wait for the dinner lady manning the lines to wander up and down handing out lunch passes to those who needed them. It was fairly embarrassing for some, others didn’t care. The value of the lunch wasn’t enough to have a decent meal on, hence my sausage and rice combo for four years. I had water every day, as that was free.

My kids have never had this issue, their credit is on their swipe card (and they all used cards, cashless school), and nobody knows who has FSM. I could also afford to top it up a little, unlike my parents.