Items that you no longer see on menus.

[DeathAndParsnips]

Which foods do you rarely see on menus now? I was watching some old adverts on YouTube for Little Chef and such which made me think of this.

Do you still get melon as a starter? I used to love that as a child. Also a glass of orange juice as a starter. I went to a hotel in around 2010 and they still had that as an option on the menu. I found it rather charming.

I know right.

No, I don't want vegan fish strips and chips. I want battered halloumi with tartare sauce...the more the better.

And no, I don't want vegan pasta. I want heavy cream sauces with piles parmesan, thankyou very much. 😆

Shrimp cocktail is not the same as prawn cocktail, even though you’d think they’d be identical. A prawn cocktail sauce is basically ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together, occasionally with other things added, including a bit of cayenne (but not enough to make it at all spicy), and prawns are then mixed into it. Small prawns are usually used and it’s a very popular sandwich filling.

@Nanaof1
This is a traditional egg mayonnaise that would be found in restaurants

I remember frozen orange juice and then juice in cartons. What changed to suddenly make it more affordable?

I miss scampi. All the places I go to are either places that would never have served scampi (good lord, no!) or have stopped serving it or have bumped it onto the kids' menus.

My dad used to whisk it up from a powder (UPF, I imagine). It was just for grown ups and very posh indeed.

It wasn't until the 1980s that they developed a way to concentrate orange juice and reconstitute it.

So instead of oranges being imported and need 3 of them for a glass of OJ you started to be able to buy reconstituted orange juice where the concentrate had come from Florida, or Spain and the water added in the UK (or other countries).

No less than 6 avocado cold starters, and avocado then makes a further appearance amongst hot starters, baked!

Several variables over time. Tetra Pak, globalisation, the bulk purchasing power of supermarkets as they grew in size.

I knew an citrus importer (since died) who said one key advantage that came along in the 1980's for him was the ability to place binding seasonal orders instantly via a fax machine. Until then buyers were at the vagaries of last minute ripening conditions and contract decisions made by sellers based on phone conversations later reneged on. Stock was unreliable and this affected the end point of sale. He was still using fax machines right up to 2015.

There is also an interesting thread on here last week about a 1969 shopping list kept in an order book. It is very clear when looking at a range of items posters had analysed that in real terms we pay about 65%-70% of what we would otherwise be paying for groceries had food prices kept track with inflation since that time.

A relative who had a pub and was the chef, had a regular who always asked for a giant prawn cocktail as a main. So eventually he put it on the main dish menu - it was very popular!

I can recommend Foie Gras by Foie Royale. Delicious. High welfare. No force feeding.

Also…..

Paul Masson California Wine in a carafe…..

Melon in a Basket (Melon filled with chopped Melon)

(Not in a restaurant, but Heinz London Grill in a can - sausages beans and bits of liver and bacon)

Can you still get “Speciality coffee” with Tia Maria & cream ?

They still do it in my local Italian!

they must have alot of stock from somewhere. according to a friend the oaps keep this place going

Around here our autumn winter menus in restaurants the fastest sellers are steak and kidney pie or turkey and ham. Steak and kidney pudding or lamb and leek pudding. All rib sticking food with vegetables and lashings of gravy. One pub up in the hills a couple of miles does a roast dinner every day in the winter and it's so popular.

Wincarnis
"(Not in a restaurant, but Heinz London Grill in a can - sausages beans and bits of liver and bacon) ". I used to love London Grill, I almost thought I had imagined it!

From the 70s remember

Beef Wellington
Chicken Chasseur
Steak Diane
Chicken Maryland
Chicken in a Basket
Vienna (Weiner) Schnitzel
Ham steak and pineapple
Porterhouse Steak
Mornay
Filet Mignon
Fillets of Plaice
Beef Stroganoff
Fisherman's Basket
Escalopes

As long as they had chicken and chips I was a happy child!

Taramasalata! Now that is something I've not seen in years - not in a supermarket either .

People bemoaning the lack of proper veggie meals due to vegan produce - there is not even one veggie main course on this menu - I wonder how old this is ?

Taramasalata is on sale in the supermarkets I use - Sainsbury, Waitrose, Marks etc.

I had to google Chicken Maryland and it has bananas on it? 🤔

I know there are still some Wimpys but in the 1970s they were the height of fashion 😂. Shockingly there are still benders available.

I think that the real chicken Maryland is somewhat different from the 70s dish.

We hardly ate out at all and so I am sure I only had it once or twice but I remember crumbed and deep-fried chicken thigh with a banana as part of the deal. It sometimes had those white chef hat things on the end of the bone and I think there was white sauce. And chips.

Cannelloni in a boiling hot metal dish! I haven't seen it in Italian restaurants (in the UK or Italy) for years.

Also they really should have got an Italian to proofread the menu....or write it in English!