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.

Yes! Sea food pizza is virtually impossible to get anywhere now other than independent restaurants.

Omg! I haven’t seen one for many years as there are only a few that I go to now. If I ever see a punky I’m having one, IDGAF that I’m nearly 30.

Death by chocolate. A cake with mousse on the top

Deep fried camembert with cranberry sauce.

Lunch at the happy eater when travelling to family down south in the summer was a huge treat (half way point). It had an little playground with an elephant slide ☺️

Oooo this sounds lovely ☺️

This is why everyone was so slim in the 70s/80s. We joke about how awful the diets were back then but we could learn from this!

Chicken fricassee
Chicken pascal

I also hate the vegan substitute thing.

When 95% of a menu is already meat why take off the two veggie meals to add 'meat substitute' meals, its not fair.

I'm veggie due to medical reasons, I cannot eat beef or pork. The risk they will mix up a 'moving mountains' burger with a real one (which could KILL me) is too big a risk to take. Especially as many people think veganism is a lifestyle choice not medical so do NOT treat contamination all that seriously.

I do NOT want my food to look exactly like something that could kill me. Bring back good old veggie burgers made of veg and breadcrumbs or even the modern 'halloumi' burgers will do me.

I am glad the fad of whacking a bland drippy MASSIVE mushroom in a bun and call it a 'burger' is over though.

I had the most luscious Black Forest Sunday in a restaurant I would no longer go to (prices are silly and quality is mediocore in comparison). It was that good it was something I'll always remember.

Deep fried stuff and sugary puddings?

Found one in Tottenham Court Road in London a few years ago.

We loved Garfunkels back in the day. First place I ever saw a salad bar. And their Toffee Nosed Sundae was divine.

Sadly, the one we found in TCR bore no resemblance to the Garfunkels' we used to go to in the 80s 😞 and we left feeling very disappointed.

Everyone on this thread needs to read, mark and inwardly digest Simon Hopkinson and Lindsay Bareham's The Prawn Cocktail Years. Not just recipes but social history (she says, slighlty tongue in cheek).

A half grapefruit or a glass of orange juice were common “starters” in my youth. Oh we knew how to party!

I think people were terrified they would be served something exotic like spaghetti or avocado pear and not know how to deal with it.

i had a delicious black forest type of pudding in Costa recently, perhaps a cheese cake

veal you can buy in the supermarket , waitrose M & S and is very nice,

This is very much a long shot. But anyone from Oxfordshire might remember.

This was around the late 1980's.

There used to be a place - I am pretty sure it was in a village called Thrupp (but could be wrong) - that was either a pub or a converted old school house that used to serve school meals. No trendy chef, literally a couple of ladies and a man I recall that cooked things like sausage meat pie, meat and carrots in gravy with mashed potatoes and cabbage. Puddings were rice and jam, jam roly poly and spotted dick. You found a table and took your plate up to the serving hatch and had they decanted scoops of pie etc out of those big rectangle metal trays onto white plates and you went along to the end after veg to pour gravy out of a large tin jug.

There was a bar at the end and you could get beer, wine and spirits brought out to you. In all other aspects it was like a village pub minus the log fire and horse brasses, but the owners just carried on doing what they seemed to have done before.

https://longleyfarm.com/products/mandarin-yogurt

Have you tried these OP?

I used to love chicken in a basket.
and babycham or snowball

They closed all their branches down permanently during the Covid pandemic.

Ah, the days when mac 'n' cheese was a full meal, not a side!

Rhum Baba was my mum's fave. A sort of doughnutty thing in a puddle of sweet syrup. I think Nigella has a recipe.

Ooo yes, I like a tart.

My primary school used to do a lovely Manchester tart.

I got this book for my mum and ended up reading it too, after her and loved it for the social history as well as the food

@feellikeanalien Longley's is lovely. We are lucky to have a farm shop near us that stocks their products. The blackcurrant yoghurts are especially delicious and tangy.

@Optimist1 i just had to google what that was and my grandma used to make it but I never knew what it was called. It’s brought back so many memories, thank you! She also used to make space jelly!

Soufflé
Baked cheese soufflés as starters
Set lemon soufflé with nuts on the sticky up bit and piped rosettes of cream