Why was a glass of orange juice a starter?

[NutellaEllaElla]

I learned this recently. Is it true? What don't I know that might help me understand this?

I remember going to a dinner and dance in the 90s. The kitchen must have forgotten to order melon so the melon and Parma ham starter was essential a mouthful of ham with a slice of melon so thin you could see through it. They probably fed the whole room (120) with one melon.

@justasking111

Yes that was the other starter - breaded mushrooms with garlic dip!

When I was at university in the late 90s in the catered halls you still had a choice of fruit juice or a starter with your evening meal. We used to try and chug the juice down in the queue so you could either refill or grab a starter too. The starter was usually salad so not sure why we bothered.

Never go back, that's my motto. Nothing is ever as good as you remember it. I remind myself of that each time I'm tempted to buy a sachet of Angel Delight and relive those strawberry-with-a-touch of soap sensations of the 70s.

Now Angel Delight IS still the same! My daughter used to eat loads of it when she was in her teens and I pinched a bowlful on more than one occasion.

In NHS hospital wards it is. 85mls to be precise. and it tastes like fucking paint.
Yeah, I don't care that it was a 70s thing, a starter is food. Non negotiable. OJ is a drink, alongside food.

Just noticed how late it is. I was tempted to get in the car and head to the supermarket to invest in the full range of Angel Delight and two litres of milk!

The 70s obsession with dehydrated food must have been linked to space exploration and astronaut's rations, mustn't it? So very modern.

I was briefly a waitress in a seafront hotel in the late nineties. We served small glasses of orange jiuce on a doily even then. Was it freshly squeezed? No. Was it from a carton? No. Sadly, it was from a powder, hastily whipped up by me, usually to the wrong concentrate and with a nice sediment left at the bottom.

Where is this pub? Sounds fab!

We had them when I went on camping trips with friends when I was a late teen in the 70s.

Vesta paella was my favourite. We used to have it for a treat sometimes.

Oh yes the Vesta chicken chow mein and the Vesta paella. They were an occasional treat and we thought they were the height of sophisticated dining. Mind you I was 21yrs old before I tried my first avacado ... "and if you tell that to the young people today, they won't believe you".

You missed out Smash! (That's still one of the best adverts ever, mind you)

Desserts all came in powder form. There was bird's trifle with several packets you added various liquids to. Then there was lemon meringue pie. A packet of powder. You added egg yolks and water, put it in a pastry case and topped with whisked egg white.

We didn't bother with the pastry. The lemon stuff was put in a bowl and the sugared egg white dumped on top. It was yummy.

Yes!
I remember holidays in the 70s. Starters were orange juice or tomato juice. Sometimes soup, sometimes prawn cocktail, sometimes half a grapefruit (sprinkled with sugar and popped under the grill, then garnished with a cocktail cherry), or if they were really posh, a melon boat.

I loved the Vests puffy noodle things.

And I still eat butterscotch Angel Delight.

I had hot black cherries and ice-cream as dessert at my wedding in 1974. The caterer recommended it.

Not if you had a special grapefruit knife like my mum, it was curved so you could get all the segments removed from the peel, then you could cut down the membrane between each segment. Come to think of it she had special spoons for grapefruit as well, slightly longer , thinner bowls than a tea spoon. We knew how to live in the good old days!

Just juice advert. I'm sure I remember one with a kid going down a slide but maybe I imagined that.

I watched a video of foods that have disappeared, now all I want is a can of quattro😭

@NigelHarmansNewWife in the 80s my mum took me for a meal in a local restaurant. I was about 8, I'd been to a hospital appointment and it was a real treat as we never ever ate out. The starter was melon with a glacé cherry on a cocktail stick. It felt so exotic and exciting. (For completeness the main was lasagne and chips and the pudding was arctic roll. And a fizzy drink with it 😱. We never had pop either. A total time capsule of a meal.)

@BIWI OMG birds apeel. I used to have that when i was little. I can imagine the utter horror at toddlers with bottles or sippy cups of powdered juice nowadays.

Tinned orange concentrate from the freezer section, indeed Sainburys were still selling it in the mid 80's when I worked for them

Mum is the worse cook in the world but she did make a mean Duck A L Orange using it.

I can remember the milkman delivering Orange Juice on a Saturday only, pint bottle just like the milk, you had to pre order it. If it was bought in our house, it wasnt for us kids, we got squash

We have a golf club near us and they do the most amazing carvery on Sundays, its not in the least bit posh, its just good food cooked well, its the best Sunday dinner ( other then mine obviously ) but the starters and desserts are straight out of the seventies. Prawns with manderin in a marie rose sauce anyone? Or Melon with a fruit "jus' and cream? and the breaded deep fried mushrooms :) Desserts are seriously tinned fruit and ice cream and trifle as it was made at home and blancmonge :)

Back to the orange juice, lidl here have introduced the self serve fresh squeeze orange juice machines. I remeber them coming into stores in the 80's and there being queues to the doors for it

We had these - did you get yours with tokens from the petrol station?

I'm just reminded about how exciting and special eating out was in the 70s. Once or twice a year if we were lucky and it always seemed very grown-up and such a treat. I can remember my parents taking us to London for a day of sightseeing (in the days when you didn't have to pay £29 to see Westminster Abbey) and then (hell, I can feel the thrill mounting) taking us to Lyons Corner House, where I think we had fish and chips. The decor, the background music, having a waitress serve you... It was magic.