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?

Bread was served with meals to fill you up cheaply. In restaurants bread rolls were served because the starters were things like soup and pate, etc. Nowadays bread is included with specific starters, like bruschetta but lots of places don't serve it as a general rule, especially not more casual places.

@asterel Yes I remember those Ski pots, they were narrower at the top than the base, I think they were meant to resemble a milk churn.

This one?

Back then orange juice was in short supply.Rarely fresh and often not great! So a glass full in a Restaurant was seen as luxurious .Ditto tomato Juice ,and melon boat also half a grapefruit plus cherry on top!

I think maybe I got a cheaper one but that sort of idea.

I worked in a hotel until around mid 2000's
Starters were-

Breaded mushrooms
Prawn cocktail
Orange juice
Pate and toast fingers

Yes, that's it! It was wonderful. I don't think anyone makes a chocolate yoghurt now 🙁

The 'natural' yogurts in the 70s and early 80s tended to be rather thin and acidic iirc - I think milder cultures were introduced later on and then of course greek broke onto the scene.

And it was seldom chilled.

Italian restaurant near me has it as one of the starters on their set menu.

Lots of things now are seen as everyday and a necessary but in the 1970's would be luxury and special occasion territory. I have a vague recollection of my Aunty Bett coming around and inviting us to watch her colour TV. We only had black and white and it was rented from Radio Rentals. I didn't even know anyone who had a foreign holiday until I was 12 and at Secondary school. In my Primary school I'd never heard of anyone going anywhere out of the UK. Ice cream and even Swiss Roll was only ever on Sundays. I can remember being so excited by Artic Roll (swiss roll with ice cream.in the middle). Satsumas we only ever got in December for Xmas and possibly January. Turkey only at Xmas. An ice cream was a rare treat and usually bought by my Aunty Bet because she and her dh didn't have any DC so were better off. I got 1 new summer dress each year and 1 pair of sandals. I had older sisters so had to wear their hand me downs. I never minded though because all my friends were in exactly the same situation. There was no attempt to keep up with anyone because no one had much.

First anniversary 'posh' meal - fruit juice, steak Diane, Black Forest Gateau and a bottle of Mateus Rose.

The height of sophistication 😊

@caringcarer Very similar memories 🥰

We moved into a new build house in 1971 but it didn't have central heating. There were wall heaters (electric) in the bedrooms and bathroom which were as much use as a chocolate teapot. We also had electric convector heaters that we could plug in (sparingly). There was a gas fire in the living room, nothing in the passage, so you had to brace yourself to go to the loo in winter time! It was a red letter day when Mum and Dad were finally able to afford gas central heating in the mid 70s.

Colour TV arrived around the same time, as did our first automatic washing machine. All linked to Mum's return to full-time work after a career break when we were little and then a few years of supply teaching and part-time teaching.

@caringcarer , yes same here.
Some kids got more new clothes and I felt a little shabby in comparison, but in hindsight I appreciate that some of them had parents with more money, parents who didn't but owed money, or parents who didn't give them other things like books.

One of them, always in a pretty dress with her hair curled etc and still is always immaculately groomed has never learnt to read proficiently to be able to read a novel. I never sussed. She's 'streetsmart' enough but sort of slipped through the system. I love reading and so what if I wore jumble sale rejects and cast offs, we had books.

My mum made spaghetti Bol for tea for my 16th birthday in 1988 and that was a big deal. There's a picture of us all sitting round with half a loaf on the table 😆

I can remember having lunch in Pizzaland which was jacket potato and a slice of pizza.

When I grew up we had an open fire in what Mum called the kitchen, but it wasn't a kitchen it was a living room. She called the kitchen the scullery where she cooked and washed up. Anyway another open fire in front room which was only ever used at Xmas. We had a portable colour gas heater that used a gas bomb. Mum used to push it into the bathroom entrance, not enough room to shut the door, when we had a bath, because it was freezing in there. No heating on bedrooms but they did have open fire places. We just got given a hot water bottle and we had to go downstairs to the toilet if we needed a wee in the night. We didn't get a hot shower fitted and a little bathroom hot air heater until I was a late teen.

Pizzaland was great. You got a bowl and filled it with salad. Mine were feats of construction.
(Or should that be feasts of construction?)

Not sure if anyone said this but..

Juice (or half a grapefruit) was served at the start of a meal because Vitamin C helps with the absoption of iron - that's why it persists in hospitals. Milk on the other hand reduces the absoprtion of iron so shouldn't be served with a meal.

(Atleast, that is what I was taught as a nurse.)

Thats the Pizzaland platter. Half a margarita with one olive in what would have been the centre, with a jacket potato.

I swear no where has ever come close to the taste of that pizza.

And I eat a lot of pizza!

Fruit juices used to be very expensive. Orange juice was seen as a luxury in the 70's and 80's. Growing up we rarely had it and were in awe of the Americans who we heard had fresh orange juice practically on tap!

Fizzy drinks are called minerals in NI. A man called the mineral man delivered them
To you in his van!

They were and looking back they could be recycled being waxed card rather than plastic

This thread got me thinking and i wondered why we don't have long spaghetti anymore, to my delight i have just found 20inch spaghetti on Amazon. Just ordered a few pack and i am making Spag bol next week 😁