Old seventies menu,when melons were gondolas

[ChrissyShenkle]

This was posted on my local Facebook from a hotel that's now closed
Hard to believe that fruit juice was a starter, and what the hell are eggs indienne?

No salmon farms

I remember those with a cocktail stick and an orange slice as the sail.

It's refreshing to see a bar menu without 20 crappy burger options, chips that have been messed about with, and annoying 'plant based' crap 😃

As a commis chef it was my job to do the melon,slice melon offset the chunks,thin slice of whole orange on a cocktail stick,glace cherry on top of stick.or comic chef according to the head chef.

@Cuppachuchu my mum always served melon with ginger and a sprinkle of brown sugar . She loved it that way 😁

My mum used to make this too! It was lovely.

Did anyone else have jelly whisked with evaporated milk and then set in the fridge? That was really nice.

I also miss a sweet trolley - haven’t chosen a dessert from one of those in years.

Yes! Known as "fluff" in our house.

Yes - fluff!!

This thread has inspired me to have a 70s food night - the DC don’t know what they’re missing.

We knew that as flummery.

We called it fluffy pudding.

Oh yes, corn on the cob.

These days I don't think any young women would go on first dates and choose corn on the cob as a starter - all that buttery gnawing.

We were intrepid back in the 70s!

I had the Hamlyn book and the M& S cookery book( still have that one). They were flat warming presents I think.
Things like the M&S Beef Bourguinon are just classics. I remember making the Hamlyn Lemon dessert which was a fake cheesecake with condensed milk.
& a ginger nut & cream roll 😂 Thought I was really sophisticated 😂

DH made the M&S beef and spinach curry once only - it was rank…

I've still got the Hamlyn one on the top left, garish photos and all! The St Michael cookery books were really good. My MIL had one that had some great recipes...I wonder where it went?

I remember melon with ground ginger well!

Oh I loved it when my parents took me to a Berni. It opened restaurant dining to the masses.

OMG I've actually got all those cookbooks in my kitchen right now!
In my defense- I did inherit them from MiL

I just asked my mum as I remember her having some of the books in the photo and she said she'd given them all to the charity shop so I went on a hunt and have a haul coming from world of books next week!

I remember fruit juice as a starter, but that’s because proper fresh fruit juice - or any actual,juice - just wasn’t available in shops like it is now, so it was something of a treat. It came in tins - Trout Hall. Or a bit later, frozen from Birds’ Eye.

I’m talking 1950s/60s here, maybe earlier 70s too.

I remember it with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon! (Which I told my kids about and they decided is actually quite tasty!)

That was another one of my jobs as commis chef, setting up the trolley and having a slice of gateau on the sly as my reward or profiteroles they were easily stapped in the gob when you weren't meant to be munching.😋

Yes and you had to ask for ‘fresh orange ‘ in drinks or they’d give you squash.

Any Scottish people remember the Glasgow Cookery book?

I don't remember that one Chrissy , sorry , but does anyone remember this - Oh my goodness the price for a decent copy. Pretty sure my mother and MIL both had this but probably stained by use

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31279939607&dest=gbr&ref_=ps_ggl_2039220669&cm_mmc=ggl--UK_Shopp_Tradestandard--product_id=UK9780340177594NEW-_-keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_mvBhDwARIsAA-Q0Q7xswGvloD4iOyoBx1w79ckpiBqkBDgth966Fq4ravJYv7UrBeajsIaAquCEALw_wcB

Ooh I love a prawn cocktail, haven't had one in years. Was a very sad day when mum discovered the 1990's and dinner party starters progressed to melon wrapped in parma ham. So cosmopolitan.