Your school dinners

[FridgeJenga]

but really, this thread is about school cake!

The only thing I really liked from my school dinners was school cake, but no pink custard please.
Well, maybe their fish cakes but these were made with a batter coating, rather than the usual breadcrumbs.

Did you enjoy school dinners as a kid?

I wasn’t allowed school dinners because my mum said they were made of shit like pigs trotters 😂 I always gazed at the longingly and then got one over on her because the teachers would give me a pudding if I tidied the whole library.

I hated them, and sandwiches wasn't an option. Mind you, I was a fussy eater (would only eat fruit, raw veggies, salad, cheese, dry bread, the odd bit of meat, cake and sweets). Sometimes I'd go all day without eating. I can remember being heavily encouraged to eat liver! However, I do remember what was described as chocolate crunch and that went down well.

I was vegetarian, at a time when being vegetarian wasn’t really a thing.

I ate a lot of hash browns and boiled to within an inch of its life broccoli. The saving grace was we had a salad bar and a rice station (private school, strong South Korean and Japanese contingent). So we had a proper rice cooker with proper steamed rice and loads of toppings, soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli oil, seasonings, rice wine vinegar.

I ate a lot of rice and salad and cake.

I didn't grow up here but DH goes on and on about his favourite school dinner called "sausage layer pie". He described it as crumbled browned sausage, baked beans, and mash on top and how incredibly wonderful it was. I agreed to make it for his birthday one year after years of him begging, and it was completely vile!

Also, I cannot use the descriptive word "casserole" to describe all the wonderful stews, braises, daubes, carbonnades, cassoulets, bourguignons, etc that I make from scratch because of his bad associations with whatever it was his school called "casserole". He loves what I make but should I accidentally call it a "casserole" he pulls a face and doesn't want it anymore!!

I was at secondary in the late 60s early 70s and remember my school dinners fondly, we had 'proper' food like roasts and pies and lovely stodgy puddings. My favourites were roast mutton, 'golden' salad (grated carrot, fresh orange segments, raisins and peanuts), anything with roast potatoes, butterscotch tart with artificial cream, chocolate sponge with chocolate custard. We usually had seconds of everything. Hated beef olives and tapioca pudding (fish eyes in glue). We were lucky to have such nutritious dinners.

Primary school was the usual pink custard, etc

Secondary school was wild... Pizza and chips for a quid??? A massive chocolate muffin for 30p?

Toast was 10p a slice.

Used to have four slices

😂

Re. Manchester tart being local to Lancashire??

Yes, yes it was! Loved it.

Didn't like them at the time but Eccles cakes too. And Chorley cakes. Not at school, unfortunately

Little roast potatoes & Chocolate Crunch were always a good day.

Chippy Butty in high school (Chips in a bread roll with salt & vinegar)

Ours was get what you are given and the only choice was take it or leave it.

Chips were never served at primary school and only once a month at secondary school.

Mind you, the whole meal was only the equivalent of around 7p at primary, 10p at secondary.