To ask which foods used to be super fancy but are now totally "normal"

[cheesenpickles]

I was chatting to my 3 year old today about how, when I was little, pizza was quite an exciting thing. It's what they ate on American tv shows and there was no way you could get it delivered to your house. Got me thinking about things that are ordinary groceries now which were the pinnacle of fancy/unthought of in the 80s and 90s (and earlier!)

Avocados are another one. My mum would buy one for her and my dad as a special treat to eat with vinegarette from their special "avocado pear" bowls.

Mexican food as well. Old El Paso kits were the height of fancy pants when I was younger.

Halloumi, gets and hummus were things only my family seemed to know about (parents were stationed in Cyprus) and trying to explain squeaky cheese to my friends when we brought a huge brine-filled jug of the stuff back from holiday was hilarious considering it's totally normal now.

Fizzy drinks. We got Corona fizzy pop as a big treat and took the empty glass bottles back to the shop to get 5p back

We were the only family in town who had garlic, spaghetti-not-out-of-a-tin and couscous. Oh, and gherkins.

We were green around the gills in a culinary way when we first met our adopted son, who lived in Notting Hill. First day of primary school he asked if there was couscous on the menu! I think the dinner lady thought he was speaking a different language!

I remember my parents with the avocado and vinaigrette!! Another starter for special occasions was half a grapefruit- not to mention the ‘glass of orange juice or slice of melon’ option in restaurants.

I was bringing up my young family throughout the 70s, and meals I regularly cooked were, spag bol, lasagna, pizza, roasts, casserole type meals such as cassoulet, rabbit, coq au vin, a variety of fish dishes, steak and kidney pie, so not everyone ate only meat and two veg.

I cooked everything "from scratch" as it is so amusingly know these days! I was heavily influenced by Elizabeth David and Robert Carrier.

I remember Lucozade being served in my little wine glass, you knew you no longer at Death's Door then! And I remember Sharon fruit when they were called persimmons.

So many! I was born in 1951, and as a family we were vegetarian (which was extremely rare). Food for meat eaters was very basic and seasonal - meat and 2 veg. No veggies imported, or cheese. Pasta? What’s that?

I was lucky as my mum was a brilliant cook, and owned that iconic Elizabeth David cookbook and adapted the recipes to veggie.

People didn’t eat out for fun in the 50s and 60s.

In the 90s I went to America for teaching practise and had bagels for breakfast every day with cream cheese. Couldn’t get them anywhere back home except a lovely little stall at the Trafford centre where we would buy a dozen and freeze along with the cream cheese. Fast forward to now and bagels and cream cheese are every where. My kids expect them to be available for breakfast options! Lol.

Anything instant - ready meals etc. Think a pot noodle or cuppa soup was a quick as you could get.

Cheese scones were something we got a lot from Greggs in the North East but when I went to uni you couldn’t get them so I’d take a load with me and freeze and get funny looks off colleagues. Now Greggs is everywhere and so are cheese scones (but no longer the same recipe).

Busybusybust, I didn't realise that a persimmon and a sharon fruit was the same. I remember eating them but thought one was larger than the other (or something). I might be thinking about and getting mixed up with that teeny tiny orange fruit you get in a leaf as decorations on a buffet. Are the called something else than Sharon fruit? Persimmon are definitely the bigger fruits I'm thinking about....

Def avocado although it was quite a 70s thing. More at parties than an everyday food.

When my gcs were making a fuss about dealing with cherry stones, it occurred to me that when I was their age there were no seedless grapes and all citrus fruit had pips. I think it was tangerines we had, not satsumas. They came later, but, yes - only at Xmas, one in the toe of our stockings.

The most exotic thing we had to drink was Britvic pineapple juice in a small (mixer) bottle. Very occasionally as a huge treat. We only had crisps (Smith's with the blue twist of salt) when my parents took us for a drink in a pub garden. Everyday orange juice was NHS, that you got from the baby clinic. (They also sold Marmite in a little tin.) It was a very sticky syrup that you diluted, not as sweet as what's sold today. Some people had a weekly delivery of fizzy drinks - cream soda, cherryade, but no coke - from a man in a van. You could buy lemonade powder from the sweet shop but we never made lemonade, just bought 4 oz and licked a finger and dabbed it into the paper bag.

Coffee - I can remember that before instant powder there was Camp coffee essence in a bottle. You poured a small amount into hot milk. I still buy it because it makes vg coffee icing. Real ground coffee came in a tin, not a packet and you used to make it in a jug and strain it, like tea, or an electric percolator.

We didn't have croissants or pains au chocolate or Danish pastries. But I preferred the Currant, Chelsea, Bath and Swiss buns that have almost disappeared today. French sticks were quite exotic. I think they arrived in the 60s? But there were many different sort of British bread - Bloomer, Split Tin, Sandwich, Cob, Danish. Hovis used to make mini-loaves which I'd like to see again.

Graphista I remember having an argument somewhere out in the sticks in the USA about French dressing - they'd got it entirely wrong. And American chop suey was nothing like ours, a big disappointment.

This made me lol

DF says he never saw a banana until after the war. He is 86.

Says as kids they were such a luxury.

Our mum used to take us for our birthday meal in department stores - BHS, Littlewoods etc. It was always sausage, chips and beans and a carton of juice. We never got a pudding, but I do remember being allowed bread and butter with it when I was older. This was late 70s/ early 80s.

These dgc “don’t know they’re born” - as my mother was fond of pointing out. Every trip into town includes food for them.

Chippy meals are the same - we shared fishcake and chips or a sausage dinner between 3 of us. My DC, to mum’s disbelief, were asking for sui mai and duck pancakes since they were little!

I remember the following (born 1986):
-fruit cocktail from a tin
-fish in a butter sauce that was microwaved
-'Feet icecream lollies'
-Toffo sweets and biscuits
-Much more jelly at parties

• Walkers having money in them and a £5 note being found in 1

-Cereal having toys

• Flake bars having white choc on the outside and milk choc on the inside

Not sure if these were 'posh' but never remember having steak or gammon (only at grandads house re gammon), had sausages, eggs, lots of shepherds pie, spaghetti Bolognese & sausage and mash or things like ham/eggs/chips and scrambled eggs (I miss eggs as I've found out im intolerant to them)

LittleSwede The fruits with the leaves often used to decorate, are Physalis, (sometimes called Golden Fruit). I like the way the leaves twist. Sometimes I dip the fruit in chocolate.

Oh yes i forgot i seem to eat a lot of sweet peppers now they are a staple in my diet and bagged salad of spinach leaves etc i never ever saw . I only remember iceberg lettuce and cucumber/carrots.

Does anyone remember the posh bloke in the nescafe ads ? Or the flake ad* witb the bath?

In 1995 A colleague gave me some rocket which she grew in her garden it was like a taste explosion in my mouth. A few years later rocket become mainstream but nowhere as good as my colleague’s

We were poor and had dripping sandwiches, shared a ski yogurt between 4. we thought we were posh if we had spaghetti

I can remember cooking dried spaghetti like we had seenDelia do it on the telly. Also a hamper at Christmas with a melon and a pineapple

I remember when Pringles were a new thing. Crisps in a tube and so crispy and delicious!

Oh, yes, Brioche!

Also pita bread, and tortilla chips. The was much discussion on how to pronounce tortilla. A bit like cous cous.

@Thymeout I remember the tiny Hovis loaves! They were so cute. I'd love to see them again too but think they were only in proper bakers.

Nicholas - my dd still has the scar from cutting a Penguin biscuit into three to share with her brothers. I did the same with Mars Bars. The rule was that the one who did the cutting had 3rd choice.

I wouldn't say we were poor, but definitely had to be more careful with money. Most of us were SAHMs, not always from choice. There was v little child-care available. No breakfast clubs or after-school clubs. Hardly any nurseries.

Perverse One of my moans is the disappearance of proper baker's shops. Even Greggs has stopped selling bread. The few specialist bakeries are 'Artisan', which means they charge the earth for focaccia and French 'country' loaves. Supermarket loaves aren't the same and often pre-sliced. The ordinary Bloomer has been replaced with Tiger Bread, which always seems to come apart when I slice it.