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.

NotStressedOut It was me who said about Greggs not selling bread. Our branch has been revamped to provide some indoor seating and the bread shelf has gone. It's only been in the last month or so, but I read it in the press as well. Even before, it was a minimal selection.

pliu chicken soup out of a machine after swimming. Was a proper treat!!!

To those who told me the name ofthe fella in the nescafe ads' & posted the pictures (think there were 2 of you) thank you very much bought back happy memories....and the bisto ads' poor Linda (at least I think that's her name!)...

Waitrose pastrami and cucumber sandwiches (1986). I had only ever read about pastrami in US-set crime novels.
Pot noodles. They were a really exciting, futuristic sort of treat in the early 80s, and I was only allowed to get one for my lunch on a Saturday if I was going out in the evening. (And I am still cross that you can't get the cheese and tomato flavour any more - it was the best hangover cure in the world.)

Early 80s, my ex MIL grew plants to sell from their farm, she sold pepper plants but never grew peppers for home use as they weren't for people like us

I also remember fruit juice as a starter - generally orange, grapefruit or tomato juice. And thinking myself a cool grown-up when (at around 13) I started choosing tomato juice (with a dash of Worcester sauce - it was basically a Bloody Mary without the vodka) instead of orange.

There was a restaurant near our house when I was a kid that served various fried foods, or steak, or fish and chips and was licensed. A couple of years ago I was in the area and the place was still open, still had the same menu and almost looked the same. So I went in and had liver, egg and chips, which had been my childhood favourite and it tasted the same.
I also remember 'curry' that you ate with sliced bananas - mostly, for me, it was either M&S out of a tin or our neighbours' version (she had lived in India as she was married to a soldier and it was the British Raj type of 'curry')
Spaghetti bolognese out of a tin.
A fruit 'juice' drink that was made out of powder, that we used to get given every morning because it was supposedly healthy - I am so old that I also remember being encouraged to drink Ribena at breakfast time, because that was healthy and had all vitamin C in it.

Kiwis. I remember when they were the in ingredient and every fancy restaurant and chef included them in their recipes.
I am jewish and we ate bagels bought frim a small specialist jewish shop. No one else i knew had heard of them.
Wine. It was expensive and posh. Then later cocktails. A cocktail bar for a brief moment was the height of sophistication. Now it just makes me think of hen nights.

For years lettuce meant the English flat lettuce. Then suddenly shops started selling iceberg lettuce. I remember articles in women's magazines saying how it was a miracle food and would help live for ever. Then a few months later they started saying that it would give you cancer.

Last night we had filo tarte with feta, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and olives, followed by smoked salmon and king prawns with home made artisan bread and lemon mayonnaise while my son had prosciutto, bresaola, salad leaves and mango with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We also had a bottle of Prosecco.

Not one single item was around when I was a child. Many children would have fish and chips as a family Friday night treat but we couldn’t afford it. We would have had something like sausages or fish fingers and beans.

Hilarious really. However, I have Digestive biscuits for breakfast and Weetabix for lunch in the week so I guess that is still pretty old school.

Told my mom on the phone that my dd4 was having a slice of arctic roll for pudding and she said in the 80's it was considered a posh/expensive treat...I paid a quid for it!

Fruit other than apples was something you had at Christmas!

Wow, so wonderful to read these posts! It's made me really nostalgic!
Born in 71, it was 1977 before I had sausages for the first time (the day my brother was born!). 1984 before I had my first taste of tuna in a sandwich, and I have loved it ever since. Curry was just for the grown ups. Pizza was a HUGE treat. Peppers, mushrooms, my staples now, unheard of then (and my Dad was a Chef!)
Along the way, we've lost salad cream sandwiches. Once in a while I head down Nostalgia Treat just for them. FAR BETTER than sandwich spread.

'Interesting' salad as a meal in itself with different textures, herbs and dressing served in a bowl. My parents and my MIL both serve salad as quarters of tomato, cos lettuce leaves and slices of cucumber on a plate.

Another thing we've lost along the way ... Hedgehog Bread (SHAPED like a hedgehog) from the local Bakers, you knew you had been a VERY GOOD child if Mum got you a loaf of that.

Salad cream in general seems to be like flares, only for nostalgia purposes. Asda have started selling vegan salad cream though mmmmm

Terry Pratchett's footnote about salad cream: "If you live in a country that makes mayonnaise, don't ask".

DS told me at the last minute he had a cookery lesson at school. I was telling my SIL I would have to go and buy some olive oil. She quickly produced a little bottle of "medicinal" olive oil like we had when we were children. Despite being a great cook with a large family she has never used olive oil for cooking !

I remember taking my mum and auntie on our first supermarket trip in 1975. We went to the newly opened Morrisons and we were amazed at the size and choice.

When I was little in the 60s, Saturday was spaghetti Bolognese day. DF was a dentist, so it was the only day he could eat garlic. The olive oil came in a four gallon drum, brought in by his aircrew patients. The spaghetti was catering size packs of Napolina bought through an Italian bridge partner. DM could only find basil in the larger supermarkets, same for bay leaves. The thing was that as Forces brats we were well travelled with wide experience. DW, who lived in a small village in a poor rural county, didn't taste any spicy food until well into her 20s. Teacher22 first paragraph contains very few items she can actually eat, because the tastes and textures are simply too alien.

Heinz toasst toppers and Heinz sandwich spread. Also steak and beef were so much nicer when I was younger. Olives were something you could only have on holidays, Pineapple cottage cheese was very posh, as was tinned salmon and vinegar sandwiches. Finally as people have said takeaway deliveries pizza, McDonald’s, subway, kfc were absolutely unheard of.

Spaghetti. It's hard to believe now that Panorama managed to fool people with the spaghetti growing on trees April Fool back in 1957. I thought it was more recent than that because I remember seeing it despite it being before I was born - it must have been on a 'best April fools jokes' programme or repeated some time.

Usuallyinthemiddle. Yes, the chicken soup out of the machine at the swimming pool, delicious, when you were cold hungry and wet, one feeble hairdryer for the whole class - my thick hair would still be wet when I got home from school.

@Thymeout
Our local Greggs shops still sell bread. It must depend on the area and size of shop.

Olive oil

Fondant fancies

Black Forest gateau

Sara Lee Gateau was a Saturday night treat or a frozen Iceland cheesecake with a quid vid- a video from M&W down the road