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.

I really like rabbit. But too many people think of little bunnies.

To me, luxury food is the produce I used to grow on my allotment. So much of the fruit on sale is picked before it is ripe. I saw a greengrocer offering 'crunchy plums'. Plums aren't mean to be crunchy! They're meant to be sweet and so full of juice that it dribbles down your chin.

The current generation have never tasted a real strawberry. You have to chew the all-year-round ones instead of mashing them against the roof of your mouth. The old varieties have disappeared. It's all about how well they travel, not how good they taste. The same applies to runner beans from Kenya.

Blackcurrants and gooseberries are more exotic than mangoes - and sold in punnets too small for a decent pie or fool. Too many varieties of English apples have disappeared, because they have a short season. Even Coxes taste woolly these days.

Not everything has changed for the better.

Do agree Thymeout, damsons, what happens to them? Haven't seen any for years

I still grow fruit and veg, I refuse to buy stuff from abroad that I can grow in the garden. I get plums from my nans garden, I grow rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and apples. If I can source it locally I will but things like bananas, mangos and melons are exotic fruits that I buy.

I grew up surrounded by local food and that hasn’t really changed much.

i grow damsons in my garden.

Blimey where to start.... mayonnaise, avocado, kiwi fruit, anything foreign other than Vesta meals ....

Oooo! A PP up thread mentioned Monday dinners as being bubble and squeak with Sunday’s leftover meat! We did this too and omg I could just do some bubble and squeak right now covered in lashings of HP sauce!

"Garlic/chilli/smoked oils." Made me realise we now use different oils for different dishes. My mum just uses generic "vegetable oil" for everything.

Gwenhwyfar - yes my school friendship group was quite diverse, I remember having a "posh" friend to dinner and them being a bit puzzled that the first thing mum out on the table was the teapot! One family I knew didn't have drinks with dinner AT ALL I couldn't do that, I literally physically cannot eat without a drink to help.

"Tinned cream. Tinned fruit salad." These are back for brexit prep.

"And McVitie's Mallows - domes of chocolate under which was fluffy mallow and a biscuit base - delicious!" Tunnocks teacakes I think you'll find are very similar

"As an aside, polenta is a middle class cliche but is known across the southern states of America as grits, and considered really basic."

Every day's a school day I'd no idea they were same thing. Not tried either.

"I went veggie when I was 13 and haven't had one now for years and can't stand eggs but of how I loved them." Really? I'm veggie and love a fry up. Use linda McCartney sausages, quorn rashers, tattie scones, fried (free range) eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans and toast + the obligatory mug of builders tea - yum!

"I could not believe my eyes when I asked for pizza in a Glasgow chippy, c1983, and watched the guy chuck it in the fryer. Can you still get that in Scotland?" Yep! Love a pizza crunch and chips!

"Oven chips were viewed with suspicion when they came out. Everyone had a chip-pan" I still prefer proper fried chips. But I'm nervous of making them at home with the fire risks associated with chip pans. Mum still does fried chips rather than oven ones, I remember one of her neighbours kids in playing with the grandkids and upon being told we were having egg & chips for tea then seeing mum pull out a sack of raw potatoes - 😱 "our chips come out the freezer" mum just smiled as he watched her wash, peel, chip and dry them in utter amazement 😂😂not sure his mum was too happy as after tasting one he said "I'm getting my mum to do these" 😂

@Graphista I've not tried the quorn rashers assuming you mean the chilled ones not frozen? Am not keen on the frozen. Morning star streaky strips were bloody gorgeous back in the late 90s when at uni. Expensive but such a treat especially on a hot buttered muffin. Sounds rude that am tempted to try a fry up now but no eggs for me. Or tomatoes for anyone.

@Graphista I've not tried the quorn rashers assuming you mean the chilled ones not frozen? Am not keen on the frozen. Morning star streaky strips were bloody gorgeous back in the late 90s when at uni. Expensive but such a treat especially on a hot buttered muffin. Sounds rude that  am tempted to try a fry up now but no eggs for me. Or tomatoes for anyone.

Sorry, wouldn't post then posted twice.

Yea site & app playing up again.

Yes it's the chilled rashers - the frozen ones are a bugger to separate! And I don't think they taste as nice. I'll happily have them in a "bacon" butty too

Will get some this week, thanks. My children love a "bacon" butty. The Tesco one used to be nice but they changed the recipe and it's not as good.

No problem. Hope you like, they seem divisive some veggies love em others hate.

I Do my butties while the "bacon" cooks I VERY lightly toast the bread & butter it then 2 rashers on straight, blob of ketchup then 2 rashers across diagonally - cut & Scoff

Viennetta and it’s exotic variations in the 80s- Operetta?
Ice magic
Mange Tout - tho no one can actually have liked it, hence no one eats it now.

I was in my 20s before I had a sun dried tomato, and although they aren't exactly a cupboard staple now, they aren't a curiosity either

longwayoff Damsons - I'm lucky enough to have a farm shop with a PYO orchard attached. I buy them for jam and stew the rest and freeze. My dgm used to bottle them, which is how acquired the taste.

I think the problem is that, like gooseberries and blackcurrants, they need cooking. Can't just be given as a snack for dcs, like blueberries. Never had those till a few years ago and can't see the appeal. No taste to speak of.

Anyone remember French set yogurts? I loved them.

You can still get fFrench set yog, I think in Sainsburys. Love them.

Severe damson envy here, glad they're still around and people know what to do with them. The first yoghurt I encountered, 1950s, used to be delivered by the coop milkman, delicious set whole milk stuff, plain or strawberry, sold in small glass jars. When I first encountered a Ski yoghurt, a thin, sour, sweetened horror, I was very disappointed, no resemblance to 'proper' yoghurt.

My experience is different, and in a way a lot more basic, having a dairy and egg allergy meant I missed out on a lot of foods and especially treats. When I first went to a vegan shop I went mad and I think that one of everything went in the trolley!

My sister's were able to have ice cream when I was stuck with lolly ices (never really been a fan) chocolate when I was stuck with sweets or carob on the rare times we got to Holland and Barrett, milk and yoghurts - soya milk was rank so I didn't drink it, only yoghurts were from Holland and Barrett, which wasn't local and was expensive. Pizza, custard, cream, cakes, biscuits, chocolate bars, ice creams and a whole range of milks to try!

Other than that, we did quite well with foreign foods, fruit and veg, fresh orange and apple juice.

Now my favourite thing is being able to eat out, after a lifetime of taking a packed lunch to parties or eating before going for a meal (as a child and adult) and just picking at a plain dry salad in the restaurant.

Plus not spending hours doing the shopping because you have to check every label, even the stuff you normally buy as they often change the ingredients!