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.

"Well, if so, at least the environment will thank us. grin Seriously though, there are frequently articles about the food miles involved in imported produce."

Yeah, the environment will really thank us when we're flying in chlorinated chicken from the USA.

All the exotic fruits (including fresh pineapple ie not from a tin).

Hummus.

Pesto.

Spinach. or any kind of green leaf (rocket etc) that wasn't a Cos or iceberg lettuce.

I remember eating pasta - spaghetti bolognese - for the first time at a friend’s house for dinner in what would have been 1981. Felt incredibly daring and exotic getting the pasta round my fork!

"Quinoa was a bit fancy when I was a child. "

I think you're pretty young if you were a child when quinoa arrived here. It's still considered very middle class I think.
Couscous was the one that had just 'arrived' when I was young.
Surely caviar is still a luxury? I don't think I've ever seen it in real life. Caviar and lobster are what I think of if someone says expensive food.

Mexican food when I was a teen. My mum told me spaghetti bolognese was at one point too, years before I was born, and that when she had offered it to a child that was visiting they said "no thanks, I don't eat much foreign food" and now, it's almost a staple and a quick go to for so many British households.

I only heard of quinoa for the first time about 10 years ago, when that poo examining fake doctor woman was all over channel 4.

My mum (born 1944) didn’t eat broccoli until she was an adult.

Salad Cream...only 'dead posh' people had Salad Cream round our way!

(Actually to be fair, only dead posh people had salad round our way! 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️)

I remember my aunt serving us spaghetti bolognese. I had no idea what is was. And the Parmesan cheese was something else. In our family cheese was mild cheddar in a big yellow block and nothing else.
My dad has still never had pasta

@BarbaraOfSeville I don't buy naice ham either! Honestly, it's just too expensive.

Potato croquettes were top high falluting for sure.

Never had asparagus or pesto until my late teens.
Steak!
Loads of fresh fruit - strawberries, mango, pineapple. Mostly had tinned versions.
My grandparents still serve orange juice as a starter.

Avocado-my first introduction to it was when my very posh boyfriend’s mum asked if I had it in my salad. Panicked and said yes and was mystified when it was solid

Didn’t have a curry until I was 18 and I thought pesto was hugely posh! I still feel a bit embarrassed eating it

I had no idea what to order in an Indian restaurant aged at least 18. The menu was meaningless to me, having only experienced ‘sharwoods’. A kind person in my group suggested chicken biryani which was lovely.

Those saying about the price of chicken, I still can't get over the fact you can get a whole chicken for £2-3 now. Before the mad cows disease and foot and mouth outbreaks over the past few decades chicken was much more expensive than beef.

I agree with the mentions of Vienetta. That was considered a special occasion dessert when it burst on the scene in the 1980s. Now it's like some sad star of the silent era who no one wants to know anymore because it's so old fashioned.

Growing up in the 70's and money was tight, we never ever had chicken. Always mincemeat or lamb but chicken was too expensive!

Findus Crispy pancakes
Pop tarts
Microwave ready meals - especially from M&S
Pure class lol!

I also remember a play date at a Spanish friends house and we had chocolate spread on bread! Don’t think I’d ever seen or heard of it before then!

Mozzarella!

Fajitas can remember first time I had them in a restaurant thought they were very special.

now they are a normal midweek tea!!

Bagels! First tried at uni, the new York deli ones in a packet from the supermarket.
Am now a bagel snob who only buys them as a treat from long established Jewish beigel bakers and wouldn't use those mass produced breadcircles as a doorstop, much less eat one...

Mayonnaise (we had salad cream)
Fresh cream (we had tinned)
Salad in winter
Sweet potatoes
Red onions
Fresh fruit juice
Fancy oils and vinegars
Sweet chilli sauce
Nut butters
Yoghurt apart from Ski yoghurt
Iced tea
Kale
Soya milk

My friend is from Estonia, and she can remember when her mum brought an orange home from a trip to Russia and they shared it out, eating the skin too! This was only around 30years ago! So the early 90s!

We had evaporated milk instead of real cream
With tinned fruit salad. Blimmin delicious it was too!

Salmon