AIBU to wonder how the fuck is LEMON a "MC food"

[Wazzzzzzzup]

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/02/food-choices-proxy-class-britain

What the hell, people😂 What. The. Hell.

@FlamingVictoria

I'm clearly not the right demographic. I opened the thead thinking "wtf have Macdonald's added to their menu that would have lemons in it?"

Me too.!

Lentils with rice? In the same dish?

Whilst it’s common to serve dhal as an accompaniment to rice, cooking dhal and rice in the same pot is a thing in the sub-continent, and it’s delicious!

Chana dhal can be used, amongst others, and it’s called Chana dal pulau.

www.ruchiskitchen.com/chana-dal-pulao/

@julieca, you must never have been to an Asian supermarket, my parents were buying it in the 60s and it wasn't expensive. I saw it recently in Tesco and laughed at the price!

Rice and lentils as in dhal and rice or in a pulao are like fish and chips or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Dhal especially is the absolute perfect cheap convenience food as it's so easy and can be made in batches and frozen, plus costs almost nothing to make.

Why are some posters saying today its a MC thing as its expensive, you can get 4 for less than £1 in Lidl. Pink Lady apples on the other hand....

To be fair I have a very limited diet (ASD) so I wouldn't be able to eat most of these things anyway

Lol fresh lemons and limes are the preserve of working class South Asians in the UK. juice them the day you buy them, add salt, and they keep in the fridge for weeks. Then chop and dry the skin and it can be added to dals to give depth of flavour. But if you want the juice to last then buy Indian lemons not Sicillian ones.

@kinzarose I didnt know any Asian supermarkets before I moved to London. All there was were smaller supermarkets, butchers and greengrocers selling apples, pears, etc.

@StrawberrySquash

But he's kind of wrong though if that's his argument. A food can be common in one country, but exotic in another.

This. The world doesn't have on single culture. In Britain certain foods are associated with things like foreign travel that are associated with wealth. No, we shouldn't put things in boxes and say certain people can't eat certain foods, but we should acknowledge that different foods have different significance depending on where you are and also where you come from.

Agree - it's more cultural than the article explains. In African countries almost all families cook every meal from scratch. Literally your protein vegetables and carbs, fruit is prepared fresh. This is how the general population live. And it would be the foreigners /tourists or those on a short holiday that shop at the supermarket and buy convenience/ pre Prepared foods.
Here it is the other way round. The poor buy convenience and those with a little more money / time buy fresh.

I am a mish mash - I am poor but buy and cook fresh as my cooking always tastes better than prepared and I hate food waste when DC don't eat food that looks lovely in a packet but tastes very mediocre.

OP, I'm EE too and the food classifications in the UK amuse me too.
In my country things like herbal teas, lentil soup, salads, feta cheese and various stews with vegetables and pulses are standard foods for ordinary people including many of the poor. Cooking from scratch is the norm and the only people who grow their own fruit and vegetables are poor villagers, usually older people.
Apparently all of this is considered middle class in the Uk.
I don't know about lemons. I guess you need some disposable income to buy them, as they're not really an essential ingredient. But they're not particularly fancy either.

It ABSOLUTELY isnt. My grandma used it in the 1960s and she was definitely not even remotely middle class.

Glad I am not the only one being bit about this... Look at my middle class arse (who grew up 4 in one bed apartment in 2gen house and 90% second hand clothing, but had lemons, own fruit and veg and weekend cottage😂)

This thread is actually really great! Thanks everyone!

In Britain certain foods are associated with things like foreign travel that are associated with wealth. No, we shouldn't put things in boxes and say certain people can't eat certain foods, but we should acknowledge that different foods have different significance depending on where you are and also where you come from

I disagree about certain foods being associated with expensive foreign travel available only to the well off, for UK citizens at least, more the wonderfully diverse cultures in many areas that leads to availability of different foods.

In many areas of the UK, you can access food from all over the world on your doorstep, so we can all try all sorts of foods. I've been to a handful of European countries and Egypt, but that's not stopped me being able to try food from dozens of different countries, both in restaurants and takeaways and by cooking the recipes found on the internet.

@BarbaraofSeville

In Britain certain foods are associated with things like foreign travel that are associated with wealth. No, we shouldn't put things in boxes and say certain people can't eat certain foods, but we should acknowledge that different foods have different significance depending on where you are and also where you come from

I disagree about certain foods being associated with expensive foreign travel available only to the well off, for UK citizens at least, more the wonderfully diverse cultures in many areas that leads to availability of different foods.

In many areas of the UK, you can access food from all over the world on your doorstep, so we can all try all sorts of foods. I've been to a handful of European countries and Egypt, but that's not stopped me being able to try food from dozens of different countries, both in restaurants and takeaways and by cooking the recipes found on the internet.

I live in an area where there are Chinese and Indian takeaways and pizza places. That's it, no Chinese grocers or anything else.

Good for you if you live somewhere diverse but there are a lot of places that don't have access to this kind of thing

[quote julieca]@kinzarose the first time I saw okra was in the 1990s in London.[/quote]
I've heard a lot about orka, but am still not sure what it looks like.

"Can I add that red lentils and pearl barley have been in the food shelves in poorer areas all my life. My suspicion is that the lentils perceived as "wanky" will be green, brown or Puy!"

Nope. I couldn't get hold of red lentils last time I tried and I looked in quite a few shops. Just because you can find them easily, doesn't mean everyone can.

@LukeEvansWife

It is limes that were for scurvy?

Lemons used initially, then the Navy changed its mind and went for lime juice.

@JaninaDuszejko

I don't think that the working classes really had access to spirits

Of course they did, why do you think Hogarth painted 'Gin Alley'? 'Dutch courage' and 'mother's ruin' both tell you how ubiquitous gin was as a cheap spirit. It's much cheaper to make than whisky which is why there are gin distilleries everywhere these days.

In a brainfart, I'd completely forgotten that gin even existed.

I need a drink!

" a fresh lemon lasts for ages if you keep it in the fridge"

How long? Because no other fresh fruit or veg seems to last more than a week and for how often I need to use lemon it would need to last at least six months. I don't have space in the freezer either.

"I think you'd be very surprised. Absolutely loads of people don't cook or know how to. You obviously just don't associate with them.

Oh sorry. I guess you know best."

Well, you could look up the stats couldn't you.

"I'm flabbergasted by this and think that Brits often conflate 'exotic' with 'posh'."

Exotic is often considered posh. That's the whole point.

Have artichokes been mentioned?

"Everyone I know cooks, even if it is Hello Fresh or similar."

Pleased to meet you. Now you know someone who doesn't cook.
Apart from Sunday lunch and a few stews, my parents didn't really cook from scratch either. Freezer and tinned food was really common in the 80s. My grandmother cooked of course, but even she used things like soup in a can and squash.

Sorry, but wasn't meaning in terms of every shop in 2021: I've noticed dried pulses disappearing in my local shop as their number of lines have been visibly reducing. My mum in a different area sees the same.

I meant that in response to the posts asserting that working class communities had stopped cooking centuries ago.

In my mind twenty years ago is quite recent😄. However clearly in that time we've moved massively as a country in terms of away from basic foodstuffs and towards more processed foods.

I've heard a lot about orka, but am still not sure what it looks like.

Have a google - i think the texture when cooked is something you either love or hate it tastes delicious in the right stew or soup though.