What food was a luxury in your home growing up?

[TherealBolton]

Eating out

We used to have sweets and comics on a Friday-my dad would bring them home for us after work. We never ate out, though did have fish and chips to eat at home increasingly on some Saturdays as I got older. Our meals were v much meat/potatoes/peas and carrots when we were little, so it was quite new and exciting to start having pasta, risotto, stir fry and curry as time went on!

I think my favourite food in the world when I was little were birds eye rissoles and I would have eaten them every day if I could. I bet they would taste quite grim now as well!

I wish I hadn't read the post mentioning crispy cheese pancakes - they were another favourite and I'm really fancying one now. I must also confess that I've got a packet of Angel Delight in the cupboard😆

in a fit of nostaglia i bought some angel delight

i am not sure it was popular, probalby misunderstood

This thread has been wonderful to read. Anyone under 30 must think WTF as so many foodstuffs mentioned are no longer in existence. There are far too many examples to name but apply to me too.

I don't think I tasted chocolate cake either bought or home made until I was around 13 yrs of age, but an occasional treat on a Sunday afternoon would be the Mary Baker packet (just add one egg and a tablespoon of milk) to produce those little sponge cupcakes and the little packet of sprinkles to drop into the half set icing was a real delight.

Vesta curries!!! Only my dad was allowed them. Why?!
The Mars bars were huge back then compared to now and no packs of mini bars so the slicing of one to be shared, omg I thought it was only us! I loved the end bit as the chocolate was thick.
We only had sweets once a week and even then it was tiny rations. Healthy teeth and no kids were overweight.No such things as takeaways other than the chip shop but home made ones were cheaper course.

Probably only fresh salmon. My parents were average wage earners in the 80's and 90's but my mum prioritised fresh healthy food and we had a varied diet. I think a higher % of their income was spent on food compared to my friends.

We were not allowed fizzy drinks, fast food or anything heavily processed and sweets were strictly once a week, after Sunday lunch. We used to go to the sweet shop on a Friday after school and store them in a box until the Sunday. I don't have that level of restraint now!

Eating out
Sweets
Chocolate
Strawberries (but I think that's only because we ate them in the summer as they weren't available any other time)
Squash
Pop
Crisps

Lots of things
We didn't have a fridge so mum shopped regularly.
Chicken was for Christmas and special occasions. She usd to buy boiling foul which she'd use to make soup and we'd eat the bird afterwards.
Ice cream was a treat (no fridge) so we had to buy it and eat it fairly quickly. The good old vienneta was of course much loved as was the black forest Gateau. Pate and prawn cocktail were posh. Indian was unheard off, Chinese was an occasional weekend treat.
Eating out was for holidays and weddings.

Crispy Pancakes or the small round frozen pizzas

Vimto
Ice cream from the ice cream van
Fizzy pop
Takeaways

Macdonalds.
We only used to ever have one when we went uniform shopping.
Once a year.

Crisps. There were never really crisps in the house. Christmas time maybe.
Generally not much convience foods/snacks at all.

We ate really well though. I used to go with my dad on a Saturday to the butchers, greengrocers and fishmonger.

Cadburys
dad worked at rowntrees so we got all the ’waste’ sweets

oj

eating out

takeaway-Kfc or maccies was a real treat

anything branded

Vesta Beef Curry and Vienetta.

My mum always diluted orange juice but I don't know whether that was for our teeth or for cost cutting.
When she made a cheesecake she'd get a (possibly frozen) tiny can of orange juice.
Viennetta was quite posh.

Orange juice, which came in large tins. One small glass each a couple of times a year.

We ate well but nowadays it would be considered a limited diet, I didn’t eat rice, pasta, fish (apart from fish and chips), pizza, anything spicy until late teens. We had a veg patch and a few fruit trees so plenty of fresh stuff.

Oh forgot
If we went to the cinema sometimes we'd stop at the cafe and have fish and chips with a slice of bread and butter and I'd have a knickerbocker glory. Occasionally if we were adventurous we could have a wimpy.

My mums family are fruit and veg merchants so anything other than fruit and veg which we got for free was a luxury, my uncle would deliver a massive bag weekly and we would get excited to see what we got. I can't ever remember getting takeaway other than a chippy once in a blue moon and my dsis and I would share sausage and chips.
I tell my kids this every time they get a fish and chips each!

We never ate out. And I mean never. Maybe had take away twice a year tops. Never any lack of food, but ate very seasonal and things like blueberries, raspberries and grapes just deemed to be too expensive.

Pork. I grew up in a rather puritanical Muslim country . Gran would put slabs of bacon in a parcel to us once in a while. Sometimes we’d drive for hours to the neighbouring country which had a more relaxed attitude, just to buy pork and chocolate.

Not a luxury but I thought that Campbell's meatballs were posh because my Mother would never allow them in the house(Because she thought that they were disgusting.) My best friend ate them regularly and I was very impressed when I went to her home for dinner and I was given meatballs. Now I shudder at the thought.

but an occasional treat on a Sunday afternoon would be the Mary Baker packet (just add one egg and a tablespoon of milk) to produce those little sponge cupcakes and the little packet of sprinkles to drop into the half set icing was a real delight

My mum was a very good baker but it’s the memory of the Mary Bakers she bought that still fill my heart 55 years on when I think of her. For me they were what happiness and love and peace was all about.

Had a takeaway once when there was a power cut right when my mother was about to start cooking - best day ever

Fizzy drinks, sweets and chocolate at Christmas and birthdays

Chips only at the seaside with my grandparents

Steak only on New Year's Eve - no idea why

food Has changed so much hasn’t it ? It’s funny to think of pasta being exotic - there was a spoof BBC documentary about the pasta harvest
m.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU

Chocolate biscuits. Or chocolate in any form.
Brown bread.
Rum babas for Mum and Dad. Much too good for children!
We had takeaway fish and chips most weekends. It was a routine, we'd go shopping as a family on a Saturday afternoon then pop into the chippy and go round to my grandparents' house where they'd have the table set, the plates warmed, and a pan of peas on the hob. But a Chinese takeaway was a joy I only discovered in my teens, and it was a once in a blue moon treat. We always had sweet and sour chicken and fried rice.

I remember that at the time. I think it was done for April Fools Day.

Grapes. Only at Halloween. I lived in Belfast.