Strange catering habits you have experienced when eating at friends/family houses?

[Chicchicchicchiclana]

The grazing table thread inspired me! I know one should always be grateful when people invite you to eat with them (and I am!!) but I find it interesting the great variety of ways people do the hosting. Have any memorable dining experiences in other people's houses really stuck with you? Without being mean of course.

"My nan used to poach cod in milk. "

So did mine. It was nice.

My mum used to cook cauliflower in the pressure cooker.
It looked lovely on the plate but as soon as you stuck your fork in it collapsed into mush.
I was brought up on breakfast of white bread broken into pieces with sugar & hot milk....pobbies.

@Gwenhwyfar

"My nan used to poach cod in milk. "

So did mine. It was nice.

My MIL still does.

My kids absolutely love it.

I can’t stand it so she makes them it when I’m out.

My dad used to eat peas soaked in malt vinegar.

Fruit cake and cheese…good Yorkshire fodder.

My mum used to poach smoked haddock in milk with a poached egg on top. Delicious, I still do it.

My Dh still goes on about his ex MIL jello ‘salad’ literally green jelly served as a side with savoury meals as the ‘salad’.

@Jng1 I had the pasta/tomato soup/cheese combo today. I have covid and needed something easy and comforting. Was delicious.

"Exactly.

I don't know why people are being so sniffy. Unless it's a class thing?"

Definitely is. (That doesn't mean that someone can't have an individual preference as well though).
Bread and butter with a meal was actually in the official recommendations during rationing, a way to make the more expensive food go further I think. Totally unnecessary now when most of us are getting too many calories rather than too few.
My gf always had bread and butter with his meal.

[quote DrCoconut]@Jng1 I had the pasta/tomato soup/cheese combo today. I have covid and needed something easy and comforting. Was delicious.[/quote]
Ooh... am jealous! Might have to make it tomorrow!

@florentina1

My DH had an aunt who served lettuce and sugar sandwiches.

Oh my! I remember my grandmother doing these!

dad used to eat peas soaked in malt vinegar.

Peas in vinegar is the best!

My dad used to eat cornflakes with salt on them. I never knew why. Think it was a Scottish thing

Fantastic thread. I’m crying with laughter here all by myself.
Sausages in milk !
My auntie served baked beans with every meal, including roasts but no gravy. Jaffa cakes with salad. The salad consisted of lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sliced boiled egg, cucumber and spring onions. No mayonnaise or salad cream allowed.
We were invited to dinner with a newlywed couple. Fried stewing steak with chips ( so much cheaper than rump steak they told us!) Tesco’s individual chocolate mousse in tub for desert. Both teachers!

First time I went to a boyfriend's house (he was widowed with 4 kids) he shook tomato ketchup onto his salad. When I cringed and blurted out how vile it was he said, "You have tomatoes with salad - what the difference?"

Aaaggghh!

Also I went to a workmate's house for dinner and his dad sprinkled sugar over his bowl of beef stew.

My BIL insists that it’s “the Birmingham way” to have roast dinner first meat and gravy, alone in a plate and then roasties and vegetables alone…His Mum served it this way🤣🤣

My friends Nan always ate her meal backwards, pudding first then the main course. That way you weren’t too full for the best part she said

@Darklane

My friends Nan always ate her meal backwards, pudding first then the main course. That way you weren’t too full for the best part she said

There's something in that...

@MrsTerryPratchett

My late MIL.

Roasts a chicken for too long, then slices it, removes the skin, leaves it in a plate in the oven. Driest meat I've every tasted. Like a meaty Ryvita.

I totally laughed out loud at that.

I still serve bread and butter with most meals now I rarely eat any, but for my DC it fills their hollow legs a bit. And I try to serve some cut up vegetables with dinner and some yogurt or fruit for pudding, and a glass of fruit juice or milk so even if they don't eat any of the main meal they've had 2 servings of fruit and veg, a serving of starch food (bread), a serving of fat (butter) and a serving of dairy. Most of our main meals contain some baked beans, mushy peas or lentils, as they are great ways to get a serving of veg in, are store cupboard so last ages and don't take up fridge/freezer space and are really cheap. We also eat A LOT of potatoes in various shapes and states, and Yorkshire puddings, pancakes and fritters as batter is delicious and Costs pennies. I do know quite a lot about nutrition, but ultimately we have to eat cheap carbs, cheap proteins like beans and pulses, and have a bit too much processed meat and sugar probably. I don't think it's changed that much for a lot of working class families (at least not for the better, worse if anything with food banks etc.) We often have hot drinks with meals, and I let my DC have weak milky tea from fairly young.

I would never serve a roast without gravy though or make gravy with milk. Yuck.

Oh, just seen the mention upthread of buttered Weetabix. There’s a blast from the past! My mum served us that for breakfast- with sugar sprinkled on top of the butter. Loved it. I know both Mum and Dad were sometimes given sugar sandwiches as children so maybe it was just an extension of that in my Mum’s mind.

I’m another salad cream fan. If I’m making potato salad, coleslaw or egg mayonnaise, I tend to go 50/50 mayo and salad cream.

Does anyone remember that vegetable salad from the 70s/80s that came in a tin (may have been Heinz) and was mixed together with a mayo/salad cream type dressing?

It's Australian and called "Fairy Bread" :)

@ViceLikeBlip

My husband eats jacket potatoes with hot beans and cheese..... and cold tuna mayo, AND coleslaw??!

I have to say, I could not get my head around this when I first saw him do it, but actually, it's not so bad 🤷‍♀️

I love this! If I'm having a jacket potato I love it when I have all of this to put on top. I also enjoy a salad with the above and a dollop of Mayo.

Not a weird combination but after my son was delivered by c section I was given a chicken and stuffing sandwich in hospital, it was the only thing i could stomach because of all the meds i was on. On his birthday every year I make a chicken and stuffing sandwich it's sort of my secret celebration that we both came out safe and well. Now the little heathen eats plain pasta with cucumber

@BookFiend4Life

My nanny, who was from Eastern Europe, thought the powdered cheese that came with kraft mac was too indulgent so would prepare us bowls of macaroni mixed with milk with the tiniest imaginable sprinkle of cheese powder on top. I can recall being delighted by breakfast at friend's houses after sleepover because they often had cereal and juice which were completely unknown at our house!

I'm American and so far have had to look up, pea wet, rice pudding skin, and salad cream (is this just mayo??)

For the commenter that had the whipped cream/jelly salad monstrosity in the south, that was probably ambrosia salad and you should be grateful you weren't in the Midwest because then you would have been given Waldorf salad which is apples, celery, nuts and marshmallows mixed with MAYONNAISE.

There are no marshmallows in a real Waldorf salad. It's APPLES, CELERY, WALNUTS AND GRAPES in mayo.

Weetabix with butter Stopit!

I also put mayo and ketchup on everything, including my salad. Unless I fancy salad cream, brown sauce or BBQ sauce. Nice to have some variety! I love using crisps as a crunchy topping too. I am so guilty of most of these

I do remember going to peoples houses who had no food in, or only bread and bacon to make a sandwich no butter no sauce. And nothing but water or unsweetened black tea/coffee to drink. That used to make me feel really sad for them. I have been really poor as an adult but always had a stock of hot and cold soft drinks and a selection of condiments. There have been months where I lived off rice mixed with sardines or beans and hot sauce was my saviour!