'Heather' Herbert Charged Over Ann Widdecombe Comments

[PandorasMailbox]

About time imo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2ln31g8gvo

Fellow school semolina fan! But the one with raspberry coloured jam or the one with chocolate shavings? Jam for me!

Oh jam definitely

I don’t remember either of those products but I can confidently state that 7 year old me would have LOVED them.

Lots of GB food products weren’t on sale (or advertised) in Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland until GB supermarkets entered the market here in the late 90s/early 00s.

I only saw and tasted my first Terry’s chocolate orange in my mid twenties - they weren’t available in NI. Have to say, I wasn’t fussed with it although it looks cool. I much prefer Irish Cadbury chocolate which has some of its own Ireland-only products and generally tastes better (to us) than Cadbury from the UK.

Ah I see, the semolina version of instant hot chocolate. **

Pretty much yes. A lot of 70s/80s desserts seem to involve pouring sachets of powder into jugs adding milk or water and whisking furiously 😂

I only saw and tasted my first Terry’s chocolate orange in my mid twenties - they weren’t available in NI.

You didn't miss much! They are a crime against chocolate and I'm opposed to any food you have to batter your way into with a blunt object.

Or unearthing something from the freezer! Who can forget Arctic Roll, inevitably served with tinned fruit (75% pear, 24% peach and one lone cherry that everyone fought over)?

I like to think of the 70s as a vibrant time of testing out new methods in food preservation and preparation - that’s why I think of a lot of it as either sci-fi food or astronaut food because food manufacturers seemed to be aiming towards giving us food in pill form (a staple idea of lots of Golden Age sci-fi).

And, as a kid I thought that if freeze dried rehydratable food was good enough for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, it was good enough for me 🤓

Does anyone here remember buying tins of orange juice concentrate that you made up with water? We had a brand called Squeez in Ireland. Fresh orange juice in shops wasn’t on sale. There was also a brand of OJ concentrate sold in a glass bottle available in Northern Ireland - you could use it to make individual glasses of orange juice rather than making a whole litre of Squeez in one go.

Blimey that's a combination. I remember having both but not together.
Tinned fruit salad. It was soooo syrupy I loved it.

Does anyone here remember buying tins of orange juice concentrate that you made up with water?

I vaguely remember something like that, it was powdered and always remained gritty.

I remember Corona drinks far more vividly though, the milkman delivered them but we weren't allowed to have them. The lurid colours probably explains why!

I remember the powdered stuff too and you’re right, it was always gritty.

Squeez was basically orange juice that had the water boiled out of it and the resulting thick concentrate was tinned. So adding water made nicer OJ than powdered OJ.

My grandma (born 1910) thought these things were the most amazing invention ever. Packet gravy, some kind of trifle mix, angel delight, smash, you name it. Must have been a healthy diet, she lived to over 100. Also adored "modern" fabrics and lived in nylon dresses.

I also remember the diluting orange juice. I have impression they may have lived in the freezer till use, is that feasible? And maybe a bit later a massive container of super concentrated apple juice that came from the health food shop and we'd make up jugs from. I don't think it was all that healthy, concentrated apple juice is mostly sugar really isn't it.

When I first travelled to Europe (or the Continent, as we quaintly called it) - initially France - in the early seventies, I was blown away by

• real, proper chocolate (Cote d’Or was my favourite)
• real, proper coffee everywhere
• three course lunches (always consisting of egg mayonnaise, steak frites and crème caramel) for what seemed a very small number of francs
• cheap, strong cigarettes
• the availability of proper fruit juice rather than squash
• bread and pastries to die for

How I loved it.

Birds Apeel. Basically sugar and orange colouring that you added water to to make neon coloured orange "juice".

That's exactly right! In the 60s and early 70s we also had Neapolitan ice cream or Wall's Cornish ice cream, which both came in a rectangular cardboard packet just the right size to fit in the icebox at the top of the fridge. We didn't have a freezer then. As far as I could make out at the time ice cream called vanilla was white and ice cream called Cornish was yellow. They tasted the same and both melted into disgusting gloop.

They don't have a deranged agenda to push, so arent thinking about it.

It's 'deranged' to recognise what sex someone is?

we also had Neapolitan ice cream or Wall's Cornish ice cream, which both came in a rectangular cardboard packet just the right size to fit in the icebox at the top of the fridge.

I was a bit later so we had the exotic flavours of raspberry ripple and mint choc, although I do remember Neapolitan ice cream particularly when it came sandwiched by wafers - I'm sure you used to be able to buy them pre-made like that?

I remember the excitement of Gino Ginelli Tutti Fruitti ice cream arriving in the late 80s, which seemed so glamorous

Yep, I remember the frozen orange juice concentrate - it came in little plastic containers about the size of a can of coke, maybe a bit smaller.

ETA also nostalgic for arctic roll, and the introduction of Viennetta was very exciting

I've filed a complaint with BBC over their reporting because they do not mention HH is a trans-id male, and article uses female pronouns, which makes it sound as if a female made these comments and has been arrested.

real, proper chocolate (Cote d’Or was my favourite)

You have good taste!

I'm a chocoholic, and that was actually a problem when I lived abroad. I had to get some sent to me from France...

Ah yes, school dinners. Semolina with a dollop of jam (which everyone immediately stirred in to make the whole thing pink) and sago (unaffectionately known as frogspawn).

Those metal jugs of water on the table which some twat of a boy always thought it was funny to put salt in.

@Lins77 Instant Whip was just a topping, overpriced and artificial flavour. Angel delight was a bowlful of pudding.

We had Angel Delight sometimes, but we also had a dessert called Sweetheart which was a tin of fruit in syrup you whipped up with evaporated milk. It was quite nice. Another of my Mum's staples was jelly made up with lightly whipped evaporated milk, which made it all bubbly. Green's cheesecake made from a packet. Lemon meringue pie, made with a packet, an egg and a bought pastry shell. Lots and lots of packets and tins. It was a golden age for convenience foods and they were all a godsend to my Mum, who was teaching full-time and needed plenty of cooking shortcuts.