Windigo

Kitchen witch
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I thought it would be fun to make a thread with some specific questions about your food memories. I provide a template and would love to read all your answers!

  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been?
  2. What did you buy with your pocket money?
  3. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays?
  4. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated?
  5. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores?
  6. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home?
 
  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been? Fish and chips
  2. What did you buy with your pocket money? Mars bars
  3. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays? Birthday treat when we lived in Leeds was to go to a very good fish and chip restaurant, I particularly remember their ice cream desserts.
  4. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated? Never bern keen on liver, it was one of my dad's favourites, so I had to have it regularly.
  5. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores? Vesta instant curry.
  6. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home? Beef stew and dumplings
 
  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been? - Same as The Velvet Curtain
  2. What did you buy with your pocket money? - Bubble gum until I was 15, then beer.
  3. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays? - Only Christmas dinner
  4. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated? - Sprouts (luckily I was excused them)
  5. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores? - Around here? Vespa meals. And I'm very glad they have!
  6. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home? - My mother's "seasoned bread pudding"
I also took her Yorkshire pudding recipe but that's what all Yorkshire folks take from their mothers.
 
  1. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays? Birthday treat when we lived in Leeds was to go to a very good fish and chip restaurant, I particularly remember their ice cream desserts.

I cannot say that it was ever a birthday treat but I loved to go to Harry Ramsden's in Guisely as a day out. Not only were the fish and chips exceptional but he had a small fairground in the back carpark. Strangely enough, even to this day, I've never eaten in the restaurant there. Only on the wooden tables at the carry out or sat in the car with the doors open (but not when my Dad was there).

I've since eaten at Harry Ramsden's franchises in Liverpool, Manchester, Manchester Airport, Ellesmere Port, Hong Kong and Singapore and although very good, none of them held a candle to the original.
 
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  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been? Fish and chips
  2. What did you buy with your pocket money? Mars bars
  3. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays? Birthday treat when we lived in Leeds was to go to a very good fish and chip restaurant, I particularly remember their ice cream desserts.
  4. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated? Never bern keen on liver, it was one of my dad's favourites, so I had to have it regularly.
  5. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores? Vesta instant curry.
  6. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home? Beef stew and dumplings
Did your parents make you eat the liver? The kind of parents that didn't let you leave the table? Mine were like that. Clear your plate or stay as long as it takes.
Was the birthday meal a fish and chips restaurant because you wanted it to be, or because that's just where you went?
 
  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been? - Same as The Velvet Curtain
  2. What did you buy with your pocket money? - Bubble gum until I was 15, then beer.
  3. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays? - Only Christmas dinner
  4. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated? - Sprouts (luckily I was excused them)
  5. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores? - Around here? Vespa meals. And I'm very glad they have!
  6. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home? - My mother's "seasoned bread pudding"
I also took her Yorkshire pudding recipe but that's what all Yorkshire folks take from their mothers.
Lovely to read your mom's recipe. Did it also get used as stuffing?
 
Lovely to read your mom's recipe. Did it also get used as stuffing?

I don't think so. If I remember correctly the turkey stuffing comprised mainly of pork and onions with sage. No bread.

I must think about making it again. My wife doesn't eat bread so we rarely have any left over. Maybe I'll just buy a cheap sliced loaf, leave it for a couple of days and use that.

Mmmmmmm.
 
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I cannot say that it was ever a birthday treat but I loved to go to Harry Ramsden's in Guisely as a day out. Not only were the fish and chips exceptional but he had a small fairground in the back carpark. Strangely enough, even to this day, I've never eaten in the restaurant there. Only on the wooden tables at the carry out or sat in the car with the doors open (but not when my Dad was there).

I've since eaten at Harry Ramsden's franchises in Liverpool, Manchester, Manchester Airport, Ellesmere Port, Hong Kong and Singapore and although very good, none of them held a candle to the original.
We went to Harry Ramsdens too, but sometimes the queues were very long. The one we went to as a treat was somewhere in the Meabwood- Headingly area, the restaurant was above the chip shop. These memories are nearly 50 years old and a quick google maps search brings up nothing, I guess it is long gone.

They have Harry Ramsdens at motorway services now, everything pre portioned and frozen, so that's a no from me.
 
Did your parents make you eat the liver? The kind of parents that didn't let you leave the table? Mine were like that. Clear your plate or stay as long as it takes.
Was the birthday meal a fish and chips restaurant because you wanted it to be, or because that's just where you went?
The liver was put in front of me and I was told I will like it.

The fish and chips were what we wanted. Bearing in mind this was early 1970s northern England, so it was fish and chips, or steak and chips as the two options.
 
We went to Harry Ramsdens too, but sometimes the queues were very long. The one we went to as a treat was somewhere in the Meabwood- Headingly area, the restaurant was above the chip shop. These memories are nearly 50 years old and a quick google maps search brings up nothing, I guess it is long gone.

Bryan's chippy was a famous favourite in Headingley back in my day - adjacent to the bus depot just off Headingley Lane. I've not eaten in the restaurant but I've had carry oot on many occasions back in the 70s.

I remember we drove past Harry Ramsden's in Guisely in the late 60s at four o'clock on a Sunday afternoon and the queue outside for the restaurant must have been 20 metres long.

It baffles me that I can remember insignificant occurrences from 60 years ago but still cannot remember what I had to eat yesterday without looking it up on the internet.
 
As for my own answers, I think I should join in with those.

  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been?
For me when I was a small child (until about age 10) it was meatballs, sauteed garlic potatoes, and cauliflower with white sauce. That was my favorite dish my grandma made.
When I got older that changed to Gado Gado, an Indonesian vegetable dish with satay sauce, tofu and eggs. I was vegetarian for a long time.
  1. What did you buy with your pocket money?
I bought mixed bags of small sweets from a sweet shop near us, an old fashioned one with glass jars with sweets. You could pick a single candy for 5 pennies, and I usually got about 2 guldens (not euros yet) to spend on sweets so that was a pretty nice bag.
  1. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays?
With my birthday I could pick what we would eat for dinner, and if we'd go somewhere special I could pick my favorite food. With holidays we always had a Brunch for easter, a Buffet with New Year's Eve and 3 course meals for both Christmas days.
With Easter we would always have a stollen, and boiled eggs, and some bake of fancy bread rolls. With New Year there would be Oliebollen, Russian salad, devilled eggs and typical snacks like potato chips.
With Christmas it would usually be a type of soup or prawn cocktail as a starter, then followed by some type of game, and a pudding or ice cream tart after.
  1. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated?
I really didn't like my mother's soups, they were always chunky (she likes 'hearty' soups) and bland due to beans and stuff being cooked to mealiness. I still don't like chunky soups, and don't eat soup often though I've come to like some smoother soups.
I also dislike really dark wholegrain bread, because ours was always stale and I got way too much of it in my packed lunches. Chewing that was a workout.
  1. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores?
Plenty, but what I miss most is a type of licorice made with Arabian gum (the best base for licorice) that is no longer being made.
  1. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home?
I shared quite a few on here, but my favorite remains Recipe - Whole grain oatmeal apple pie (family recipe) it's become my husband's favorite too. He requests it frequently.
 
  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been? I had several favorites, spaghetti with meat sauce that I wouldn't touch now. Swiss steak and mashed potatoes, which I sill love. Fried chicken with either mashies or potato salad. Chicken salad with either saltines or WonderBread. Chicken fried steak, mashies and gravy.
  2. What did you buy with your pocket money? Not food of any kind. My mother was tall and slender, and had a sweet tooth so there was always candy or ice cream or something sweet. Then, when I got older, stayed short, and started gaining weight she'd harp on me about gaining weight but would sit there and snack on something sweet every night after dinner, and always offer some to me as well.
  3. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays? Homemade fruit salad and either coconut cake or an Italian wedding type cake for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Don't remember birthday meals when little, little, but from about 10 on, they'd take me out to dinner someplace nice and I'd always get a shrimp cocktail and filet mignon, bacon wrapped, as that was a huge thing back then. Prefer rib eyes now, though I would never turn down a good shrimp cocktail.
  4. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated? Daddy didn't cook at all. He could make grilled cheese and that was about it. He literally burned water and melted the pan once. He did love Vienna sausages and Underwood Deviled Ham that made me gag. Mother liked these canned tamales that totally grossed me out by the smell alone and were this lurid red color. They didn't make me eat either.
  5. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores? Canned foods, like spaghetti O's or the like were a rare treat for me, as were Pop Tarts. Mother cooked pretty much every meal so we didn't really buy things that would have disappeared over the years.
  6. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home? Swiss steak, a marinade for steak/roast that is then grilled, a few dessert/cookie recipes, how to fry chicken, though I'd rather get from KFC or the grocery now simply because of the mess it entails, chicken fried steak/gravy, mother/grandmother's potato salad , that's about all I can remember off top of head.
 
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1. we kids didn't choose what we ate. Except for birthday meals.

2. We kids didn't have pocket money.

3. Lasagna

4. I don't know where to start. There were so many things.


6. Chocolate Chip Cookies -- and I changed the recipe a little.

CD
 
  1. When you were a child, if you got to choose what was for dinner: what would it have been? I had several favorites, spaghetti with meat sauce that I wouldn't touch now. Swiss steak and mashed potatoes, which I sill love. Fried chicken with either mashies or potato salad. Chicken salad with either saltines or WonderBread. Chicken fried steak, mashies and gravy.
  2. What did you buy with your pocket money? Not food of any kind. My mother was tall and slender, and had a sweet tooth so there was always candy or ice cream or something sweet. Then, when I got older, stayed short, and started gaining weight she'd harp on me about gaining weight but would sit there and snack on something sweet every night after dinner, and always offer some to me as well.
  3. Would there be any special dishes with your birthday and the holidays? Homemade fruit salad and either coconut cake or an Italian wedding type cake for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Don't remember birthday meals when little, little, but from about 10 on, they'd take me out to dinner someplace nice and I'd always get a shrimp cocktail and filet mignon, bacon wrapped, as that was a huge thing back then. Prefer rib eyes now, though I would never turn down a good shrimp cocktail.
  4. What did your parents cook that you absolutely hated? Daddy didn't cook at all. He could make grilled cheese and that was about it. He literally burned water and melted the pan once. He did love Vienna sausages that made me gag. Mother liked these canned tamales that totally grossed me out by the smell alone and were this lurid red color. They didn't make me eat either.
  5. What food from your childhood has dissapeared from the stores? Canned foods, like spaghetti O's or the like were a rare treat for me, as were Pop Tarts. Mother cooked pretty much every meal so we didn't really buy things that would have disappeared over the years.
  6. What dish or recipe did you take with you from your parental home? Swiss steak, a marinade for steak/roast that is then grilled, a few dessert/cookie recipes, how to fry chicken, though I'd rather get from KFC or the grocery now simply because of the mess it entails, chicken fried steak/gravy, mother/grandmother's potato salad , that's about all I can remember off top of head.

Love your answers medtran49. There is a fascinating web of history in that post.
 
Love your answers medtran49. There is a fascinating web of history in that post.

Reading them over, I was terribly spoiled - an adopted and an only. I probably would have been happier overall with a sibling so mother had another to split her focus, but from things daddy told me as an adult, he was the one that pushed to adopt when they didn't get pregnant after several years so pretty sure she didn't want another. If she had, I'm sure I would have had a siblings because she pretty much ruled the roost.
 
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