School food

Puggles

Puggles

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I'm old, so this is talking about the time period of the 90s. Did anyone actually like their school food that was provided? I loved it, not all of it, but there were so many things that were awesome. In high school, they had these seasoned curly fries and also nachos that were awesome, and by the time you got down to the bottom of the little paper tray they came in, the tortillas at the bottom were soggy (A personal favorite of mine) from absorbing all the cheese. They had these big loaves of freshly-baked bread that were excellent with anything. I would get a couple pieces of that bread and put some butter on it, and use them as scoops to pick up the rest of the nacho cheese at the bottom. /drool.

Back in middle school, the cafeteria had these mozzarella rolls that were amazing, get them with a side of pickles, a side of ranch and an Arizona Cowboy Cocktail. That was the best lunch then, 🤤🤤😋
 
Puggles said:
I'm old, so this is talking about the time period of the 90s. Did anyone actually like their school food that was provided? I loved it, not all of it, but there were so many things that were awesome. In high school, they had these seasoned curly fries and also nachos that were awesome, and by the time you got down to the bottom of the little paper tray they came in, the tortillas at the bottom were soggy (A personal favorite of mine) from absorbing all the cheese. They had these big loaves of freshly-baked bread that were excellent with anything. I would get a couple pieces of that bread and put some butter on it, and use them as scoops to pick up the rest of the nacho cheese at the bottom. /drool.

Back in middle school, the cafeteria had these mozzarella rolls that were amazing, get them with a side of pickles, a side of ranch and an Arizona Cowboy Cocktail. That was the best lunch then, 🤤🤤😋
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I'm older, so my school food came from the 70s...I graduated in 1980. And the food was terrible, mostly.
 
Seventies here.
And for the most part I liked school food. Especially when they went to an ala cart style if you did not want the full dinner.
I'm trying to think of what I did not like and as much as I remember it was their hamburgers. Those they probably used frozen patties. Everything else was pretty much made from scratch. No fries, no nachos, stuff like turkey and biscuits, we had a pizza day, fried chicken, chili, fish sandwich, whipped potatoes and gravy, canned corn, cottage cheese and peaches, some kind of cake with cherries... just "regular" food.

If I remember it was pretty much the same thing week to week. Pizza was always on Fridays.
We got a menu... and something just clicked... and it might have even been announced on the AM radio what school districts were serving for lunch that day.
 
PAcanis said:
and it might have even been announced on the AM radio what school districts were serving for lunch that day.
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They announced it over the school PA every morning. We also got the monthly menus sent home.

Related…what always fascinated me was how what was “cool” regarding school lunch shifted year-to-year, and sometimes changed mid-year, meaning some years, the trend was to bring your lunch from home (“I’m too cool to eat that garbage from school!”) and other years it was better to buy the school lunch (“You brought a lunch from home?! What are you, 5 years old?!”).

I think there was a big transition school lunch programs right after I graduated (1984). During my time, there were no vending machines in school, and the school lunch was a tray of food - no picking and choosing, no options, it was a single set meal, which might be something like turkey a la king over mashed potatoes, corn, a piece of bread, and a brownie, along with a carton of milk. That was your choice, take it or leave it.

A few years later, talking with my niblings, they had a full complement of vending machines (schools figured out there’s gold in them thar snack chips), and they had things to choose from, including vegetarian, so they could build a meal, as in “I’d like meatloaf…French fries…and the fruit cup,” and the kid behind them would say, “I’ll have the grilled chicken breast sandwich, but with the boiled potatoes and the chocolate cake,” and in addition to milk, they could have fruit juice or pop.
 
We started getting choices for the sides or dessert, but never the main course.

My mother's sister was the head cook at a large city school. On the weekends that I would stay with her and my grandmother, I got dropped off at her school and hung out in the kitchen until she was through.
For what that's worth, lol.

I was the kid that brought a million egg shells for kindergarten projects :happy:
 
Puggles said:
I'm old, so this is talking about the time period of the 90s.
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You're a spring chicken.
I'll tell you about school dinners in the 50s and 60s. :hyper: :hyper:
I can remember some notably ghastly concoctions. Beef stew - a few chunks of gristly beef, swimming in oily gravy, surrounded by carrots any self-respecting rabbit would turn his nose up at, a few bullet-like peas. Served with lumpy, grey mashed potatoes.
Lancashire hot pot. Same as beef stew, but with potatoes sliced on top.
Beef olive - supposedly a slice of steak wrapped around sausage meat, but more like a slice of dog meat.
Sausage Lyonnaise - bread-laden sausages swimming in overcooked onion gravy.
Boiled fish in white sauce. A true challenge for a discerning palate.
As for "puddings", some days we got jelly. The next day, blancmange,Then a ponderous succession of classic stodge - roly poly pudding, spotted dick, jam pudding, treacle pudding, lovingly elaborated with flour, suet and very little else (except lumpy custard).
Rice pudding was followed by tapioca pudding (lovingly known as frogsspawn), and then followed up with bread & butter pudding.
It's a wonder I'm still here.
 
I had school lunches at my primary school, after that it was a packed lunch brought from home. I don't remember much of the school lunches, it was the 1970s and catering budgets were small, so they weren't very good. The best was the chocolate cake and strawberry custard which I loved, the worst was liver and mash - it was beef liver and they didn't bother to cut out the blood vessels and connective tissue, plus the gravy was just like coloured water that turned the mash to a tasteless soup. To this day I can't eat liver.
 
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