Did anyone else grow up with perfectly adequate but woefully plain food?

Poor Craythur

I thought I disliked a lot of food growing up and didn't start to enjoy food or cooking until I went away to university.

No wonder - overcooked vegetables, overcooked roast meat, mince that was cooked by boiling it for an hour etc. etc. The cooking in our house was so plain that even mashed potatoes were considered fancy!

I know I sound like an ungrateful brat here but looking back now, I ate feckin' barely anything as a child and teenager because the food was so blah. The constituents were there - decent meat, veg, fruit, but they were destroyed in the cooking process. And I thought I hated a lot of food because I thought this was normal.

I think it's because my mother is not the most enthusiastic cook. Some people are, some aren't. At least she didn't give us crappy convenience food, I guess. But she just doesn't really enjoy cooking at all. My dad would be a much better cook if he bothered but he considers it women's work. :rolleyes::)

She did have a saving grace though - her home-made wholemeal bread. *drools*

landsleaving

Yes. All of the above. It took me 19 years to realise pizza was edible thanks to those awful mini frozen... things.

Are you starting a support group or should I resume sobbing in the corner?

NoDice

Not me. My mum was very experimental with her recipes for different dishes. Nearly every night we had something that I couldn't pronounce from a different country...


...pity it was still shit. Daddy's cooking ftw!

Yep.... Mam cooked the shlte out of everything until recently.

AnnyHallsal

Must be just donkey food

o1s1n

landsleaving wrote: »

Yes. All of the above. It took me 19 years to realise pizza was edible thanks to those awful mini frozen... things.

Those little orangy red things with a bit of cheese and spongy bases? They turned me off pizza for years too. Eugh!

KnifeWRENCH

Overcooking meat seems to be a common Irish Mammy thing. I was brought up to believe that any steak with the slightest hint of pink in it would give me salmonella or something. I still don't like rare steak but I usually ask for medium well now as opposed to well done.

That said, I still love my Mam's cooking!

Archeron

I ate 4 weetabix with hot milk for dinner every single night from the age of 3 to the age of 12.
Nothing could convince me to eat anything else.
Done me no harm though.

AnnyHallsal

I'm a vegetarian now, but one thing I remember with some fondness is Findus (?) crispy pancakes ... Looking back they must have been utter sh*t, but yum.

dilallio

Yes,
We had meat, carrots, and spuds for dinner every day. No sauces or anything else.

My mum used to make banana sandwiches for school the night before.

I think I was around 16 or 17 when I realised that bananas were WHITE :eek:

krudler

"I saw a book entitled "Irish Cuisine" and I laughed my balls off, whats Irish cuisine? we put everything in a pot and boil it for 17 and a half hours straight, till you can eat it with a straw!"

themadchef

Spuds a thousand ways, my mammy coulda wrote the book. It wasint dinner unless there were spuds. Evil pasta, evil rice, be gone!!

Kiera

No.

AnnyHallsal

dilallio wrote: »

Yes,
We had meat, carrots, and spuds for dinner every day. No sauces or anything else.

My mum used to make banana sandwiches for school the night before.

I think I was around 16 or 17 when I realised that bananas were WHITE :eek:

Ugh, yeah, and really squished jam sandwiches.

mikemac

Potatoes every single day growing up
Dinner at midday, none of the dinner in the evening lark

Usually mixed with Hot Cup or Bisto.

Cabbage and meat usually too
On Sunday you get oxtail soup as an extra

So very plain but we never had junk food so it wasn't the worst

Latchy

Variety is the key to enjoying food .I'm not vegetarian but I don't restrict myself to any set standard of food and and will enjoy a Quorn meat meal as much as a fish , chicken , beef meal with fresh salad or veg .It's much easier now to experiment and you'll be surprised what you can throw together with the contenets of a fridge and cupboard with pasta and spaghetti being a big fav with moi

jackiebaron

Archeron wrote: »

I ate 4 weetabix with hot milk for dinner every single night from the age of 3 to the age of 12.
Nothing could convince me to eat anything else.
Done me no harm though.

Apart from the catalogue of neurological disorders, erratic motor skills and rickets.

McTigs

We were well fed in that there little in the way of processed or frozen.... but yeah, everything was cooked to bejaysus.

I went on an exchange to france when i was 14 or 15, big eye opener. Rare beef, al dente vegetables etc.

I started cooking dinner a couple of times a week after that so i could get it as i liked it. Of course much to the "ohh la di da mr frenchman" jibes from my culinary ignorant bogarse family

No
mum likes everything spiced to hell :mad:

McTigs

Latchy wrote: »

will enjoy a Quorn meat meal as much as a fish , chicken , beef meal with fresh salad or veg .

you're joking right? that stuff is pure evil.

Poor Craythur

The worst - mother puts the cabbage into the pot with the bacon and cooks it until it's soft with no bite left.

The parents can't get their head around al dente cooked veg.

AnnyHallsal

Just remembered the 'burgers' we had as kids ... little, sad looking things.

mikemac

Can't beat hairy bacon!
Well you can realy, never liked bacon.
The mammy overcooked everything, potatoes, cabbage, turnip, everything!

Offtopic but I'd never heard of coddle until boards.ie

dudara

Bacon & cabbage & spuds & turnip approx 5 days a week. The other days, we had fish (Friday, usually smoked haddock) and maybe a roast.

No variety worth a damn, and dessert was often jelly or Angel Delight. And lashings of my mother's white soda bread with proper butter and homemade jam.

Nothing wrong with it though - my mother really does do a fine bacon & cabbage.

AnnyHallsal

But then, you think, what'll I cook the kids :eek:

Fish fingers and mash all the way ...

Poor Craythur

feelingstressed wrote: »

Offtopic but I'd never heard of coddle until boards.ie

I'd never heard of it until I moved to Dublin! I don't like it though - it's too salty.

McTigs

dudara wrote: »

Nothing wrong with it though - my mother really does do a fine bacon & cabbage.

Well i'd certainly hope so at 5 times a week... whats that like, a thousand times a year? Wouldn't want to be making a bags of it.

pragmatic1

Irish mammies tend to overcook food and not use enough seasoning.

But on the flipside, those diners of old are way more healthy than the stuff kids eat today. You'd be hard pressed to find better quality ingredients. I'd also take spuds over any other form of carbohydrate. They're complex carbohdrates, keep you full longer than pasta or rice and they're full of minerals and vitamins.

Poor Craythur

I love spuds too - they get a bad press as being evil lumps of sugar. I just don't enjoy floury ones in boiled form like I grew up with.

OutlawPete

Farley's Rusks ruined my life.

stovelid

I was brought up in the era when Pot Noodles, Crispy Pancakes and Smash mash were futuristic snacks designed to releive drudgery and allow your ma to have more time for Dallas, Knots Landing and her Doctor Hook LPs.

It was great.

smokedeels

landsleaving wrote: »

Yes. All of the above. It took me 19 years to realise pizza was edible thanks to those awful mini frozen... things.

I forced those microwave pizza's down in hopes of being a Ninja Turtle, nasty things.

johnmcdnl

I still do

Wibbs

pragmatic1 wrote: »

But on the flipside, those diners of old are way more healthy than the stuff kids eat today.

Agreed. For a start smaller portions.

I'd also take spuds over any other form of carbohydrate. They're complex carbohdrates,

No they're not. They're almost pure starch and that's released very soon after eating.

keep you full longer than pasta or rice and they're full of minerals and vitamins.

Pasta's largely "junk" and rice would have to be brown to be any use, but most spud varieties are similar. Some have more nutrients though.

I had meat and two veg growing up. Still do, but never overcooked luckily enough. Fast food was a very rare thing. I've still not eaten a pizza and didn't have my first burger until last year.

AnnyHallsal

I don't think I've seen a "gammon steak" since I was ten years old. Completely flat and thin ... nothing like a steak

Korvanica

Yea plain food. hate having dinner when i go home...

Ham Cabbage and spuds..
or
chicken carrots and spuds..
or
spuds potatos and spuds
or
beef gravy brocolli and spuds

Ah fook off with yer crap dinners mam....

jackiebaron

My ma is a good cook. Growing up we never really had anything that you would call exotic but she seemed to cook everything to perfection. Meat was always tender, potatoes were always floury and fresh, chicken was never dry, gravy was awesome with onions floating around in it, etc. And she made homemade brown bread and smoked cod pie which was the bizniz. So all in all the ingredients were: lamb/beef/pork/ham/chicken/fish accompanied by potatoes/carrots/turnips/parsnips/cauliflower/peas /corn/cabbage/onions/mushrooms

And a sauce of some kind like gravy, a garlicky cornflower sauce or a cheesy sauce. So any combo of the above ingredients. It was all good. The most unhealthy food she gave us was a fryup. We never had frozen foods or burgers or anything. Fish fingers, beans and mash once in a while which is actually a tasty enough repast.
I was 17 when I first had American pizza. It sucked and still does. You want pizza? Go to Italy.

up for anything

Poor AH'ers.

Luckily my mother came from out foreign so we ate like kings once she'd persuaded the L&N in Tramore to stock garlic, peppers and cayenne pepper. People coming to visit would come with suitcases stocked with spices and unobtainable food goods that weren't obtainable in Ireland. It wouldn't be allowed now I'd guess.

She was a brilliant cook on a shoestring... much better than the crappy tv chefs nowadays with their handpicked market ingredients. When times were hard she made meals fit for a king out breast of lamb, belly of pork and all the other things that the butchers used to sell her for 50p thinking that it was for the dog because that is what the general run of Irish people would use it for. If she'd learned to make gravy the same way once, you could have packaged each and every one and sold it to make a fortune.

I used to love eating at my truly Irish friends houses though. Who knew that there was such a thing as slabs of roast beef carved an inch thick and well done or steak and chips on a Saturday night or bacon and cabbage. I still have steak when I eat out because what was seldom was wonderful and I'd generally had everything else on the menu homecooked at home.

Poor Craythur

Wibbs wrote: »

I had meat and two veg growing up. Still do, but never overcooked luckily enough. Fast food was a very rare thing. I've still not eaten a pizza and didn't have my first burger until last year.

You've never eaten pizza - ever?

Bannasidhe

My mother's overcooked food was a good for a game of guess the foodstuff- name that mashed veg/ Identify that meat with the texture of old boots - but the only way to choke it down was by adding lashings of YR. It was so bad that I eventually trained as a chef...a job I hated with a passion but at least I know how to cook now. My sister does the over cooked thing too - strange as when ever I invite either my mother or sister to dinner they descend like locusts...:rolleyes:

bullpost

Can have its advantages.

When I got married the meal was served with al dente veg. I was called over by the manager of the hotel after the meal who apologised following a complaint from my aunt about said veg.

I told him that the food was fine but he insisted on giving me the bar extension I'd booked for free

Poor Craythur wrote: »

The parents can't get their head around al dente cooked veg.

Tar.Aldarion

AnnyHallsal wrote: »

I'm a vegetarian now, but one thing I remember with some fondness is Findus (?) crispy pancakes ... Looking back they must have been utter sh*t, but yum.

/recruits for forum :pac:


It was potatoes for me and I was happy to get them

mikemac

Porridge every morning, potato cabbage, turnip, bisto and bacon for dinner (midday, went home for the hour) and a bowl of soup in the evenings.

I was skinny as a rake!
And probably a lot healthier then I am now

Never had a fried breakfast until I was 18 or so

dilallio

AnnyHallsal wrote: »

Ugh, yeah, and really squished jam sandwiches.

Strawberry jam sandwiches with Three Counties spreadable cheese on homemade brown bread.
Sounds horrible but they were delicious.

Wibbs

Poor Craythur wrote: »

You've never eaten pizza - ever?

Nope. Don't like the look of em. The various ingredients fine, but not mashed together on a bread plate. Not big on bread anyway so... Hence burgers never did it for me. I've never had a Chinese takeaway either. I have eaten a couple of actual Chinese dishes, but the takeaway stuff? Even the smell makes me wanna hurl.

jackiebaron

AnnyHallsal wrote: »

Just remembered the 'burgers' we had as kids ... little, sad looking things.

Were they the little individually wrapped in clingfilm ones you would get in Superquinn and places. I think they were Granby or some crap. We tried them but they wer bollocks. They always turned out to be oval shaped after cooking them and were only about 3x2 inches.

pragmatic1

Wibbs wrote: »

No they're not. They're almost pure starch and that's released very soon after eating.

Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates.

Ghost Buster

Oh i hear ya. I grew up piss poor on a farm in Mayo with a family of 5. The saying "Dinner is boiled" was so true of my Mother its unreal. Dinner was always always spuds with some sort of boiled to death veg and incinerated bacon or beef. I am now an utter foodie who will absolutely eat anything thanks to my chef wife but for a good many year i thought many foods very yuck due to my Mothers ''boil it and burn it' technique.
Did anyone else suffer the horror of luncheon roll sandwiches for school?
or Fish paste!!!!:eek:??

landsleaving

Even worse than my Mum's bland cooking, my Granny still puts butter on everything as a replacement for the flavour she's boiled away. There's butter on my potatoes, on my broccoli, on my chicken.

THERE'S BUTTER ON MY BUTTER!

jackiebaron

McTigs wrote: »

Well i'd certainly hope so at 5 times a week... whats that like, a thousand times a year? Wouldn't want to be making a bags of it.

There are only 365 days in a year. You would need to have bacon and cabbage everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner in order to hit the 1000 mark.

pragmatic1

jackiebaron wrote: »

My ma is a good cook. Growing up we never really had anything that you would call exotic but she seemed to cook everything to perfection. Meat was always tender, potatoes were always floury and fresh, chicken was never dry, gravy was awesome with onions floating around in it, etc. And she made homemade brown bread and smoked cod pie which was the bizniz. So all in all the ingredients were: lamb/beef/pork/ham/chicken/fish accompanied by potatoes/carrots/turnips/parsnips/cauliflower/peas /corn/cabbage/onions/mushrooms

And a sauce of some kind like gravy, a garlicky cornflower sauce or a cheesy sauce. So any combo of the above ingredients. It was all good. The most unhealthy food she gave us was a fryup. We never had frozen foods or burgers or anything. Fish fingers, beans and mash once in a while which is actually a tasty enough repast.
I was 17 when I first had American pizza. It sucked and still does. You want pizza? Go to Italy.

Yeah my auld one was the same. Really good gravy and excellent baker. Wasnt allowed junk at home.