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

Poor Craythur · 08-04-2011 02:37PM #1

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 · 08-04-2011 02:43PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:45PM

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!

08-04-2011 02:46PM

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

AnnyHallsal · 08-04-2011 02:46PM

Must be just donkey food

o1s1n · 08-04-2011 02:47PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:48PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:50PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:50PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:51PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:51PM

"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 · 08-04-2011 02:51PM

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

Kiera · 08-04-2011 02:51PM

No.

AnnyHallsal · 08-04-2011 02:51PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:52PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:53PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:57PM

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 · 08-04-2011 02:57PM

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

08-04-2011 02:58PM

No
mum likes everything spiced to hell :mad:

McTigs · 08-04-2011 02:59PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:01PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:01PM

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

mikemac · 08-04-2011 03:02PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:02PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:04PM

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

Fish fingers and mash all the way ...

Poor Craythur · 08-04-2011 03:04PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:05PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:06PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:07PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:07PM

Farley's Rusks ruined my life.

stovelid · 08-04-2011 03:08PM

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.

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

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