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

smokedeels · 08-04-2011 03:09PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:10PM

I still do

Wibbs · 08-04-2011 03:10PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:10PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:12PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:14PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:14PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:14PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:16PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:16PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:17PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:17PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:17PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:18PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:18PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:18PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:19PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:21PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:21PM

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 · 08-04-2011 03:22PM

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.

jackiebaron · 08-04-2011 03:23PM

pragmatic1 wrote: »

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.

Agreed. My girlfriend is Italian and she can't comprehend my worship of the humble spud in all its glorious manifestations.

landsleaving · 08-04-2011 03:26PM

jackiebaron wrote: »

Agreed. My girlfriend is Italian and she can't comprehend my worship of the humble spud in all its glorious manifestations.

How awfully hypocritical. Italian food is all tomatoes all the time. And you can't make chips from tomatoes, so we win.

lmaopml · 08-04-2011 03:28PM

My mam was a pretty good cook and she baked home made soda breads, scones etc. Yum! Like jackiebaron ours wasn't fancy but it was varied and always fresh stuff..

Lamb, beef and chicken casseroles with dumplings, steak and kidney pies with gorgeous pastry on top. Homemade burgers ( We called them risoles for some reason ) Coddle, Fresh fish once a week with homemade chips. Colcannon and kippers in October. Ham, cabbage and potatoes - cabbage cooked in Ham water. All sorts of fresh veg, she regularly made homemade winter veg soup...Homemade curry with brown rice....

Deserts could be anything really, she would make em up as she went along - she made a mean trifle though, and grew rhubarb which was gorgeous with sherry trifle.

We had porridge for brekky in the morning, which I loved - my mam was able to make it nice, don't eat it now because it just doesn't taste the same...

Nobody cooks the same as my mum did, she had a way of making things taste gorgeous and varied it up enough to keep us interested.

Anybody remember getting 'dippy eggs with soldiers'? or as a toddler a 'guggy egg'..lol.....I actually remember the trauma of eating a guggy egg - hated them...hehe

Poor Craythur · 08-04-2011 03:32PM

Wibbs wrote: »

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.

Agree there, Chinese takeaway food is rancid. FAR too sweet too.

TBH, I'm not mad keen on pizza at all, but was just surprised you'd never even tried it.

eiresurfer · 08-04-2011 03:32PM

jackiebaron wrote: »

Agreed. My girlfriend is Italian and she can't comprehend my worship of the humble spud in all its glorious manifestations.

I simply cannot understand the Irish infatuation with potatoes. You'd think the famine would have taught us something? Alas no. I eat potatoes when I'm given them (quite frequently), but I don't think I've cooked them in over 15 years.

Red Hand · 08-04-2011 03:37PM

Nothing like a few soapy shpuds cooked till they fall apart.

jackiebaron · 08-04-2011 03:38PM

landsleaving wrote: »

How awfully hypocritical. Italian food is all tomatoes all the time. And you can't make chips from tomatoes, so we win.

Anyone who thinks Italian food is just spag-bol or pizza probably thinks that Chinese food consists solely of pot-noodles and Indian food is just a friggin' nan bread or curry-chips. Having said that she also likes Marmite. Go figure!

McTigs · 08-04-2011 03:40PM

jackiebaron wrote: »

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.

well check out the big pedantic brain on jackie!

Tayla · 08-04-2011 03:41PM

This is how food would work in my house......say my ma tried a new thing like lasagna and i'd say I liked it, well then i'd get that pretty much for dinner every night until she decided a few months later to try a new recipe.:(

Poor Craythur · 08-04-2011 03:41PM

lmaopml wrote: »

Lamb, beef and chicken casseroles with dumplings, steak and kidney pies

Ooh, you've helped me remember three of my mother's other triumphs - chicken casserole, apple pie and rhubarb pie. I think I've been a bit hard on Mammykins!

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

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