Eating in the 1950s ...much less choice, but we were healthier

I thought marrow had become fashionable. Jamie Oliver, seems to think so. I can't abide him.
Hugh Fernley Wittingstall too.

There has been a lot of celebrity chefs talking about using it in trendy recipes.

Elrel I think marrow is a treat too but I think it's considered not the thing to do by those with foodie principles who think it's disgusting. Each to their own...

My mother would sometimes serve us a piece of Swiss Roll for pudding with a dollop of that tinned cream on it. She said it was something they used to get at Lyons.

Those cylinders of vanilla ice cream wrapped in paper were lovely. My GM, mother and I used to go, in the 1940s, to a local cinema which had a café. After the afternoon showing of the film we'd go there and sit in basket chairs while a waitress brought tea and, for me, the ice cream. In the 1950s similar ice cream cylinders appeared occasionally at secondary school dinners, with chocolate concrete.

Lindylo - why is marrow a no-no? I've always considered it a treat!

I can remember going to a Lyons Corner House and having a vanilla ice cream that was served on a small dish and wrapped in what looked like a half size innards of a toilet roll. It was delicious.
On Sundays if we had leg of lamb I had the treat of getting a skewer and poking it into the bone to eat the marrow - a definite no-no these days.

I grew up in the 50s and 60s, we ate whatever was in the garden, cabbage, brussel sprouts, kalie etc and potatoes. Recently when the family were all together for a week I gave potatoes with the meal two days running, there was an outcry. We had potatoes yesterday!
Love cod liver oil and the sticky malt out of a brown jar.
I remember I had to beat the egg whites by hand for the lemon meringue pie. Still hate the taste of cold roast lamb mince used for shepherds pie .

I grew up in the 50s and 60s. My mother rarely varied her menu. Sunday: roast beef or chicken, potatoes, overcooked runner beans or cabbage. Monday: left over roast. Tuesday: fresh fish from the market, dipped in batter and fried; served with boiled potatoes and seasonal veg. Wednesday: suet pudding steamed all day, bacon at one end and sultanas or jam at the other. Thursday: liver and bacon with boiled potatoes and veg again. Friday: pot luck ... or my mother tried new recipes (she was not a good cook). Saturday: I can't remember what we had for lunch but we always went to grandparents for tea which would be bread and butter with jam followed by cake. Another thing I clearly remember was when people came to tea (common practice then) we had tinned fruit with tinned cream first, then sandwiches and then cake!

We never went without meat in the 50s as my father was bosun on the Blue Star line ships. These were the boats bringing in tonnes of beef from Argentina and lamb from Australia and New Zealand.
When being unloaded, lots of meat would 'disappear'. Wives of crew members knew where to go to get cheap meat.

My mother used to take me to a restaurant occasionally during the war - I must have only been about 3-4. We went on the bus and did a bit of shopping and ended up having something to eat. I can remember one occasion when another diner came up and remarked to my mother about my good behaviour and how I could use the cutlery correctly!
Mum was a good cook and everything was home made. Thinking about portion size I would go and get her 3/4 lb of chuck steak and she would feed all four of us -must have been early 50s.

Thank you jenpax

Bellanonna Google states that some British Restaurants were turned into Civic Restaurants (after 1947) and some persisted into the mid 1950’s.

(Re Franbern’s comment)

The one near us was called a Civic Restaurant, but probably the same as the British Restaurants.

I was a boom baby and I wonder why, at the age of four/five I was being stocked up with cod liver oil and malt, iron medicine and "Parrishes Food"?
A few years later, at a school medical examination, the doctors tut-tutted over my sunken sternum and I heard them muttering about "malnutrition".
My diet cannot have been very healthy. I was an inner city child and remember the Great Smog in London so I probably didn't see much sunlight.

Yes , we still had some form of rationing in the early 50`s , but food was basic .
meals I had where Bacon clanger, jam Roly poly pud wise , rabbit also appeared to be a meal option as well
Rice puddings with a skin on it.
Also had curds and wey, as my uncle worked on a farm ,and he brought back to my nans , it also was a pudding dish.
Mick

4allweknow I do agree with you about portion size. We eat far too much nowadays. I've noticed recently people eating really huge ice creams that would have filled four cones when I was young. Food is too important now. How can you have a treat when every day is full of treats?

I remember titbits. Think had saucy photos. My dad used to get News of the World. We children were forbidden to read it (so of course I made sure I did) I couldn't believe my parents wanted to read this kind of news. I loved the American teen magazines with stories about guys and girls making out in the car etc. An older girl used to give me them. I wasn't allowed to have them either - had to hide them from dad. So harmless on reflection.

I remember titbits from seeing it as a child. To this day I'm not sure if it was a bit rude.

I've never eaten a curry.

Word used to get round if someone was rumoured to be using a cake mix.

We had bananas and custard. Cold kept refrigerated in my Grandmother's gas fridge.

The orange juice made from crystals was Rise and Shine. I had it all through the summers as a child. Unbelievably we added lots of extra sugar to it.

I remember British Restaurants. Although whenever I mention them to people of my age, no-one else does. There was one in Clapton, East London and when my Mum was in hospital for a very long time back in 1947, my Dad would often take me there for a meal. Not sure how long they lasted, there is a school there now.

Can anyone remember having a revolting 'brown gloopy' stuff, I think it might have been codliver oil and malt?

When I had my 2nd child in the mid 80's my craving was vesta ready meals, loved the beef risotto and prawn curry. My family thought it was odd, as I cooked those meals from scratch myself in non-pregnant situation.

My parents were publicans, and our pubs always served food, I grew up on "traditional pub grub". Also fortunate to eat out once a week on their night off, I can remember going to an Italian restaurant in Leicester Square called Alpinos, I felt very grown up and sophisticated (once I had changed out of my awful dark brown school uniform in the toilets).

My husband still looks for the Paella ? as he lives it.

We never had fish paste, always broil sandwiches on white bread. I still make rice puddings, especially during the winter as my husband loves them and bread and putter pudding.

That's DGS ?