Memory Lane was a disappointment

Sorry that wasn’t really food related🤣 but the shop in the village which sold a delicious sort of crumbly fudge had gone!

I used to have holidays with my mum in a village in Somerset where we stayed with her old friend from school. She lived in a pretty cottage where a stream ran through the garden, up a long hilly road just on the edge of the village. I visited the village again a couple of years ago. The cottage was still there, with its lovely well tended garden and the road itself unspoilt. However the village was such a disappointment. It looked very down at heel with empty shops, and had lost its charm. Generally I prefer not to visit the places I loved when I was young now to keep those happy (and rose tinted!) memories intact.

Mr Brain's faggots. Anyone remember those. Much to my surprise they are still available and still under the same name (in this politically correct era!). I totally adored them, but discovered that actually they are so soft and lacking in substance its like eating baby food.

I’ve never tried the chicken F&B pies Witzend but I’m fairly sure we have one on our ‘In case of emergency’ shelves in the pantry. MrB bought one chicken pie and one steak pie.

We used to use cooking oil until quite recently when we changed to beef lard. Much better.

Another change we have made is tonstop using malt vinegar and changed to 'non brewed condiment' it's amazing how different it tastes and makes fish and chips so much more like the old days.

Marmin

I had a Tunnock's Caramel Wafer last week. It was dreadful. The chocolate was tasteless and the biscuit was lacking in crunch and substance.

I thought it was just me getting older, but I thought exactly the same. Another cost-cutting exercise by a greedy company. Shan’t buy them ever again!

pably15

chips, when we were at school we'd go to the cinema and on the road home we'd stop at the chip shop for a bag of chips 3d
three old pennies...they just don't taste the same,, they were probably cooked in solid fat...not oil.

My friend and I decided to have fish and chips the other day. One piece of fish, a sausage and two (described as ‘small’) bags of chips came to more than £20.00!! I couldn’t believe it and, had I been on my own, would have told them to put them back!

Torquay, Mousehole, I could go on. In fact any seaside town I remember from my chilhood. But then there were hardly any cars and a much smaller population.

Fried bread - we always had it with a cooked breakfast & it was my favourite bit.
Occasionally I'll cook some, hoping to recapture that pleasure, but it's not anything special at all.
I used to love mashed potatoes too & they taste as good as ever.(butter & pepper & not too sloppy)

We occasionally have Tesco steak and kidney flaky pastry pie (not tinned). I often freeze one but always defrost the previous day. It is tasty but the instructions say to cook defrosted for 30 mins at190. (That’s from guesswork as I don’t have one in at present) The pastry gets burnt long before that so I now know to put foil over it half way through!

I had a Tunnock's Caramel Wafer last week. It was dreadful. The chocolate was tasteless and the biscuit was lacking in crunch and substance.

My mother was a great cook, everything was always home made but as children we loved the very unusual occasions when we would have a shop bought Fray Bentos pie and sometimes even a bought chocolate cake - such a treat!

I think I’ll give them a miss!

They're two different pies, Wibblewobble!

There's just 14% of beef in the mince version but only 11% beef in the steak version.

Do they still make Fray Bentos proper steak pies, as well as the mince ones? DH and I used to have one occasionally, probably full of additives and palm oil but still delicious!

Not food but I once took DH to see my Grandma's and Grandad's house and there it was! - gone

DH’s mum went away leaving him and his brother home alone just before we were married. Fray Bentos pies were about the only things they ate until she came home! Interspersed with chippy teas.

dalrymple23

All that talk of a Fray Bentos S & K pie makes me want one now! It is probably just me being inept but I could never ever
get the pastry to cook all the way through. Why?

I don't think it does. It's always sort of crisp and risen on top and wet underneath. I find it the perfect combination tbh and now also want a FB steak and kidney pie

Chips were always cooked in Beef Dripping back in the day.

All that talk of a Fray Bentos S & K pie makes me want one now! It is probably just me being inept but I could never ever
get the pastry to cook all the way through. Why?

I usually keep a couple of FB tinned pies in, for the odd occasion when I absolutely just CBA to cook. We have one each, just with frozen peas.
Dh likes the steak and kidney, I usually just have chicken. TBH we find them fine.

Yes…..some years ago a work colleague had visited a traditional sweet shop and brought her purchases into work to share. Amongst her haul were cherry lips and floral gums, neither of which tasted anything remotely like I remembered. Actually, both sweets tasted identical, it was just the size and colour that varied, it was so disappointing. Can’t comment on the rest of her purchases as I didn’t try any of those.

As they say “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be”
(I’ll get me coat)

Dandelion & Burdock - the same.

Chips really aren’t the same, not only are they too oily I think the smell of the salt and vinegar soaking through the newspaper added to the flavour. Loved Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie, but won’t try to relive that memory, or the memories of dandelion and burdock pop bought in a big glass bottle from the chippy, the head on it meant that my sister and I would pretend it was beer. Tried some dandelion and burdock bought recently at an artisan foods market, it was over priced and tasted awful.