Why do some foods become fashionable?

I never got that from the post. There's a lot of affection about many things spouted by "influencers". It's like water off a duck's back to me.

And as mentioned above, if a celebrity chef chooses to steal "poor"peoples food ( pigs trotters, ribs, offcuts, tongue etc etc) not only do they get to make a HUGE profit but the rest of the market follows too! Most of what was considered cheap but nourishing food from my childhood is now bloody expensive and considered a luxury food. Is likely why some folks bash those who buy ready meals etc cos when they were younger, a lot of healthy filling foods really were cheaper and easy to make , not so now ( and no I do NOT want to subsist on dahl or whatever for the rest of my days!)

In the mid 60s as small children we lived next to a farmer's field planted up with kale for cattle feed. My mum (she probably asked but honestly I don't know) used to cut the occasional whole one and we'd eat it. She said "it's packed with iron". That's sixty years years ago when not many talked about nutrition. She cooked it up with onions. We didn't love it but we were incredibly healthy. Now it's sold as a super food. She picked rosehips from the roadside and made a cordial out of them. I don't remember broccoli at all from those days - do you? Rhubarb already made a big comeback in gin and chutney. Tomatoes even in the 80s were hard pale and tasteless imported ones back then. Luckily you could grow them yourself. The Guardian used to offer EV olive oil as a prize for winning their crossword. It was an alternative to champagne! Couldn't get balsemic vinegar way back then. Some things have changed for the better.

Because someone somewhere has a huge glut of something, so ensures it gets out there that whatever it is has spesheel health benefits, or tastes fabulous, or some celebrity or other endorses it. I've noticed a lot of poeple are sheep and will follow whatever they are told is "in"

I love kiwi fruit. I hardly notice the seeds, unlike passion fruit! Passion fruit are delicious, I sieve them and add to the syrup of fresh fruit salad. I hate pomegranates, always have. Strange taste and they make your mouth very dry. Never understood why anyone would bother with them.

My favourite fruit is mango- only discovered it a few years ago. It’s delicious!

It’s not only Mac’n’Cheese that has become “gentrified” but beef short ribs too. The butcher used to throw them at you when I was growing up and, braised slowly in the oven, they were a cheap midweek meal. Then some celebrity chef made them trendy and suddenly they cost a fortune. I bought four (very meaty) pieces recently and it cost me nearly eighteen pounds.

Pomegranate like grapefruit does not go well with certain medicines. I cannot eat either.

Quizzer

What is it with Mac’n’ cheese?? This is what we used to eat when we had no money. Now it’s become a delicacy ….really!

News to me that it’s a delicacy! - but to me it’s strictly macaroni cheese. Always a favourite in this house though, and with the Gdcs.

Now and then I make a cauli/mac cheese - two favourites together, grated cheese and breadcrumbs on top, whack under the grill, yum. I once made it for unexpected guests when I had plenty for that , but not much else.
It all vanished!

ViceVersa

Sarnia

ViceVersa

Aveline

Whatever happened to gooseberries?We had them all the time when young. Stewed, in crumbles and best of all gooseberry fool 😋

We used to have quite a number of gooseberry bushes in our garden. It got to the stage where we couldn't even give them away - nobody wanted them, and there was a limit to how many we as a family could eat.

Gooseberries and rhubarb. The good old fashioned fruits. Those, together with a Friday night spoonful of Californian Syrup of Figs kept you very regular!!!

We do still have rhubarb, although it didn't do particularly well last year. Hopefully this year will be better - I do love a rhubarb crumble.

I would love a rhubarb crumble too but I haven't got a long enough dish. I'll get my coat..............

What is it with Mac’n’ cheese?? This is what we used to eat when we had no money. Now it’s become a delicacy ….really!

I love avocado on toast with a poached egg...on top yummy

Tried to grow a gooseberry bush but it died. I love them but never seem to see them anywhere.!

I cook everything from scratch, so am not of the "can't be bothered" brigade. We have gooseberries and blackcurrants in the garden but having to top and tail the fiddly little things, completely puts me off.

ViceVersa with you on goosberries. Garden was full of tgem and blackcurrent bushes when I was little. Perhaps due to war, ways to get vitamins and they were prolific growers. Can't recall eating gooseberries straight off the plant, definitely puddings and jams and jelly. That may be why they disappeared, people can't be bothered to cook as much.

I am afraid I see no point in avocado!

They are packed full of vitamins, minerals, monounsaturated fats which reduce cholesterol, are good for heart health and are generally good for you.

However, if you don't like them you don't like them!

Some posters obviously don't but making remarks designed to put others off a certain food is what children do.
(Not you, LLFL!)

I used to love kiwi fruit but developed an allergy to them. ☹

Dubai Pistachio Chocolate, tastes like very sweet shredded wheat😂, I think the "Dubai" but made the price triple .
I don't usually mind trying something new sometimes it works and sometimes I think no not for me.

To all those who love pomegranate seeds, just a word of caution - don't eat too many at once, or you may end up like my friend, who was rushed to hospital with acute abdominal pain. After ruling out numerous things, it turned out she had something called a pomegranate bezoar, which is a blockage caused by all the seeds clumping together in the bowel. Rare, apparently - but it does happen.

A lot of people are slaves to so called 'influencers'... Some celebrity tells their social media followers they can't live without €avocado on toast for breakfast and that starts a trend.

OH loves gooseberries. I buy and freeze them from a farm shop near us. I mainly make crumbles with them. I like rhubarb and sometimes elder son gets them from a pick your own. I am afraid I see no point in avocado! My granddaughter loves them and has Cardo (her name for then) in sandwiches. I only use kiwi fruit to decorate a pavlova.

You can now get frozen pomegranate seeds from Ocado! So much less messing about and so easy to add to dishes.

Love fashionable foods like avocado. Really love M&S new 35+ gut buster sprinkle mix. On my second packet already. Do like trying new things though.

LucyAnna5

To be fair - sometimes ‘trendy’ foods can be related to health research. So avocados are good for you, similarly wholewheat or sourdough bread, so these foods are promoted. Ditto blueberries and kiwi fruits ( good for constipation).

I’m not sure I trust health research anymore. At one time they told us not to eat too many eggs cause of the high cholesterol but that seems to have been discounted now. I’m sure there has been other things 🤔

My DM used Olive Oil in salads AND on herself to sunbathe!

I really wouldn’t want to go back to the ‘70s with the narrow range, often poor quality options available. Factory cheese, sausages, pies and Vesta curry? No thank you…

My mum is 92 and regularly buying quinoa and gnocchi now. She’s been eating avocado on toast since the 70’s. Rhubarb, gooseberries, plums and greengages are readily available in season.

Can we just celebrate the variety and quality of the food we have available to us? No one is making you eat it. It’s a real privilege not enjoyed by lots of the global population.

SueDonim

Vine tomatoes and olive oil are items that have become trendy. When I was a child we ate tomatoes, round and red and only in summer apart from a few expensive Canary Island tomatoes bought at Christmas.

Olive oil, that was for earache, no one cooked with it!

It depended really, my dad was a chef so we always used olive oil but none of my friend’s families did.