What ‘foreign food’ do you remember as a child?

Has anyone eaten a f tropical fruit called durian? It stinks like a drain and is delicious. We were in Singapore and all taxis had a notice inside saying no durian. Most exotic fruits have made it to the uk over the years but I’ve never seen a durian.

Spaghetti bolognese - my Mum, we were repeatedly told, learnt to make it from an Italian army wife in Tripoli in the late 50s. To the extent when we made it at school, she sent me with her recipe, not the schools, and I wasn't allowed to serve it with pasta as it was a waste. My teacher failed me because of this, Mum phoned the school - and the teacher hated me ever after...

Bazza

Has anyone eaten a f tropical fruit called durian? It stinks like a drain and is delicious. We were in Singapore and all taxis had a notice inside saying no durian. Most exotic fruits have made it to the uk over the years but I’ve never seen a durian.

No, but I’ve smelt them! We had to close the car windows when driving past a durian stall in Malaysia. TBH they smelt like sick. The taste is said to be nice though.

An Aussie friend, married to a Vietnamese, used to ban durians from the house, but the wife and her maid used to smuggle them in while he was at work and make pigs of themselves. He could always tell, even with all the windows and doors open for hours afterwards.

I’ve seen them for sale in London’s Chinatown, but there was no smell. Maybe they weren’t ripe enough, or it was just too cold.

I remember domski (Domestic Science) we were to cook a dish of our choice and the listed ingredients would be ready for us the following week.
The Penguin recipe book was used and I chose cheesecake which involved butter, cream cheese and digestive biscuits.
The next week I was presented with margarine and, cheddar cheese. Your choice was far too expensive, I was told.

Witzend yes, I remember that from part of my childhood in Malaya. Having t shut the car windows when driving through a village where someone had been preparing durian to eat.

We never tried it.

I was born in the mid-sixties and a child in the seventies. Our food was very good but very traditionally British as l think it still was for the vast majority of the population. Occasionally, my mother would make a chicken risotto with leftovers and we thought that was very exotic as the rice was savoury rather than in the pudding form we were used to. I can remember the first time I had Chinese food. I was nine and we had gone to Lichfield with my grandmother. For a treat we were taken to a Chinese restaurant. It was very much Anglicised as I can remember having, on the advice of my father, sweet and sour pork, which was served on a dinner plate and eaten with a fork. No little dishes of different foods on a Lazy Susan as we would have now with everyone trying bits of everything. No sign of any chopsticks, either - does anyone else remember gameshows of the era playing “hilarious” games where people had to pick up peas and the like and race while carrying them without dropping them? No matter. I felt very grown up and worldly after my introduction to Chinese food.

One of my good mothers was Italian so she made the best spaghetti bolognaise ever! I still cannot replicate it. At college we all thought we were so sophisticated by cooking vest curry, paella or chow Mein .
My first curry was in Bradford in 1974 in a dingy basement with tin tables and a sink in the corner. No after effects though! Love all types of food now!!

Occasionally my dad would treat us to the Chinese restaurant 'businessman's lunch' which was three courses for five bob. Chicken and sweetcorn soup, Chinese curry and fried rice and banana fritter and syrup. Then when Indian restaurants became popular we visited them. Loved it all.

Mum did Vesta curry for us as a treat on Saturdays which is about as authentic as Yorkshire pudding. Still loved it though.

Germanshepherdsmum

None at all until Vesta came along in my late teens! I was the only one in the family who would eat it but thought it was wonderful!

I remember Vesta very well!
My father used to take us to a Chinese restaurant in Manchester sometimes and we all loved that.
Living in that area there must have been so many people from the Indian sub-continent working in the mills but we never saw them or smelt any curry. When I went back recently the whole area had changed, everybody was from India or Pakistan, we barely saw a while face. All the old bakeries, fish bars and tripe shops had vanished, but there were curry houses and wonderful green grocers and Halal butchers everywhere.

Mum used to make Dad a curry sometimes as a treat, but we never got any. I don’t remember her serving it with rice and I think she got the recipe from my Dad who was a cook during his National service in the R.A.F. We also thought that our friend’s Dad was exotic because he cooked spaghetti that didn’t come from a tin!

As some have said, when I was little, Vesta packet foods came out, my mum tried it once but nobody cared for the stuff. I'm not sure pasta was a thing back then?

To this day I'm not keen on anything spicy, (digestion not happy) - one of the most disappointing meals I ever had was a firm's project team lunch, we got taken to a Thai place, where somebody had ordered a giant fish, which looked OK, but it turned out to have been poisoned with lots of little spice bits, which went off like a jumping jack in the mouth. My request to see if they could rustle up a plain egg and chips wasn't received very well. These days they tend to ask about allergies, so I suppose I could have said "your entire menu" ?

Oh, as an aside, instead of getting a takeaway, you can get excellent quality (& cheaper) Chinese from Sainsburys or M&S, probably others too. And less salty. I think the same is true with Indian prepared meals, but we'd never get them.

I once made spaghetti Bolognese for the family when a teenager. I asked my dad what he thought and he said it was very nice, but he didn't want it again. Apart from that Vesta curry was the most exotic food in our house.

School friends had such tasteless food that I preferred not to accept invitations to eat with them. My elderly foster mother used to get fresh mackerel. A fish my friends mums didn’t ever buy. Gutted and then laid on top of a simmered mix of vinegar, water and sliced onions, then served with either spring greens or spinach with boiled potatoes. Her curries were by todays standards, rather mild. Curry powder came from the local Co-op and was the only thing she used for curries. Both dishes were brought back to England by her ancestors who had served with the British Army. Which is why I heard stories of Waterloo which had been passed down from people who had actually been there. And knew that Doo Lally was where a local Indian mental hospital for British army officers was situated.

Susieq62

One of my good mothers was Italian so she made the best spaghetti bolognaise ever! I still cannot replicate it. At college we all thought we were so sophisticated by cooking vest curry, paella or chow Mein .
My first curry was in Bradford in 1974 in a dingy basement with tin tables and a sink in the corner. No after effects though! Love all types of food now!!

Some of the most enjoyable currys I have ever eaten were in Bradford in the seventies. Always a cellar and the entertainment on a Saturday night was the local pimps and pros.

Bazza

Has anyone eaten a f tropical fruit called durian? It stinks like a drain and is delicious. We were in Singapore and all taxis had a notice inside saying no durian. Most exotic fruits have made it to the uk over the years but I’ve never seen a durian.

My daughter gave me one last year so they are obviously available.

Brought up in deepest, darkest Norfolk. Dont remember any 'foreign' food in our house. Dad was very conservative with his food and Mum loathed cooking, but as a 1950s housewife who didnt work outside the home she was lumbered with it. Saving money was the order of the day so we ate an awful lot of potatoes. They came with gravy and miniscule bits of meat from left overs, mashed with cheese or fried as potato cakes. Never had baked spuds because that would have meant putting the oven on. As the man of the house Dad would get pork chops with a sausage and we kids had just sausage. It was the mid week treat. Lashings of sugar of course and plenty of biscuits and home made cake served as dessert with Birds custard. Very clear memories of being hungry and eating the dog biscuits when no one was looking.

A mushroom was "foreign" to me until I was 10 years old.

Do remember going to one of the first McDonald’s when young. Hated it. The mayonnaise splatted on it. Yuck! Much preferred a Wimpy!
Also at a friend’s house, the mum overloading a fork of spag bol into my mouth. Horrible experience.

Bara Brith…..🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

My first adventure with foreign food came when I was invited to a birthday party of a Norwegian boy. No idea what I ate, but it was strange and I wasn't keen. Apart from that the most 'foreign' food I ate was the haggis we'd made at school - yeugh!!

I remember a school friend telling me her mother had fed them tinned frogs' legs; thank goodness I wasn't invited to tea.

10 and 6 for a curry, nan and a beer at the Agra, off Tottenham Court Road happy days.

Gwenisgreat

My first adventure with foreign food came when I was invited to a birthday party of a Norwegian boy. No idea what I ate, but it was strange and I wasn't keen. Apart from that the most 'foreign' food I ate was the haggis we'd made at school - yeugh!!

I wonder whether some of it was their ‘brown cheese’? A Norwegian student friend of a dd who came to stay once brought us some. We’re pretty adventurous eaters here but it tasted so weird! Def. an acquired taste.
IIRC even our cheese-addict dog turned her nose up.

My mother liked a strange quite sweet cheese Witzend - we had it occasionally if someone went to a big food hall or similar I wonder if that was Norwegian?

Norwegian Brown Cheese!

www.scandinaviastandard.com/what-is-brunost-a-guide-to-norwegian-brown-cheese/