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

pascal30 wrote" There's a lovely meditation practice whilst eating... to think of where the food came from, the growing conditions, who grew it, how it was packaged and transported and how it came to be on our table.. all whilst eating silently and in gratitude"

When it occurs to me when I am eating butter how dairy cows suffer I feel insincere, fraudulent , and dishonest.

M0nica

Norah what a shame you have only ever seen food as just 'sustenance'. I have found understanding the history and development of the foods we eat and why we eat them is fascinating. A book I reread regularly is Dorothy Hartley's Food in Britain

All our diets are formed by the geology, landscape and economy of where it is produced and knowing and understanding that makes food so much more than just sustenance.

I'm not sure what you mean. Perhaps my definition of sustenance does not match yours - surely we eat to sustain life.

Pizza ..

Always fond of Pizza in Marseille.

Norah I have always seen food as something to be enjoyed and savoured, something which is so important to life that i want to know where it comes from, how it is prepared and its evolution as well as the best combination of foods for health, mental and physical.

Food is multisensory, and can only be given the respect its essential nature to our lives requires by our being willing to devote time and effort to its selection and preparation.

Sustenance, to me, means eating without discrimination, like putting petrol in a car,

Apologies *pascal30’ some of my best meals, past and present are with friends and family, not much silence about!

Jaxjacky

Apologies *pascal30’ some of my best meals, past and present are with friends and family, not much silence about!

Yes I agree JaxJacky and this is done mainly on retreats..

I was born in London in 1950 and one of my earliest memories is sitting in my high chair eating pink yogurt- that and marmite sandwiches was one of the few things I would eat.
In the early 60's we would occasionally go by bus to shop in Luton-we lived in Hertfordshire by then. As a treat we would go to a Chinese resturant for a set lunch which was chicken and sweetcorn soup with egg stirred in, Sweet and sour pork followed by banana fritters!
At my secondary modern school we did do a lot of basic cooking but nothing that wasn't British. My mother was a good cook but the most exotic we got was spaghetti in some kind of tomato sauce for tea on a Sunday.
When I went to teachers training college in 1969, our landlady -who was a great cook introduced us to all kinds of new tastes such as Boursin cheese!

M0nica

Norah I have always seen food as something to be enjoyed and savoured, something which is so important to life that i want to know where it comes from, how it is prepared and its evolution as well as the best combination of foods for health, mental and physical.

Food is multisensory, and can only be given the respect its essential nature to our lives requires by our being willing to devote time and effort to its selection and preparation.

Sustenance, to me, means eating without discrimination, like putting petrol in a car,

I assumed I wasn't understanding.

I spend time preparing food, growing herbs and veg. Hours daily selecting the recipes, measuring ingredients, herbs and spices - and cooking.

Eating food, to me is merely means to an end - healthy body.

Ah, I am fascinated by the whole process from start to finish.

I was on holiday with my parents and one breakfast time we were faced with some odd little thing on our plates.
Mum & I were very sure we were not going to eat whatever it was, and I said that they looked like monkeys brains!
I'm not even sure where I got that from, unless I'd seen something on tv or heard something at school.
My dad ate all 3 and thoroughly enjoyed them. Even asking for 2nds. We were told he couldn't have 2nds as they were an expensive delicacy. Of course, we asked what they were?
Lo & behold, I was actually right, they were indeed monkeys brains!!
Ugh! What a thought!

Ali08

I was on holiday with my parents and one breakfast time we were faced with some odd little thing on our plates.
Mum & I were very sure we were not going to eat whatever it was, and I said that they looked like monkeys brains!
I'm not even sure where I got that from, unless I'd seen something on tv or heard something at school.
My dad ate all 3 and thoroughly enjoyed them. Even asking for 2nds. We were told he couldn't have 2nds as they were an expensive delicacy. Of course, we asked what they were?
Lo & behold, I was actually right, they were indeed monkeys brains!!
Ugh! What a thought!

As children, with our parents on ski holiday, we encountered different foods - I still remember unfamiliar unpleasant cheese.

And goose liver pate. Yum!

As others have said Vesta chow mein ,curry it was made from TVP. Textured vegetable protein. But it was ideal for camping hols. I know these aren't foreign but hamburgers in a tin of gravy, Heinz sponge puds in tins. Boil in the bag fish yuk. Spam fritters my mom made . Cod roe in a tin yuk. Angel delight how it was supposed to feed 4 I don't know. Mom always used 2 sachets. And why did tinned fruit cocktail only have one cherry in it🤷

I worked in a canned food factory in the 1960's - and the production line for tinned fruit cocktail required only one cherry to each tin. We each had a large tin of peach slices or grapes or pineapple chunks and were told how many of each to go in each tin as it came past us and for cherries it was one!