Foreign food

As teenage schoolgirls my friends and I ate out when we could afford it at a Greek restaurant and we prized bowls of Tahini sauce served with the meals.
Mother never served foreign food at home but served the normal British food of the time. I knew no different other than the "special" meals out so ate and enjoyed her cooking.
When I moved to London to work, living initially in hostels, Vesta curries were served at the hostel I stayed at and I loved them.
I later graduated to proper takeaway curries from Indian restaurants and Schezuan Chinese food at an excellent restaurant in Watford (then) where initially I lived.
Also I had Greek Cypriot friends and ate Greek food at the local restaurant and in their home.
It was my friends' father who first encouraged me to try Taramasalata which I had encountered but not fancied much. He called it "white caviar". 50 years later I love Taramasalata but have it as a treat only because it is so fattening !!!
Incidentally what little black caviar I have had I didn't like and don't understand the fuss.
My OH is Anglo-Indian and an excellent cook and I eat authentic curries now.
Only thing with the OH is he is difficult to eat out with because very critical of restaurant standards. A fair percentage of the time, frankly, even though we now live in France, he's justified.

Veeraswamy's (Regent Street) for Indian, Le On for Chinese, Hellenique for Greek (both in Soho), all back in the 50's and before I was a teenager.

The most common for me in France (1970s) were Italian, Moroccan and Vietnamese.

I am a grand fan of a wide variety of "foreign" cuisines. And my my favourites are Basque, Chinese, Greek, Iranian, Italiane, Japanese, Mediterranean in general, Moroccan & Turkish.

Aged 14 I cooked my dear dad spaghetti bolognaise from the Stork cookery book. He ate one mouthful and decided on a boiled egg instead. His tastes changed in the sixties when we started going to Spain with Clarksons travel company, anyone remember their pink and yellow planes?

I remember the first time I had curry (made by my mother at home). For some reason I burst into tears! I can't remember how old I was but probably pre-teen. Funnily enough I love curry now.

Living in rural France there is not much haute cuisine around but an interesting mix of local dishes with the inevitable pizza. Burgers are now featured largely on restaurant menus. I know someone who has lived here for 20 years and never been to a french restaurant as they don't like French food - unbelievable.

Deedaa

My grandmother used to dine at Veeraswamy's (sp?) Indian restaurant in London before the war, but my mother always treated that as a strange aberration. In the 60s my mother got quite daring and cooked spaghetti (in the long blue paper packets) with what she called a Bolognese sauce - actually minced beef and onion, with a squeeze of tomato puree because she didn't like tomatoes. We got a bit more adventurous with Vesta meals, but then I met my husband to be and his Italian family and found out about real food. Freshly made Ravioli bought from the deli, proper Italian Salami instead of the Danish stuff, and of course Panettone at Christmas when most people had never heard of it.

I was taken to Veerswamy’s in London by my in-laws as a newlywed in the 60s. It was eyewateringly expensive but my in-laws were friendly with the owners, otherwise I doubt we would have afforded it. It was my very first taste of anything exotic (my mother was a very basic cook) and I loved it! I have loved Indian food ever since.

One of my schoolfriends was Japanese and at her birthday party - 13 I would imagine - her Mum did a Japanese spread. It was delicious and she made the prawn crackers. To this day I've nver tasted a prawn cracker as delicious.

And I'll join you all on the Vesta cripsy noodles outing please. The excitement of them popping into life in the frying pan!

We didn't have 'foreign' food as children, unless you count Irish as my parents were Irish. Now we love to try different dishes. My husband had this in Venice a few weeks ago. He said it was delicious.

I didn’t try rice as anything but a baked milk pudding until I was 19 and left home. My then boyfriend’s mother got a Vesta curry. My own mother’s idea of curry was either a shake of curry powder stirred into a casserole, served with mashed potato, or a tin of Heinz Mulligatawny soup with sliced white bread. My father wouldn’t have foreign food in the house, absolutely no pizza or pasta, we ate roasts, chops, liver and bacon, sausages, shepherd’s pie, or boiled fish, everything served with potatoes and peas. They got a fridge in about 1965, with an ice compartment just big enough for a bag of peas and a block of Neapolitan ice cream. Before then it was tinned processed peas. I didn’t eat any other cooked vegetables as a child, but plenty of fruit, oh and cheese and tomato sandwiches with salad cream.

tanith

Vesta prawn curry was my first ‘foreign’ meal I loved it it was my treat. Don’t think my parents tried foreign food.

Me too, loved it.
My early experience of Italian (!) food was tinned spaghetti , in a very pale orange sauce. Sprinkled with some ready- grated parmesan (similar to sawdust) from a little cardboard tub.

My parents had lived in France, so much of our food was as French as my mother could make it. The difficulty was that then (1940s and 50s) it was difficult to find the ingredients, at least where we lived. My mother grew her own garlic - we couldn’t buy it then. She also made Spaghetti Bolognaise

When I was at university in the late 50s/early 60s we had a very cheap Chinese lunch most days. Heaven knows what was in it, but it tasted good.

My mother would not have "foreign food" in the house. She did not like it but she had never tasted any!

Mine was the same! I once made some lovely spicy bread pudding and she wouldn't touch it - because it has spices in. I tried to explain that the spices weren't hot, just aromatic and warm but she wasn't having any of it.

We lived in the Far East for over 3 years and my DF loved curries and Chinese food. He would quite happily settle down for a nosh in the Chinese street market. My mother would happily starve rather than eat anything she couldn't immediately recognise. I often thought that he missed out on a lot of things he liked because my mother was so determined to never try anything new at all. She wouldn't even try any of the Vesta meals we all bought and ate as teenagers.

Flippinheck

Vesta beef risotto was considered a treat by my family back in the 60s. I loved it, but it is no longer available, not even on Amazon. In the early 70s a group of us used to go for a three course lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. It was great food and wonderful value. After I moved away I read an article in the local paper saying the restaurant owners had been caught serving cat instead of chicken.

One of the Chinese take-away places where I lived was closed down for serving cat instead of chicken! We ate from there quite often and I'd heard rumours about stray cats but thought it was all fantasy

1950s…my mother made curry. Cut up leftover Sunday roast. Good spoonful of curry powder. Onion, apple and sultanas ?
We though it wonderfully foreign !

Oh yes - David Dimbleby.

Flippinheck

Vesta beef risotto was considered a treat by my family back in the 60s. I loved it, but it is no longer available, not even on Amazon. In the early 70s a group of us used to go for a three course lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. It was great food and wonderful value. After I moved away I read an article in the local paper saying the restaurant owners had been caught serving cat instead of chicken.

Re that last part - I once covered a court case for the local paper in which a restaurant owner in one of our local coastal towns has been paying local teenagers to shoot seagulls, which he then passed off as chicken!

Dad (Cintrano) was Italian and Mom was French. So the Italian paternal side was considered "foreign cuisine" ..

Nothing like a home made baked in the oven Pasta ..

Also Asian Cuisine, especially Japanese & Chinese & Thai. Quite an awesome triologie ( not at the same time ). Just our favourites ..

Spanish came when I did "The Santiago Camino" - last year of Secondary / High School ..

Vesta beef risotto was considered a treat by my family back in the 60s. I loved it, but it is no longer available, not even on Amazon. In the early 70s a group of us used to go for a three course lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. It was great food and wonderful value. After I moved away I read an article in the local paper saying the restaurant owners had been caught serving cat instead of chicken.

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I like the sound of that and will look online for a recipe, Primrose. But my husband is no longer around. Don't feel bad , you weren't to know.
I didn't realise aloo is potatoes.
Thanks Primrose.

It certainly wasn’t funny cleaning it up😩😁!

I am not very adventurous with food at all, if I have a lasagne or spaghetti Bolognese, I think I’ve really been adventurous 😉
And believe it or not, I have never had a pizza or a kebab nor would I want either of those…..

My uncle was posted to the Far East when I was a kid (1950s). We were working class Londoners and ate standard post-war British food, but when Uncle Charlie came home on leave he cooked us whichever delicacy he'd taken to abroad - curry (made with a whole tin of Rajah Hot Madras powder) was one, and I recall watching the family's horrified, disbelieving faces as they took the first bite, spat it out and rushed to the tap for cold water. But now the British have got over chillies, we've gone the other way and seem to love out-hotting each other. The latest ultra-spicy crisps are a good example. You're just a pathetic wimp if you can't cram them into your poor mouth and howl with glee! A nation of weirdos, or what?

henetha

The first time I ever attempted to cook curry my then husband liked it but said he would rather have potatoes than rice with it. So for years we had curry with mashed potatoes. It's quite nice actually.

Try him on a potato curry (aloo curry). Easy to make and very filling and tasty.