Would You Believe This

It's not easy and I can't even find some stuff I regard as everyday here. But the puntarelle was from a farmers market and I haven't been able to find chicory either. Various little more "alternative" type farming enterprises are in the process of starting up here over the last few years on the one hand. I had to turn my "concrete garden" into a proper garden when I bought my house and experiment with what I grow myself - if it's unusual then I want it. People spend their time looking round my garden and asking what things are now...and there's some swopping and changing of bits to and fro...

I would love a Waitrose here and grin ruefully that I couldnt afford to just shop as I please until very recently and it's after I could finally do so that I don't have a Waitrose anywhere near me any more. Very ironic to spend literally decades broke (through a combination of low pay and being single) and to be some distance away from decent shopping facilities when that "being broke" isn't a problem finally at long last.

I grew up in a house where my stepdad was a “meat and two veg” man. My diet was quite restricted and my first experience of “foreign” food was a Vesta curry! I also thought a prawn cocktail was a drink . I am now well travelled and have tried many foods but I work part time in a supermarket and still ask customers about products I have not seen before . I am lucky enough to live near Booths so might try making a cheese soufflé for the first time since school

We didn’t have money for anything other than staple foods and being born just as the war ended there wasn’t a lot of variety but I was very well fed on ordinary food
Having travelled a good bit I ve eaten lots of different things including dog ( I didn’t know at the time before you all kill me)
However things like soufflés which i ve never had, don’t make me unknowledgeable or a person who doesn’t try all sorts of stuff
There’s some sniffy posts on this thread

You could put me in a craft shop and the only thing I would recognise would be knitting needles and sewing stuff.
It wouldn’t stop me being able to scan your purchases and take your money though, and more importantly pay my bills.

Ridiculing the shop assistant because of her food knowledge is diabolical.

Blue Belle - I wouldnt "kill you" for eating dog because it's an animal and loads of people still eat animals. So what's the difference between dogs and cats for instance on the one hand and cows/lambs/chickens on the other hand? It's something I don't understand personally - why some animals are deemed to be pets and others are deemed to be food? I can go "aw" at watching a video of a pet cat demanding a fuss to be made of it on the one hand or a pet chicken running towards its human demanding a cuddle on the other hand and obviously enjoying a good hug when it gets it. It ain't very logical to regard some animals as pets and others as food.

seasider I also made my first souffle at school.

Yup I agree we don't all have the same background or life experiences.
The young shop assistant has learnt something and will know next time.
My food background is a real hodge-podge.
Raised in the NorthWest of the UK there's probably loads of food items that I might refer to that " southerners" wouldn't recognize by name. That's a fact , not a criticism.
😊😊

I'm sure most people have heard of yoghurt but does anyone know how it"s made.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all knew everything.
Lovely to see checkout operators showing an interest and continuing to grow, as do all other intelligent people.

I've been asked a few times in Tesco's to identify swedes and turnips so the cashier can look up the bar code for them.

It’s a generational thing mostly. There are loads of things in the supermarket, and in recipes now that I don’t recognise. I don’t have a clue what they are but younger people all do. I’m not surprised that somebody doesn’t know what suet it is, or what a soufflé is.
I have never bought miso or sriracha. Although I do know roughly what they are, I’d probably struggle to find them in the supermarket. And I have recently seen recipes for barbadoa, muhummara and laska…..
Times change…….and so does food. My husband‘s father died never having eaten pasta and even onions were considered too exotic in that household.

Lahlah65

It’s a generational thing mostly. There are loads of things in the supermarket, and in recipes now that I don’t recognise. I don’t have a clue what they are but younger people all do. I’m not surprised that somebody doesn’t know what suet it is, or what a soufflé is.
I have never bought miso or sriracha. Although I do know roughly what they are, I’d probably struggle to find them in the supermarket. And I have recently seen recipes for barbadoa, muhummara and laska…..
Times change…….and so does food. My husband‘s father died never having eaten pasta and even onions were considered too exotic in that household.

Sriracha is HOT HOT HOT and I've seen it up come a lot in the sort of YouTube recipe channels I follow (ie often WFPB - wholefood plantbased - ie healthy vegan). So that meant I was out there looking for it to try it - and it's too hot for me. Good idea for the sort of person who likes "blast your mouth off" level of curries. Wish I did like it - but a couple of tries later = I gave it away.

Now miso, on the other hand, and I have both dark miso and white miso in. You've reminded me I must try out more ideas with the white version. I do pretty often use dark miso - as it does add a useful level of taste to savoury dishes (eg I'll often put it in stir-fries). It's very healthy and I should think it's one of those things most people would like. Gotta be a good idea I guess to try it more - and I still recall going for a residential course lasting several days quite some time back now and finding to my surprise it had been organised by a macrobiotic organisation (yep it was deliberately hidden a bit as to just who the organisers were - as I realised when they were chatting at the same table as me one time!) Cue for things like miso - even miso soup for breakfast if wanted. I did actually lose a little bit of weight during that 5 days - even though wine was available...

I remember my "limited even by 1950s standards" diet I was brought up on - hence that and the fact it wasnt very healthy (to say the least) is the reason I eat so differently now and experiment a lot. I figure I must be getting something right - as two different people (an alternative health practitioner and a rather blunt-natured friend) have both recently said I look years younger than I am (I'm 72 and they both guessed at 65 or so). So a few more years to knock off the looks yet I reckon. I'm surprised blunt friend didn't stick me under a spotlight for an even better look - as she was peering so closely at me - so that's not too bad.

I remember my mothers limited repertoire included spaghetti (but only if it was canned in tomato sauce)...though she did use onions. My father liked a curry if he could get it - but he only ever did land up being given that if it was the (very very occasional) meal out or a "Vesta" fake-alike.

I always say "Food is a reliable pleasure of life. Other pleasures of life are more difficult to get - but if you've got the money for decent food = you can get it (albeit with greater difficulty in more remote areas)".

My mother was extremely food curious and if she saw something she hadn’t tried before she absolutely had to taste it. She didn’t have much money as a single parent, but every day she passed a fruit stall outside Waterloo statin on her way home and would often brandish something we had never heard of or seen before. We ate sea urchins on a Spanish beach as children and they were delicious.

As for supermarkets, I was in Marks asking where the loose tea was and the assistant didn’t know tea came in anything but bags.

I once watched a Floyd on France video years ago. He was making a dijon sauce on a canal boat. Had everything in the fridge except the wine. Paused the video and rushed out to buy red wine. Started cooking at tea time and then watched as he just drank the wine. It wasn't needed for the sauce lol. So I did the same!

I heard about kalettes a couple of days ago for the first time. I’ve looked in the shops since but not seen any. They are also called flowery sprouts.

Growing up I never had pigs in blankets with my Christmas turkey. I didn't have pasta until the 90s when I remarried.
There are many different foods that have only appeared in recent years so I suppose I could be in the same class as the girl that asked me about souffles.
We had them last night by the way and most enjoyable.

I have small French souffle dishes and do make cheese souffles now and again. Delicious. The Waitrose ones look a bit heavy to me.

Stansgran

I heard about kalettes a couple of days ago for the first time. I’ve looked in the shops since but not seen any. They are also called flowery sprouts.

They're not easy to find - though I get them when I do spot them. So keep your eyes open and encourage anyone doing any "alternative" type farming and hopefully some will come up soon. Maybe check out for the nearest farmers market to you - as that's a potentially good source of less common vegetables....and they should be able to tell you how to use them too.

Remembering the first time I came across a bunch of fresh beetroots (ie with fresh leaves on - as they are supposed to be). Cue for me asking the farmer if she'd remove the leaves for me - surprise from her and she told me I could eat them (yep...the best bit).

I just wish shopkeepers would stop removing things like cauliflower leaves and radish leaves before selling us the food - as they are also the best bit imo. It does make me cynical when I see they have removed those leaves - yet again. As I reckon the reason they do so is to hide the fact they're not as fresh as they should be.

I have discovered radishes seem to be easy to grow. Scatter some seeds and they won't take long to come up at the right time of year, then wait for seedpods to come up and they're edible and I eat them and I also do things like sauteing a handful of radish leaves with, for instance, a squeeze of tomato puree, some onions and serve with some poached eggs. I thought I'd removed the last of some radishes from my garden - but right now I can see I've got several helpings worth of radish leaves ready for harvesting out there and presumably there'll be some radishes under the soil.

J52

Years ago, as a young bride, I used to have a cheese recipe book, it had been a promotional offer.
It had a wonderful recipe for cheese soufflé. I made it often as it was so impressive yet quite easy. I must have a go again, sadly the book is no more.

Was it called Make a Meal of Cheese?

I had that book, sadly binned when it became too decrepit and I was having a clearout.

Cheese Souffle. How very Hyacinth Bouquet and old fashioned.

I bet Margot in the Good Life was an expert at naking this type of snobby,status symbol food

Ooh

I asked an assistant in m&s today where the profiteroles were. She was a bit younger than me, maybe late 40s. She didn't know what I meant, she said is that party food? I said no, like a fresh cream desert. She had to ask a younger girl and she showed me where they were.

On Saturday I went into my local Post Office to (belatedly) post my overseas cards.

The lady behind the counter was in her late30s/early 40s. My post included two letters for the Republic of Iteland. She put standard 1st class stamps on them, to my surprise. Then she said to me' Is Ireland part of this country?' I said well Ireland is divided Northern Ireland is part of Britain and I quoted the phrase 'Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. Then I explained that the rest of the island of Ireland was an independent country. 'Oh', she said,' 'I didn't know that',

She then looked at my two cards and ran her finger under the last line and said. 'These both say Republic of Ireland, so they are not part of the UK''. At which point she took the two first class stamps off the cards and put the correct one on.

A lady in her 60s on a group holiday a couple of years ago took avocado pear from the buffet and sprinkled it with sugar and cream. She thought it was a dessert and was totally shocked to discover its a savoury item. No avocado pears in Clacton in her youth and she had never bought them because she had never eaten them.

WithNobsOnIt

Cheese Souffle. How very Hyacinth Bouquet and old fashioned.

I bet Margot in the Good Life was an expert at naking this type of snobby,status symbol food

Seriously? How can a food be 'old fashioned' or 'snobby'?
Talk about stereotyping!