The huge choices in food available now

We only had fish and chips occasionally when I was growing up and only greasy spoon cafes or one restaurant a drive away where we couldn’t afford to go.
There was no variety. Even the restaurant was English cuisine with a desserts trolley that a neighbour once waxed long about.
Now we can choose from a staggering variety of cuisines from Persian to Afghan, Japanese or Kurdish. We do live in London so the variety is amazing here. Not that we have tried any of the aforementioned, though some of our friends or family have.
And we really can’t afford to eat out more than once a fortnight.
I absolutely love Lebanese food, a good Indian restaurant, or Italian food.
I don’t like seafood restaurants whatever the type of cuisine on offer because I hate seafood.

Witzend

Allira

My mother used to make curry with leftover meat.
Some of my friends thought she was very progressive!

The first time I ate a Chinese meal was when I was about 17 and a Chinese restaurant opened in our town and spaghetti bolognese when I was 18 when a student friend made it at her flag.

We don't have such a wide range of cuisine here but quite a few, even a Gurkha restaurant not far away.

My DF developed a taste for curry during WW2 - he was with the RN but certainly spent time on and off in Bombay (as it was then). In the 50s and 6os my mother used to make her version of curry, usually with the remains of a roast, diced, with curry powder, and she usually put sultanas in! I always enjoyed it.

My Dad spent quite a lot of time in China (RN) but I don't remember eating Chinese food at home.

Yes, my mother put sultanas in the curry sauce too!
I think curry was quite popular, with the UK's links to India and even Mrs Beeton had a recipe or two!

We have a Lebanese place but it is a 20 minute drive away. Also a ‘Persian’ one which uses a lot of pomegranates. One thing we don’t have is Jamaican, that would be nice. I used to make curries years ago when we lived in the UK and always added sultanas. I never do,now - no one does round here, must be a different cuisine. A friend from Sri Lanka said to add star anise and ,wow, what a difference. Lovely.

What a delicious Thread. Wonderful food from all over the world.

Here in Germany they haven't any idea about that sort of thing. in the town where I ljve, you can usually find a Greek or Italian restaurant and there is a Turkish Döner shop on every street corner. For anything else I would have to travel quite a way.

What this thread tells me is how, for most of us, we have had the privilege of trying many different types of food from all over the world.

In just a couple of generations the changes have been huge. It's really not very long ago that most people could only eat what their forefathers ate.

Foods that were once only available to those people on the "grand tour" - such as a mango - have become available to virtually everyone.

I love trying new things. I feel very lucky.

I have a mango everyday just now - they are in season in Australia. Cost $2 .50 each down here, probably a lot cheaper up north where they come from ! I love ‘em and also great in salads with feta.

Foods that were once only available to those people on the "grand tour" - such as a mango - have become available to virtually everyone.

I'm not so sure about that. Don't forget that we had an empire, its civil service, judiciary, plantation managers etc staffed by Brits. Not to mention British troops stationed around the world. Perhaps tastes were quite cosmopolitan in the 19th & 19th C, it's just that the foodstuffs weren't easily available when these people returned to the UK.

Of course, these experiences were not available to everyone, but they reached far more people than just the Grand Tourists, and extended far beyond Europe.

nanna8

I have a mango everyday just now - they are in season in Australia. Cost $2 .50 each down here, probably a lot cheaper up north where they come from ! I love ‘em and also great in salads with feta.

Probably not cheaper in the supermarkets but from a roadside stall or the market yes!

My Dad would not touch "foreign food" come what may. The most embarrassing moment was when some Phillipino contacts (we were helping them) came and offered to cook and asp...they cooked....rice!!! He wouldn't eat it, my mum had no probs, and us kids chipped in.

So when I went to Uni I was a newbie, and taken out to a greek place I had moussaka and adored it, and then a year later a curry and my friend said have a Korma, a good first choice.

I dont eat out (live in a big city so it has everything's you'd want) currently

So my fave has been Thai for a long time,

but a Curry Hut has opened up the road which does fab Indian food - light, non greasy, they will cook to your specs and put this in or leave this out, and as long as I spend £16 which stretches to 2.5 meals for me I order there now and its delivered.

I remember going on board a Dutch Naval ship years ago and they cooked us a satay dish (pork or chicken with a peanut butter sauce).
I'd never eaten it before and it was delicious.

JackyB

Here in Germany they haven't any idea about that sort of thing. in the town where I ljve, you can usually find a Greek or Italian restaurant and there is a Turkish Döner shop on every street corner. For anything else I would have to travel quite a way.

Lucky you. We find the Italian food in Germany far superior to Italian here. German, Austrian, and Italian food are our family favourites.

I can still remember my mother’s weekly menu- a roast on Sundays, cold cuts Monday, grilled fish Tues, egg and chips Weds, something with mince on Thurs, chicken Friday ( we were Jewish, but not very observant, and that was Friday night dinner) Sat was my poor Mother’s day
off cooking- she went to the hairdressers Sat morning and bought a cream cake on the way home as a treat. On Sat night we usually had something like omelette. Rarely ate out- occasional fish and chips or a Berni steak house on a birthday. We once visited my brother when he was at uni in London. He took us for a Chinese meal in Soho, my father described it as a compost heap with a fried egg on top!

Fallingstar - I went somewhere with friends in Italy a few years ago that had an amazing desert trolley!

Haven't seen one here for ages

MaisieD, I think kedgeree was originally created in India?
My gran worked as a kitchen maid then cook in a large Jewish household in Glasgow in the 1920s. Some of our favourite dishes had a connection. One favourite dessert was apfel kugel, an apple baked in pastry with cinnamon and served with custard. The first exotic meal I had was a chinese meal at a local restaurant. I think it was chicken and pineapple. I would have been about 15.

My mother was a reasonable cook but we had the same menu week after week. She would n't eat "foreign food", not liking it but had never tasted it! This was in the 40's and 50's.

My parents had one "foreign holiday in France and had a problem dining.

I live in London and I agree the backstreets of Soho are where to dine for authentic food. There is a really good Indian restaurant close by but little else. Hygiene is a major problem and being fussy, I prefer my food cooked where there are no rats or mice and the staff appreciate running water.

We have access to everything on the OP’s list, plus others. We use them all over time. I think we are really spoiled for really good restaurants in our area.

We have a table for lunch booked at an authentic French restaurant next week. It is excellent.

If we are feeling rich our absolute favourite is a Michelin star in the Sussex Weald we go to - to really spoil ourselves.

I live in the curry capital
Of the north so very lucky! My godmother was Italian so started young on pasta !! We have so many varieties of places to eat, types of cuisines , somebody is holding a Peruvian banquet soon in a local village hall! I must admit to loving Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian flavours most !

maxmyers that sounds just like my Dad on his one and only Chinese food experience.

My mum did keep trying to introduce more...but in the end she worked full time as a teacher so stuck to roast on Saturday, tinned fruit, cold cuts Sunday with cooked pudding, excellent school dinners in the week, something like beans and toast for tea at 5-6ish. Fish and chips on Thursdays tho as she had her hair done after work.

I think my Dad's fave food was a good kipper, actually.

If you rushed in hungry as a child

what were you given?

I still love raw carrots 🤣

We ate simple plain food in the 50/early 60s and I was fit and not fat, well I am still a size 12 which I think in old 50s sizing is a 14/16. Now, we have a huge choice of food in supermarkets and take away food 24/7.
I do prefer French and English food.

I popped into the local Mace here in our village in Northern Ireland and couldn’t find the green Thai curry paste so I asked the woman at the till. “Oh no” she exclaimed, “we wouldn’t have anything THAT exotic in here” 🤣🤣
Our nearest town has 2 Indian restaurants and 1 Italian but as far as I’m aware, the nearest city (about 40 miles away) has Asian restaurants but nothing outside of that box really.

I smiled at the memory of sultanas in Monday's curry made with leftovers dmfrom Sunday's roast. Neither of my parents were really interested in eating anything unfamiliar so the fact we had "curry" on Mondays felt quite exotic. Unfortunately, where we live, the more exotic world cuisines aren't just 10 minutes down the road, with, horror of horrors, a whole 20 minute drive to get to Lebonese food. We actually do have a Persian restaurant about 15 minutes away, but otherwise it's pub food within a 20 minute radius then the usual Indian, Italian, Thai or Chinese. More exotic than that would be at least an hour away in Birmingham. It's certainly not the norm to have hundreds of different cuisines on the doorstep unless one lives in a large, cosmopolitan city. I do hope those lucky enough to do so, realise their extreme good fortune.

I live in a commuter village we have Indian (authentic) several Bangladeshi restaurants, two Turkish, Malaysian, Italian and two Mediterranean restaurants.

Along with Chinese takeaways, Fish & Chips, Pizza Hut takeaway, kebab shop, Kentucky, Wimpy and several tea/coffee shops.

Also three pubs which serve food.

All the above are anything between a five and 30 minute walk.

A real Wimpy! Haven't seen one for ages, what is it like inside, GG13?