The huge choices in food available now

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.

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

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!

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 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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

We didn't have any spare money when growing up so no meals out. My mother was a very poor cook. She even eventually recognised it and went to cookery lessons when I was 12, afraid to say meals didn't improve. When Vesta curry's first came out I used to quite often treat myself to one out of my pocket money. I thought it was so exotic. If my fiance was invited for a meal he always asked me who was cooking, If it was my Mom he made an excuse if he could.
I must have been in my late 20s before we could afford a takeaway. A meal,out was somewhere like a Berni Inn, When we had a bit more money I had my first Chinese (bliss). I also love Indian and Thai. I am afraid I find Italian food for some reason doesn't suit me.

I've heard good Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Korean, Indian, Italian, German, and Mexican restaurants exist in the near market town.

Whilst young I only remember Italian, Chinese and Indian.

My paternal grandparents were hoteliers and my dad was well travelled and a good, inventive cook so we had a mix of mum's very traditional cooking and Dad's off the wall stuff.

In our large village we have a not very good fish and chipshop, and Turkish, Pizza, Chinese and Indian takeaways. We have an indian pub/restaurant, a similar Italian one, 3 pubs that do traditional pub grub and one really super restaurant. In the next village we have a Michelin starred restaurant.

I hardly need to cook!🤣🤣

keepingquiet

I think this is about eating out?

We have mostly traditional pub grub here. We did have a good Indian restaurant but it changed hands after Covid and I haven't been in since.

I love Thai food but finding an authentic Thai restaurant here is impossible.

We have a local Chinese, another Indian that are just average really- mostly it is take-way pizza, friend chicken etc and I never order take-away.

If I go to the nearest town there are international street food stalls which change frequency, but now my favourite is the bento box one.

If you take the train to the nearest city you can get food from anywhere in the world but I wouldn't make the effort just to go for the food...

I have been known to do so - ie took what I think must have been a 2-3 hour trip back to Birmingham specially (after I'd moved away from there) and then that trip back again. That was because I'd never had a full smorgasbord despite my few months living in Denmark or subsequent time living in Birmingham.

So - back I went - several hours in total for the repeat trip - in order to do so.

There was an Austrian cakeshop in Birmingham too in that era - so early 1970's British cakes of the time left me cold (apart from genuine Devon cream teas) - though I think that was probably a return trip into the centre of Birmingham from the outskirts to try that one out. Nice.....

I'm not interested in Russian or Eastern European food and recoil at the thought of some of what the Chinese themselves seem to eat. But I'll give a lot of different cuisines a go - though my favourite is Middle Eastern.

Sounds fab Cossy what a lovely way to be introduced to different cuisine.

And how good were those lunches on a student budget

Food was traditional, vegetables and salads seasonal, and the only seasonings salt and white pepper - and nutmeg (whole, grated as required) was limited to the top of an egg custard tart! What we didn’t have, we didn’t miss.

I love Thai food - we have a couple of very good Thai restaurants here in Sheffield, and also a sensational authentic Indian place. Always booked out weeks in advance. I was seventeen on an end of college night out before I tasted Chinese food. In the early sixties there were only a couple of Chinese restaurants in the city. I can’t say I liked it very much but when I lived in London we used to go to a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Golders Green, opposite the Hippodrome. A friend and I ate our first spaghetti Bolognese in a small restaurant in Shepherds Market. We made such a dogs breakfast of it I didn’t think they'd let us in the door again! After DH and I married, we were globe trotting and tried all sorts of different cuisines.

We've got Nepalese, Indian, Turkish, Greek, Italian and Chinese places nearby, but 10 minutes' drive away has Polish, Egyptian, and Japanese restaurants, too.

My favourite cuisine is Indian. I also like Italian and Greek. The only thing I dislike is Chinese, which I find tasteless and greasy. MSG gives me a migraine.

My parents 'bribed ' me to pass my 11 +.
The prize was a new dress and to be taken out for a meal.
Totally unheard of then.
This was 1969.
Thankfully I passed.
However, my mum picked my dress. A bright lime green mini-ish dress.
My Dad took me for the meal out.
It was to a Bernie Inn in Bristol. I was so out of my depth with the whole experience. But I sort of enjoyed, if I remember. I think my dad enjoyed himself as it was probably a big treat for him too.

Nannee49

My lovely Dad served in the Royal Navy in Hong Kong during WW11. He was a young lad working in the galley and he often told us the tale of Chinese chefs deep cleaning the kitchen before preparing a banquet for a visiting dignitaries and how impressed he was with the sparkling cleanliness afterwards.

As a consequence of his time there and also because here in the North West there were many restaurants opened in the 50s by Hong Kong expats, he often took us for a "businessman's lunch" when we were children...3 courses for about 5 bob - does anyone rememberthem?...& we absolutely loved it, not withstanding there was a lot of cornflour in the soup, ditto the chow mein etc and even the custard was made with water, food colouring and, yes, cornflour!

I can also remember with absolute relish my first taste of authentic Italian pizza on honeymoon in Venice in 1971, never had anything like it at 21 years old.

Needless to say, we never looked back and, like most of us on here, have totally embraced the wonderful cuisines that we're lucky enough to have virtually on tap.

We had one similar to this in our town where I attended the local college, it was so cheap, the three courses were quite limited, soup or orange juice to start, then a noodle or rice dish, then coffee or tea. It was run by Asians and the food was good and very very chea. This was in late 70’s.

My first couple of years of life were spent in Singapore then Malaysia and my DM told me the girls the army supplied to help my Mum around the house used to take me off to the villages to see their families who spoon fed me their food haha I always say this is why I love rice and noodles