He took members of Lockerbie Rotary Club on a culinary trip down memory lane and now he’s inviting Nostalgia readers to cast their minds back to menus of yesteryear.
David, right, said: “I’m going to take you back to the 1950s and talk about food and eating habits of most families in the UK at that time. For those of you who are old enough to remember, think back and when you hear what I have to say, I am sure you will come up with an example of your own.
“For those youngsters, just treat it as a history lesson.
“When eating in the 50s one has also to remember that rationing was still in place until the end of 1954.”
His observations include:
- Curry was a surname.
- A take away was a mathematical problem.
- Pizza was something to do with a tower in Italy.
- Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.
- All crisps were plain, the only choice you had was whether to put salt on them or not. The salt came in a little blue packet.
- Rice was for puddings and never ever part of a main course.
- Brown bread was only something poor people ate.
- Oil was for lubricating and fat was for cooking.
- Tea was made in a tea pot, using tea leaves. It was never green and certainly never came in a bag.
- Coffee was ‘camp’ and came in a bottle.
- Cubed sugar was regarded as being very posh.
- Only ‘Heinz’ made beans.
- Fish didn’t have fingers in those days. Eating raw fish was called poverty, not as today with sushi.
- None of us had ever heard of yogurt.
- Healthy food consisted of anything eatable.
- People who didn’t peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.
- With a few exceptions, Indian restaurants were only found in India.
- Cooking outside was called camping.
- Seaweed was not recognised as food, it is what some farmers used as fertiliser.
- Kebab was not even a word, never mind food.
- Prunes were only medicinal.
- Pineapples came as chunks in a tin, you only ever saw a picture of a real one.
- Water came out of a tap.
- A ‘Big Mac’ was a 6-foot 5-inch Scotsman or what we wore in bad weather.
- Pasta hadn’t been invented it was either ‘macaroni’ or ‘spaghetti’. Spaghetti mostly came out of a tin courtesy of Mr Heinz.
- Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet.
- Calamari was called squid and used as fish bait.
- Frozen food was called ice cream.
- Milk and cream were delivered at the same time in the same bottle.
- Food hygiene was only about washing your hands before meals.
- Leftovers went into the dog or the cat, never in the bin.
