Two of my writing group have requested an 'uplifting' task centring on food, and thank you to them: I can't think why I haven't thought about it before. You only have to think of the shelves in bookshops full of temptingly luscious cookery books (I succumbed myself only the other day), or the popularity of gorgeous national treasure Mary Berry, or the runaway juggernaut that is The Great British Bakeoff, to be aware of what an important part food plays in our lives - apart, of course, from it being an essential component of, well, being alive.
So, food. Time to recall some special meals. Here are a few possible starting points. You can just enjoy writing about food memories (hoping for some mouth-watering descriptions here), or food could form the starting point for a story - a special meal where something goes wrong or something gets decided, perhaps.
- How has food changed? Think back to your childhood. What were the foods you especially liked or loathed? I'm thinking puddings - we had a pudding every day, WITH custard almost invariably; tinned fruit and evaporated milk, fried potatoes and cold beef on Mondays; the excitement of Vesta curries, Angel Delight (well, -ish), prawn cocktail.
- Special meals - feast days, celebrations, disastrous/amazing first nights out, birthday cakes.
- Food you encountered on holidays - exotic, delicious, a little bit strange.
- Particular foods you associate with particular people.
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| Lemon meringue pie was one of my great favourites as a child, and it still is. |
Yep..., custard was a regular feature. With rhubard crumble, rhubarb from the garden. Blackberry and apple crumble.. Carnation condensed milk, also. Family expeditions out at weekends to pick blackberries, rose hips, elderberies. Jams, pies, syrups. 'Jeelly bags' full of fruit, dripping their juices over large pans.
ReplyDeleteNotable absence of stuff like .., Vestas, Angel Delight, Creamola Foam...
Inexpensive cuts of beef, cooked well. Liver and onions were a favourite of mine.
When I was a kid, tripe was already going out of fashion, though I think I it appeared a couple of times. Can't recall how I dealt with the vision of the slithery insides of a cow's stomach.
Captain Birdseye's fingers were a once a week appearance, with chips. Slightly ironic where one side of the family were fishermen and seafarers, going back many generations..., that actual fish almost never appeared at the table. I learnt the difference one summer when I went out in his launch with one of my Cornish uncles to lay a mackerel line in St Ives Bay. Fresh mackerel for tea, melting off my fork. Absolutely delicious, yet then as now, an unfashionable fish in Britain.
What did appear, regularly, were home made proper Cornish pasties. An absolute favourite of mine. A Ginster's, or suchlike, would never have been allowed through the door.
A particular reason why I looked forward to summer holdays in England, was Corona lemonade. In particular, Dandelion and Burdock flavour. Corona lemonade was unavailable in Scotland. ( The outfit now known as Britvic, at some point bought up Corona, and more or less promptly, as I recall, closed it down. Elimination of a competitor. Capitalism. )
I never particularly enjoyed brussel sprouts, or carrots. Despite assurances, as I recall, that they would help me see in the dark, or assist in the growth of hair on my back like velvet ! Semolina was another dislike. Rather too close in my mind to frogs eggs, and the immediate link to the tadpoles that I would collect on my woodland, and swampy, forays.
Food in my family was a case of eating what was put front of you. It wasn't a democracy. And there were no alternatives available. "... like it, or lump it... ".
The result, overall, for me , is that I've always been willing to give almost any food a go, without coming to it with too many prejudices.