Where did you live and what did you eat growing up?

[Anonymous]

Kind of a spin off of the “bland Midwestern palate” thread.

If you didn’t live in the Midwest (or even if you did), where did you live, and what was on the dinner table when you were a kid?

[Anonymous]

Bethesda, but very bland food. Like my mom put chicken breasts in the oven with nothing on them. Tuna Casserole. Terrible.

[Anonymous]

I lived in Indiana. When I was a kid, I honestly think we had a good mix of foods. And it was enhanced by fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms.

My mom was always into cooking, and watched and made recipes from Julia Child, in addition to whatever trends were going on in magazines and TV shows. She was one of the first people I know to get into Food Network.

We also used fresh vegetables to jar and can our own food for the winter, like applesauce, jams and beets. Not that I think there is anything wrong with using canned or frozen vegetables and fruits when you need or want to. They are, after all, frozen or canned at the peak of their freshness!

There actually were a lot of different restaurants in my hometown. There was an Egyptian restaurant called The Nile that was family owned…it ran from the 1980s until just two years ago when the family decided to close—they even made it through COVID. Owned by families: Egyptian, Chinese, Mexican, BBQ, Italian, and an Amish market. Alongside mid-priced chains, of course. Both country clubs in my hometown also had decent food.

The only food I felt I wasn’t exposed to growing up was Japanese, and that was quickly solved in my college town, also in Indiana.

[Anonymous]

North Carolina. My mom was a great cook, and we had so little money, but she could make magic with the cheapest cuts of meat combined with my dad's garden vegetables. We had corn, zucchini, eggplant, kale, tomatoes all summer. In the winter, we had great soups from what she canned. She seasoned everything perfectly. She baked amazing treats at holidays. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but it was a healthy way to grow up.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in former Yugoslavia and I ate lots of veggies, salads and grains, beans, rice, fruit and some meat until 20s. Later meat became more prominent meal feature, but normally one chicken fed 6 of us with rice, soup, tomato and cucumber salads.

Beans with a tiny bit of smoked ribs, salad could be one bib lettuce with salt, vinegar and a bit of oil. Stews were also a large part of our menu. Peas with no meat, type of stew was a regular menu item. Cabbage also was a staple in summer and in winter. Many, many pickled veggies during winters.
Sweets were for holidays, but grandma would make crepes or our version of donuts occasionally without a special occasion.

Almost all food I ate until 16 years old was home made. Bread was bought daily though.

I still eat that way, but with a bit more meat in meals. However, diet there has changed to include more meat today and more processed and fast food.

[Anonymous]

Born 1970, grew up in eastern Massachusetts 30 minutes outside Boston until we moved to Arizona in 1979 and then to Maine in 1989.

On the weekday dinner table growing up:
Sloppy Joe’s from the can
Kraft blue box Mac and cheese
Hamburger helper and tuna helper
Steak’ums sandwiches with extra grease
Ragu spaghetti sauce on pasta witg Kraft Parmesan cheese - never meatballs, too much work
Chipped beef on toast in white gravy
Breakfast for dinner (usually poached eggs on toasted Wonder bread)
Etc.

On weekends we ate better when the father was around:
Overcooked dry pork chops
Overcooked dry pot roast
Overcooked dry roast chicken
Overcooked weiner schnitzel and sauerkraut
Overcooked steak and rice
Overcooked tasteless meatloaf

Salads were hunk of iceberg with wedge of tasteless tomato, cucumber and radish topped with sickly sweet French or thousand island dressing

Vegetables came exclusively in cans - is it any wonder I had no fondness for them?

The tuna helper was a particularly nauseating dish which I always struggled to consume. To this day I struggle with cooked tuna, but I am about to learn to make tuna meatballs because I’m eschewing beef and pork and expanding my Mediterranean cooking repertoire.

Sadly for several years after I left home I continued to eat basically the same stuff - it was all I knew how to make. I definitely explored other food out in the world, but I didn’t become an adventurous cook until my 40s so there were a lot of years wasted on a very bland diet. I hope I have several more years ahead to continue to taste all the flavors!

[Anonymous]

Heavily Italian American area of CT, so a lot of pasta and other Americanized Neopolitan dishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Born 1970, grew up in eastern Massachusetts 30 minutes outside Boston until we moved to Arizona in 1979 and then to Maine in 1989.

On the weekday dinner table growing up:
Sloppy Joe’s from the can
Kraft blue box Mac and cheese
Hamburger helper and tuna helper
Steak’ums sandwiches with extra grease
Ragu spaghetti sauce on pasta witg Kraft Parmesan cheese - never meatballs, too much work
Chipped beef on toast in white gravy
Breakfast for dinner (usually poached eggs on toasted Wonder bread)
Etc.

On weekends we ate better when the father was around:
Overcooked dry pork chops
Overcooked dry pot roast
Overcooked dry roast chicken
Overcooked weiner schnitzel and sauerkraut
Overcooked steak and rice
Overcooked tasteless meatloaf

Salads were hunk of iceberg with wedge of tasteless tomato, cucumber and radish topped with sickly sweet French or thousand island dressing

Vegetables came exclusively in cans - is it any wonder I had no fondness for them?

The tuna helper was a particularly nauseating dish which I always struggled to consume. To this day I struggle with cooked tuna, but I am about to learn to make tuna meatballs because I’m eschewing beef and pork and expanding my Mediterranean cooking repertoire.

Sadly for several years after I left home I continued to eat basically the same stuff - it was all I knew how to make. I definitely explored other food out in the world, but I didn’t become an adventurous cook until my 40s so there were a lot of years wasted on a very bland diet. I hope I have several more years ahead to continue to taste all the flavors!

I forgot to say, our spice cabinet growing up consisted of Morton’s salt, ground black pepper, and a bottle of paprika which mainly got sprinkled on deviled eggs - the same bottle sat in the cabinet for years and years so it was essentially flavorless.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax County, VA. Military officer father from DC and mom from Central PA.

Bland. Meat + potatoes at dinner at dad’s insistence. Cookies from box mix. Ice cream, chip a hoy cookies, generic brand bags of potato chips. White bread. Grape jelly. Tang. Orange juice from concentrate. Apple juice from a big can. Salad was iceberg lettuce, Wishbone Italian, carrot circles, celery, green olives.

Capn Crunch, Bisquick pancakes, Froot Loops.

Canned vegetables with every meal like spinach or peas or green limas.

Campbell’s Soups, saltines, Ritz crackers. A chicken dish made with above. Lots of casseroles with chicken and cream soup.

[Anonymous]

We moved to the US (DC exurbs) in the early 70’s. Mom:Thai, Dad:Indiana.

Dinners were almost all home cooked and alternated between Americanized Thai food (ie. Som tam made with shredded carrots instead of green papaya) and Thai-ified American food (ie. oven fried chicken served with prick nam pla). She brought along a small jar of (homemade!) sriracha or dry peppers hidden in her purse for infrequent meals out to Red Lobster or even fast food restaurants.

Once in a while, my mom would try to cook western classics. But these were not so successful. Mashed potatoes (potatoes beaten to a gluey slush or soupey reconstituted potatoes from a box) or ‘pizza’ (dough smothered in processed cheese and so heavily-laden with toppings that the dough never cooked through), tuna casserole (a tub of mayo with canned fish swimming about), ‘stroganoff’ (ground beef topped with Campbells cream of mushroom soup).

Mom was enamored with gardening & canning, and watched for sales, so there were 3 refrigerators- and 2 walk-in pantries-worth of food supplies for our family of 4. When we moved my parents to assisted living a few years ago, I threw out jars and jars of home preserved food going back to the 1980’s.

[Anonymous]

Michigan. Mostly Italian vegetarian at home. Middle Eastern, Korean, Indian, sushi, outside. Excellent produce in summer. Loved spicy food from early age.

[Anonymous]

Central California. Lots of good produce--my home county has a huge agricultural business. We tried lots of different recipes since my mom loved to watch cooking shows on TV on PBS. Like Ciao Italia, Yan Can Cook, etc.

When we went to San Francisco or Los Angeles, we would sometimes go to ethnic restaurants. We didn't go out much in our hometown, because the options were pretty boring and limited, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Central California. Lots of good produce--my home county has a huge agricultural business. We tried lots of different recipes since my mom loved to watch cooking shows on TV on PBS. Like Ciao Italia, Yan Can Cook, etc.

When we went to San Francisco or Los Angeles, we would sometimes go to ethnic restaurants. We didn't go out much in our hometown, because the options were pretty boring and limited, though.

SLO?

[Anonymous]

Midwest

There was a lot of South Indian food on the table. I didn't fully appreciate it as I loved the Polish, Italian, and Middle Eastern food that surrounded us.

But I must admit to a Pavlovian response when I smell my mom's fish curry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Indiana. When I was a kid, I honestly think we had a good mix of foods. And it was enhanced by fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms.

My mom was always into cooking, and watched and made recipes from Julia Child, in addition to whatever trends were going on in magazines and TV shows. She was one of the first people I know to get into Food Network.

We also used fresh vegetables to jar and can our own food for the winter, like applesauce, jams and beets. Not that I think there is anything wrong with using canned or frozen vegetables and fruits when you need or want to. They are, after all, frozen or canned at the peak of their freshness!

There actually were a lot of different restaurants in my hometown. There was an Egyptian restaurant called The Nile that was family owned…it ran from the 1980s until just two years ago when the family decided to close—they even made it through COVID. Owned by families: Egyptian, Chinese, Mexican, BBQ, Italian, and an Amish market. Alongside mid-priced chains, of course. Both country clubs in my hometown also had decent food.

The only food I felt I wasn’t exposed to growing up was Japanese, and that was quickly solved in my college town, also in Indiana.

Also from Indiana and this was not my experience. I'm envious. We had canned and freezer vegetables, except in the summer when we ate tomatoes and zucchini and cucumbers and corn . Otherwise it's a surprise we didn't have scurvy. Overcooked beef and pork, fish was frozen (except fish fries, YUM), and lots of fried foods. I knew people growing up who ate better, but not our family or extended family (turkey overcooked in a bag for thanksgiving, even the ham was dry). As Tom Sietsma called it, the "Beige buffet"