What was a fancy food treat for you growing up that isn't fancy anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the Soviet Union. So… almost everything?

Except smoke fish and artisanal pickles right? That’s fancy here but I remember people eating ieither of those in the streets very casual.

Pickles are how you eat most vegetables 11 months of the year anywhere with a short growing season and without quick international trade.

[Anonymous]

Baby lamb chops. We literally only got them once when I was around maybe 3 or 4, and then never ever again because they were too expensive. I remember really liking them.

[Anonymous]

Caviar
Champagne
Lobster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I come from a generational family of foodies, so nothing was off the table. We routinely ate wide variety of foods that might have seemed unusual to others, including beef tongue, smoked oysters, artichokes, etc.

My family didn't do processed foods. To me growing up, these were ultimate gourmet foods. Frozen pot pies was the bomb. Those chocolate HoHos were the bomb. T.V. dinners were amazing. Coca Colas were heaven. I'm serious.

I seriously doubt you had Tongue Tuesdays and Smoked Oyster Saturdays.

BTW tongue is not unusual at all in a lot of countries and would definitely not be a fancy food treat. Although I did love it as a kid. Do they even sell it here?

So my dad was the child of European immigrants (cheap old immigrant stock). Actual Heinz ketchup was a luxury I craved (instead of stop and shop brand) but he would buy beef tongue and put together a pretty respectable charcuterie board for lunch. I used to call it my non bread sandwich. Although we often had sliced bread on the side.

For luxury/-the imported Italian tuna, canned smoked oysters, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents were hippies, my mom was into health food, and we didn’t have a ton of money when I was a mid, so we didn’t buy a lot of processed/packaged foods.
As a result, something like an EL Fudge cookie or an Oreo seemed like such a treat because usually we had things my mother baked at home. (and she sometimes put wheat germ in her oatmeal cookies)

OMG my mom switched from sugary cereal/white bread etc to the hippie food (very dark bread, apple butter instead of jam, grape nuts...) basically overnight when I was a kid so I loved all the junk food for the longest time.

+1. My mom actually made a lot of homemade foods, and I rarely got to have snacks like chips or fruit roll ups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I come from a generational family of foodies, so nothing was off the table. We routinely ate wide variety of foods that might have seemed unusual to others, including beef tongue, smoked oysters, artichokes, etc.

My family didn't do processed foods. To me growing up, these were ultimate gourmet foods. Frozen pot pies was the bomb. Those chocolate HoHos were the bomb. T.V. dinners were amazing. Coca Colas were heaven. I'm serious.

I never had a poptart until college. My mother didn't buy things like that either.

My parents wouldn’t buy them and one time I was babysitting and they had them. I was so excited to try it and then it was so super disgusting I had to spit it out. But I felt guilty spitting out expensive pop tarts (I’m sure this family of doctors would not have cared), so I wrapped it in paper towel to hide it in the trash.
But my grandma would sometimes buy me those Toaster Streudels — those were the bomb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I come from a generational family of foodies, so nothing was off the table. We routinely ate wide variety of foods that might have seemed unusual to others, including beef tongue, smoked oysters, artichokes, etc.

My family didn't do processed foods. To me growing up, these were ultimate gourmet foods. Frozen pot pies was the bomb. Those chocolate HoHos were the bomb. T.V. dinners were amazing. Coca Colas were heaven. I'm serious.

I seriously doubt you had Tongue Tuesdays and Smoked Oyster Saturdays.

BTW tongue is not unusual at all in a lot of countries and would definitely not be a fancy food treat. Although I did love it as a kid. Do they even sell it here?

DP: When I was a kid, I got to pick a treat whenI went grocery shopping with my parents. I would often pick a tin of smoked oysters. I remember my Dad cooking a (smoked?) huge tongue once. I had tasted it in sandwiches before, but the whole tongue sitting on a cutting board was really something.

[Anonymous]

I didn't necessarily think fresh produce was "fancy" but we just didn't have it. We had canned fruit and canned or frozen vegetables. We also had OJ and Fruit Punch from the frozen concentrated can then made into a pitcher. We didn't have ziplock baggies either, we had the foldover kind.

[Anonymous]

Red Lobster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything with a French name. As an adventurous— but also picky eater — I ordered frog legs, snails, coq au vin, boeuf Bourguignon, and stuff like that in restaurants that I’d never eat at home. I once even tried to cook frog’s legs. (Not recommended.) All of that was pretty rare though, since just going out to eat at a restaurant felt like an occasion.

I remember chocolate eclairs being a big deal. And when I was a teenager, there were some seriously upscale Great Escape TV dinners that I thought were a great treat. One was seafood Newberg and another one was short ribs. They got discontinued way before I was ready to give up processed foods.

Growing up I ordered escargot every chance I got and loved it. I still order it occasionally, but am less enamored than I used to be.

And +1 to eclairs being a big deal. And that reminds me -- I remember croissants being a big deal. My grandmother would pick them up for Sunday breakfast sometimes instead of "sweet rolls," and we had to go to the fancy grocery store to get them. Safeway didn't have them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to Red Lobster or Ponderosa was a once a year treat.

Ponderosa! That was a once a year only on Mother’s Day treat. Right after church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I come from a generational family of foodies, so nothing was off the table. We routinely ate wide variety of foods that might have seemed unusual to others, including beef tongue, smoked oysters, artichokes, etc.

My family didn't do processed foods. To me growing up, these were ultimate gourmet foods. Frozen pot pies was the bomb. Those chocolate HoHos were the bomb. T.V. dinners were amazing. Coca Colas were heaven. I'm serious.

I never had a poptart until college. My mother didn't buy things like that either.

My parents wouldn’t buy them and one time I was babysitting and they had them. I was so excited to try it and then it was so super disgusting I had to spit it out. But I felt guilty spitting out expensive pop tarts (I’m sure this family of doctors would not have cared), so I wrapped it in paper towel to hide it in the trash.
But my grandma would sometimes buy me those Toaster Streudels — those were the bomb.

Yeah, I've tried a pop tart a few times as an adult and couldn't eat the whole thing -- dried out stale-tasting pastry and hardly any filling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Smoked mozzarella pasta salad. When I turned 13 I realized this stuff was everything. My mom won’t get off my back about it though…she is basically Soviet about my fav nosh.

I love you.

[Anonymous]

Häagen-Dazs or Breyers ice cream instead of generic. Fresh pineapple instead of canned. Cracker Barrel cheddar cheese. Bennigans, Chi Chi’s and Ruby Tuesday’s were celebration restaurants.

[Anonymous]

I feel like it’s far easier to find good fresh baked croissants; from local higher end bakeries to chain bakeries. Even like a Panera fresh bakes their croissants (I think?) and Paneras are in tons of mid-range suburban towns all over the U.S.

Fresh pastry in the 80s and 90s was basically limited to fried donuts at a donut shop.