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Have your taste buds changed over the years?.

Has anyone been brave enough to try the Vesta curries still on sale? I loved these in the 70s with a chopped boiled egg added. Doubt I'd enjoy them now as I do appreciate a real curry. Think Vestas were made with soya. So might not be too bad for you. Think I might get one and do a taste test - last eaten in about 1979.

Viv.image.jpg
 
maypolebaz said:
Our local Waitrose sells Brain's faggots in gravy, I love 'em but She Who Must Be Obeyed doesn't, so it's Stand Down on that one !
The army called Spam fried in batter "Spam Fritters"' I don't remember them being very popular though !
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I never thought of looking in the supermarket for faggots. Will look next time but i`ve got a feeling that when i look at the ingredients it may put me off!! Sometimes ignorance is bliss.There was no such thing as a list of ingredients back in the 50`s but i do know that faggots were scrumptious. I even tried sheeps brain once just to impress my girlfriends father. Can`t remember if i enjoyed them or not. I do remember spam fritters & chips used to go down a treat in my army days, just the thing to set you up for a night of shandy drinking :-}
 
At my husband's request we had Brain's faggots a couple of months ago. He decided never again as, according to him, they didn't have the same taste as they used to!! I have made them in the past but you need to make a largish amount to make the fiddle worthwhile. It is also hard to find a butcher to get the caul from to wrap them in - bacon works but gives a different flavour.
Janice
 
The first time i went to Spain in the 70`s i took half a dozen vesta curries with me. I`d heard that Spanish food was "dodgy", which of course it wasn`t. Loved paella but squid was like chewing rubber!
 
Blimey Viv, Vesta ! I'd forgotten about the brand, I used to be mad on their paella, with chips of course.

I suspect you must be of the same vintage as me Smudge, if so, as well as spam fritters you may remember that collection of left-overs that the ACC laughingly called Nasi Goreng, (or Nazi Goering as we called it).

Moving back to Brum.
I remember coming on leave, in the 60s, to find Brum in the midst of a craze on Fleur-de-Lis pies. Shops selling them popped up in all sorts of places. I must say, I thought the chicken and mushroom ones were wonderful.
 
When younger (a teenager) the only cheese I would eat was Cheese Slices the processed stuff and the only coffee I would drink was the bottled liquid Camp variety. Now I wouldn't touch either with a barge-pole. Then the same as now I wouldn't touch any food that came out of water and I wouldn't eat offal of any kind. I remember once in a dark nightclub ordering a large mixed grill with chicken, steak, bacon, sausage, egg, chips and pretty well everything. I remember cutting into what I thought was a piece of steak and thinking this looks like a tender piece of meat. I popped it into my mouth and it was liver, I don't know how I made it to the toilets before I was sick. I couldn't finish my meal and I couldn't drink anything but lemonade for the rest of the evening.

I think our tastes do change over the years, but I also think that there is the possibility that as we get older it's no longer a case of "eat what you are given" and we can have more choice in what we decide to eat. Therefore we develop more choices based on what our own finances dictate, I have to state that my wife says I am the most difficult man in the world to feed (I'm not quite sure how she would know that).
 
Tinned peaches - weren't they delicious? And of course had to be served with lots of Carnation condensed milk. I still have the peaches but the ones in plastic tubs and they're in natural juice. But alas no Carnation condensed milk to go with them - no-one likes it in our house. So for my War/Fuel shortage/Severe weather cupboard I'm going to pop in one of those teeny weeny tins of Carnation milk. Special treat for me.

Spam Fritters were a regular of our school meals menu and my worst nightmare. They used to make me physically sick. The memory and experience of Spam Fritters is not a good one.

Think I'll bite the bullet and add a Vesta curry to the emergency cupboard too, just for the hell of it. Viv.
 
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Viv
I agree about the fritters, but the worst was the liver. In most cases it must have come from a 50 year old oxen or something like that, it was so tough and full of nasty lumpsthat you could chew for ages and still not get them down. And I probably got better than many as my aunt worked in the kitchen and I tended to get better than most (though I was terribly embarrassed when i was offered something different than the others and often refused it !)
 
Love liver Mike, especially liver and bacon casserole, nice and tender. But it has to be lambs liver. Never liked it when I was younger, for that very reason, too tough and chewy. Also acquired a taste for black pudding and haggis now I'm older. Things I never touched when young. Yet my kids love the stuff. The one thing I've never really got to grips with is heart, although would eat it if there was nowt else to eat - ditto kidneys, providing they've been soaked beforehand. Oh and fish with heads on. Never like and never will like a fish with its 'ed on my plate. Viv.
 
I remember buying in the 1970s and 80s jars of Shippams Paste. You could get salmon, other fish and various meat pastes and they were used as sandwich fillers. I believe that they are still produced but haven't used any for years. Dave.
 
When I was still at work my uncle and I would occasionally pop over to Thompsons the pork butcher on Lichfield road next to Ansells brewery. My uncle used to go the whole hog (no pun intended) he would stock up on chitterlings, tripe, heart, kidneys, liver, tongue, brawn & chawl and I'm sure there was something called hodge. He would actually eat all that stuff, just looking at it made me feel ill. Myself it was just a couple of pounds of bacon and some sausage though I have to say I missed the shop when it closed because what I purchased from there was good stuff.
 
farmerdave said:
I remember buying in the 1970s and 80s jars of Shippams Paste. You could get salmon, other fish and various meat pastes and they were used as sandwich fillers. I believe that they are still produced but haven't used any for years. Dave.
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Still available amongst the Princes and own brands in most superstores.
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Oh no not fish paste! Used to dread getting that for sandwiches. It seemed to taste more fishy than fish! Along a similar line, Heinz Sandwich Spread, also still available for those so inclined. I liked it, but I think only because it was usually the only thing left in the cupboard. Well it would be a toss up between sandwich spread or a lard sandwich. Yes, I'm serious, a LARD sandwich. Can't say I find lard very appetising these days, all that grease, aaaagh. Viv.
 
I came from chichester where shippams uswed to be until they were taken over and eventually the factory closed. At one time (when I was young) they made very good fresh products like pies, sausages etc, but the pastes were never something I fancied. The mother of a friend who worked there stripping the chickens (all done by hand in those days) was off for a week with a badly strained (or sprained ) wrist caused by how tough the old hens were they used.
 
Strawberries - lovely when fresh but sadly a fruit I cannot eat today.

Lard! WOW! But they some say recently that it is not as bad for you as certain oils. However a great by-product of lard, when used for cooking meat is.......wait for it.....dripping. How well that goes with toast.
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I can remember my first ever taste of a banana which were unobtainable when I was a child. I was 8 years old and one banana had been obtained which was shared by everyone in the family - I got an half inch slice !
They still taste the same today ...
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Still to be seen on BBC1 iPlayer is "Len and Ainsley's Big Food Adventure". Episode 4 concentrates on Birmingham and there are lots of shots of Victoria Square and the Bull Ring Markets. Apparently, Pearce's Fish Stall, in the Bull Ring Market, has been in the family for 175 years. A short interview with the current owner is shown. The influence of Polish, Asian and other cultures on our choices of food are recorded. Dave.
 
I would never eat butter or cheese on a sandwich they made me feel nauseous. Looking back I think it was proberly the amount my Mother put on the bread. When butter and cheese came of rationing I think my parents made up for lost time. I only started eating butter and cheese sandwich about five years ago and i'm 65 now.
 
Bluesky
I think I had a similar view with ice cream . when I was young i only liked Lyons ice cream, which I would now think pretty horrible and tasteless. Walls , for me at the time , was sickly creamy " Now I would think both equally thin and tasteless
 
Phil said:
When I was still at work my uncle and I would occasionally pop over to Thompsons the pork butcher on Lichfield road next to Ansells brewery. My uncle used to go the whole hog (no pun intended) he would stock up on chitterlings, tripe, heart, kidneys, liver, tongue, brawn & chawl and I'm sure there was something called hodge. He would actually eat all that stuff, just looking at it made me feel ill. Myself it was just a couple of pounds of bacon and some sausage though I have to say I missed the shop when it closed because what I purchased from there was good stuff.
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must admit i used to love chittlings phil.dad got his from the lozells road...oh and pigs trotters:D...still buy liver..tongue and kidneys...take it you have the photo of thompsons butchers??

lyn
 
My taste buds are much the same as always. Love a fierce hot curry, though i prefer whiskey to beer these days (less time running to the loo) Always hated tomatoes, cucumber, love raddish & raw carrots & swede....a cup of hot oxo with a cheese sarnie on proper bread & butter, & on Sundays tinned peach with a thick slab of bread & proper butter.
 
I used to be mad on condensed milk, especially on a "piece".
Just the thought of it these days makes my teeth ache !
 
If you had that much its perhaps a wonder you still have teeth. I must admit though thtayears ago I was working on a project that involved condensed milk and it arrived in something like 20litre containers. For a while I scoffed a lot (only used about a litre from each for the work), but after a while it just made me feel sick
 
A LITRE of condensed milk ?
Blimey, I'm talking about a sandwich !
The state of my teeth is down to a long time consuming Mars Bars in the British Army,
 
What is available in Crete via Lidl and described as "condensed milk" is actually evaporated milk, but the other day I actually found the real stuff - when you shook it, you couldn't hear it and the sugar content was about 38%. I actually bought a can, though I suspect it will stay on the cupboard shelf for quite a while yet. This really was an impulse buy!

Maurice
 
Vivienne14 said:
Oh no not fish paste! Used to dread getting that for sandwiches. It seemed to taste more fishy than fish! Along a similar line, Heinz Sandwich Spread, also still available for those so inclined. I liked it, but I think only because it was usually the only thing left in the cupboard. Well it would be a toss up between sandwich spread or a lard sandwich. Yes, I'm serious, a LARD sandwich. Can't say I find lard very appetising these days, all that grease, aaaagh. Viv.
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Mmm sandwich spread luverly and I loved sardine and tomato fish paste.
 
Sardine & Tomato and Salmon Pastes - love it. I order up two jars of each every fortnight from my local British Food Shop, and it's great on fresh crusty bread. A bit more expensive than you pay in the UK, as it has to be specially shipped in, but well worth it. :cool:

Maurice
 
Just gone through most of the posts but no one as mentioned PIGS TAILS .Mom worked at Marsh & Baxters and always bought home pigs tails during the war.Still have them know in stews.The butcher says I'm weird.Also dripping on toast.Superb
 
Edifi said:
Just gone through most of the posts but no one as mentioned PIGS TAILS .Mom worked at Marsh & Baxters and always bought home pigs tails during the war.Still have them know in stews.The butcher says I'm weird.Also dripping on toast.Superb
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Hi Edifi I had pigs trotters as a kid but I have never tried pigs tails.:(
Love the dripping on toast.
 
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