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Have you noticed.............

O

oldgoose

Guest
that penguin biscuits don't taste the same as when they were wrapped in a foil wrapper?
that kitkats used to have lovely thick chocolate on them, but now its wafer thin?
that boiled ham from the butcher was much more delicious and flavoursome that it is now?
that a meal of mashed potato, peas and corned beef tasted fantastic and now its awful?
that cling peaches covered with Carnation milk was perfect for Sunday afternoon tea?
that cheese and onion crisps used to have 'bits' over them, which tasted really onioney and delicious?
that 'Vimto', 'tizer' and 'american ice cream soda' tasted much better out of glass bottles?
 
Old goose you are perfectly right. Pete has noticed the kit kat bars are smaller and we watched a programme about how they process the boiled ham and I was flabergasted. I cook my own. Thanks for that it's got me thinking. Jean.
 
You are perfectly right about the kit kat and the ham. You can get proper ham in some places, but have to pay through the nose for it. As for the kitkat , the change occurred when Nestle took over Rowntrees. Before, the quality control ensured a decent thick layer of chocolate (though the chocolate wasn't particularly nice), but after the takeover the chocolate layer was much thinner and when a bar wasn't fully covered it was not rejected, as would have been the case, but was just accepted and sent out .I can't comment about penguin, but suspect that changes are more likley to be due to cost cutting of ingredients rather than the lack of foil.
mike
 
Hardly anything is like it used to be from fresh food to choc bars and biscuits. We have been trying to eat oranges this week from the usual supermarket that have been like string, and they aint cheap either. We always think that Penguins and the like are smaller. Wagon Wheels, when we were kids were enormous. Have bananas lost their taste. Perhaps it is me, but think they taste like hessian bags at times. Perhap's it comes from having to feed the masses eh?
 
Digestive Biscuits only have a very thin coating of chocolate
Wagon Wheels have shrunk.
So have Jammie Dodgers.
The new Walkers Crisp flavours taste of something of nothing.
Dandelion and Burdock,I think someones diluted it.

Did Spangles become Ranchers or some daft name?
 
Does anyone remember greengage jam, i used to love the stuff but can't
find it anywhere these days...
 
The biggest rip I've come across recently is Wagon Wheels - when I was a sprog they were a good 4" in diameter and an inch thick, gooey and sticky and delicious. I happened to buy a so-called Wagon Wheel the other day and it was horrible - thin and with hardly any chocolate covering.

Ham - go to Hands Butchers on the Queslett Road and you will find boiled ham like it used to be in more civilised times. Juicy and with that slightly grey coloration that proper boiled ham should have. Get them to cut it thick for you...sheer heaven. They also have the best farm eggs going, at a mere £0.88 a half-dozen.

Greengage Jam - still sold at Waitrose, but you need a second mortgage for a jar. We have a greengage tree (or whatever it's called) but it never produces any fruit. Anyone know why?

Big Gee
 
Big Gee we had one that produced loads of fruit but it went when Pete decided to grass that area. Am I getting mixed up but were they called quinces too?. Jean.
 
All mentioned above is true. Fing's ain't what they used to be at all.
Peek Frean biscuits are another food item that have changed
over the years. The biscuits are smaller, the fillings are barely there
and they just don't taste the same at all. The biscuits featured on the box/bag don't reflect the biscuits inside at all.

Glad to hear that you can still buy Boiled Ham as we remember it. I remember coming home on Saturdays with some lovely sliced Boiled Ham
which we couldn't wait to eat.
 
Penguins in the 50's were made by a firm called Macdonalds (not the burger people) and it was after they were bought out that the Peguins were never the same again.. As for KitKats, had one the other day and two sections had no wafers in, just chocolate - do Nestles bother to check check on contents? Can anyone remember Milky Ways when they first came out? the filling was dark and chocolatey but now they have been 'improved' and, to me, worse for it.
 
I agree with all of you, things ain't what they used to be.

I'm a bit worried why I've become and journeyman brummie, have I had a sex change?
 
Jack of All Trades Master of None that's what the Journeyman was.
They worked for many Master Craftsmen Maggie

My Grand Dad was one and worked in the Gun Trade.

Shredded Wheat & Weetabix are smaller they would do it with Quaker Oats if they could grow it smaller I'm sure.

The money off distracts from the size

One final thought its about 10years since Asda started Roll Back when we had that Baked Bean War and you could get them as low as 6p shouldn't we be be getting money back and Free Beans
I call it Roll Over
 
One food that has changed beyond recognition for me is bacon. As some of you must know by now my father was a butcher, and the bacon he had for breakfast bore no resemblance to what we eat today. That horrible white watery stuff, goodness me, what are we eating these day's? The Government tell us to eat 'five a day' I wonder how much goodness we are getting out of the fruit and veg. Do the chemicals undo all the food value?
 
That sounds about right for me then Alf. Master of none. Well I can cook good old fashioned dinners anyway.
 
Chatting to a chap in the supermarket the other day, agreeing that Garibaldi biscuits aren't as good these days.
I haven't been able to buy a decent tomato for ages, and I've tried all sorts.
But we have been enjoying peaches and carnation milk in recent months. Still love that.

Ann
 
Our local (you know who) supermarket, has not been selling English tomatoes for a couple of years...where do they go then? Even so, I agree that a decent tomato is hard to find, the flavour has gone.
 
Another couple of memory jerkers from my youth are Alamode Beef from

Braggs, now Greggs of course. And sugar bun loaf from wimbush with

all the sugar sprinkled on the top.

Where have all the flavours gone???
 
Neville, speaking of Wimbush they made the most excellent Apple Charlottes, does anyone Remember Baines in Icknield St? Their Cream Puff was second to none.
 
Many people these days are growing their own food on allotments, gardens, in pots if they have a place for those. I intend to grow some tomatoes this year. I love the fresh ones that you can grow yourself. My Italian neighbour has a sort of greenhouse and has grown tomatoes for over 30 years. Some seasons he has had crop failure due to blight but he never gives up. He was raised on farm.
 
HI Maggs: I must have tried every pastry that Baines made all those years ago. I used to call in at the one on Stockland Green on my way to catch the 65 bus. Loved Pineapple Creams, Merangues, Cream Puffs, Cream Buns, Battenburg slices, malt loaf, vanilla slices.....well you get the idea.
 
Hello Jennyann,

Glad you liked Baines cakes just as I did. I remember all the ones you mentioned, all delicious.
 
forgot to say Jennyann, that we have grown our own vegetables on the garden for years, and we are still enjoying last years potatoes. This year we acquired an allotment. It has been hard work because of neglect by the previous owner, but it's looking good now, with all the potatoes in a row. Soon to be joined by beetroot, brocolli, cabbage and leeks. Last year we had blight on the tomatoes. See how we go this year.
 
Anyone remember Thompsons on Liichfield road...every sat morning l'd go with my mom to do the shopping...could'nt beat thompsoms alamode beef..sausage rolls..pork pies..pigs pudding..scratchings..sausage pork and tomato....oh how we miss thompsons...Brenda.....oh! almost forgot the chitterlings
 
My Mom used to shop regularly at Thompson's. Lovely grub. Although we lived in Erdington Mom worked in Hockley Brook and so we shopped all along Newtown Row as well as Lichfield Road. Great shopping areas back in the day.
 
Not sure if we have had a recent thread on allotments. Great to hear that you are revamping an allotment site, Maggs. I don't think it's just a "rose coloured glasses" thing remembering about the family allotments of the past and even the neighbours who generously hung a bag of veggies on your door when you didn't have an allotment. Those veggies were great. Not perfect all the time but such great tasting veggies overall. My Father's family of nine who lived in Wyrely Road had an allotment in the early part of the last century....Wyrely Birch Allotments. My father learned to garden on there with his own Father and later on Dad had an allotment on Marsh Hill.
I believe in many places you have to put your name down for an allotment especially
now that people are much more aware of pestisides and GM type fruit and veggies on sale in supermarkets these days. I remember on a food show on TV, a Scottish chef, who had come back to live and work in Britain, saying that in California, where he
worked, the fruit and veggies were perfect to look at but were absolutely tasteless.

In Japan, where I recently spent three weeks, I had a chance to wander the back lanes close to where my daughter lives. It's pretty far out from the main areas of Tokyo and noticed that every few blocks there are very large areas of open ground which are used to grow vegetables in the growing months also they had cubicles where growers could put in their produce for sale. Bit like vending machines for fresh veg. So much money for each type of fruit and veg. The strawberries in Japan tasted excellent and very fresh.
 
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