[riverside 57]

I am 45 years old and while cooking the other day I got to thinking that so many foods that I cook/eat on a regular basis would have been totally alien to me as a child, and wouldn't even be in the shops! The ones that come to mind off the top of my head are

Butternut Squash
Pumpkins (sometimes)
Garlic
Fresh Ginger
Microwaveable foods of any kind

Obviously, 1970s Ireland must have been in the dark ages as regards food but was wondering if anyone could think of any more?

[degsyhufc]

Fresh coriander - Apparently it is now the UKs most popular herb.

[norbitonite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by degsyhufc

Fresh coriander - Apparently it is now the UKs most popular herb.

When I were a lass, herbs came as 'dried mixed' and were used sparingly if at all, with the exception of a sprig of curly parsley to garnish the plate if you wanted to be posh.

[annette kurten]

hummus
a lot of cheeses
noodles
courgette
sunblush/dried tomatoes
feta peppers
couscous
pain au chocolat
croissant
petit pois and mange tout
various chutneys [fig, caramelised onion etc]
exotic fruits like dragon fruit, fresh figs, mango, passion fruit etc
chillis
aubergine

there are more.

rural 60`s and 70`s.

[Blackmanta]

Quorn
Balsamic vinegar
Blueberries
Cranberry juice

[grassmarket]

Quote:

Originally Posted by norbitonite

When I were a lass, herbs came as 'dried mixed' and were used sparingly if at all, with the exception of a sprig of curly parsley to garnish the plate if you wanted to be posh.

If you wanted to make curry, you used curry powder. And always put raisins in it.

New World wines
Exotic lagers and beers from anywhere beyond Ireland
Ciabatta and foccaccia
Pasta shapes other than macaroni and spaghetti
Any kind of rice other than long-grain, short-grain or brown
Freshly-squeezed fruit juices (Orange juice came frozen and you diluted it yourself, or in tins)
Salsa and guacamole
Cured meats like parma ham, salami and chorizo
All ice cream flavours except chocolate, strawberry or vanilla

You could get some exotic fruits, but they cost a fortune.

[Shrike]

Olive oil
granary bread
wholemeal pasta
fresh chillis
sweet potatoes
quinea
cous-cous

And loads more. Also a huge variety within foods too - melons were only honeydew or very rarely watermelon for example.

[molliepops]

Pasta it came in tins with tomato sauce when I was young unless you made a macaroni cheese, that was the only pasta available.
Sweet potatoes
Cous cous
Garlic
Buttery spreads like clover - butter or margarine were the only spreads available

[Utopian Girl]

As a 54 yr old veggie ( from the age of 10) where do I start?
We're so lucky here - I can't even buy decent soya let alone Quorn in Turkey or decent veggie stock cubes for convenience.
Their version of 'veggie' is take the meat out of something - what about the stock!

All the exotic veg/grains etc as in -

Aubergines, courgettes, squashes, herbs, spices, grains ( as in quinoa, maize) - goodness, I don't know where to start/finish and still I see programmes or cities in the UK where they have different ingredients I can't get hold of.

[Frood]

When I was young the only herb you ever saw was mint - in a sauce with lamb.

'Spices' were salt and that horrid white pepper.

Garlic - no chance.

Pasta came in tins with a horrid tomato sauce.

Curries - vesta

Ginger went in to cakes, cinammon with rice pudding.

The idea of something like harissa paste was beyond comprehension.

The quality of sausages and burgers now is far better.

And I would say the same (price adjusted) for meat generally as well.

[degsyhufc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frood

When I was young the only herb you ever saw was mint - in a sauce with lamb.

'Spices' were salt and that horrid white pepper.

Garlic - no chance.

Pasta came in tins with a horrid tomato sauce.

Curries - vesta

Ginger went in to cakes, cinammon with rice pudding.

The idea of something like harissa paste was beyond comprehension.

The quality of sausages and burgers now is far better.

And I would say the same (price adjusted) for meat generally as well.

Almost exactly the same for my but vesta curries were a bit before my time

[Grabid Rannies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by degsyhufc

Fresh coriander - Apparently it is now the UKs most popular herb.

Funnily enough I was reading a 1980s book called 'Countryside Conservation' on the toilet this morning, which referenced wild Coriander having been inadvertently introduced to the UK through seed dispersal from import lorries travelling our roads etc.

[robo19]

Organic pulses... Many studies also reveals that organic food have created a boom in market.

[Me-Cheetah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frood

When I was young the only herb you ever saw was mint - in a sauce with lamb.

'Spices' were salt and that horrid white pepper.

Garlic - no chance.

Pasta came in tins with a horrid tomato sauce.

Curries - vesta

Ginger went in to cakes, cinammon with rice pudding.

The idea of something like harissa paste was beyond comprehension.

The quality of sausages and burgers now is far better.

And I would say the same (price adjusted) for meat generally as well.

Have to disagree about the sausages. There is a lot more choice now in the supermarkets, from rubbish economy sausages to the 'finest' ones. However, when I was a kid in the seventies all our meat came from a butcher who made his own sausages - nothing today compares to them.


Today you have to pay a premium price for meat that 30=40 years ago was the affordable standard on the high street.


Burgers, however, unless homemade, are best avoided.

[grassmarket]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grabid Rannies

Funnily enough I was reading a 1980s book called 'Countryside Conservation' on the toilet this morning, which referenced wild Coriander having been inadvertently introduced to the UK through seed dispersal from import lorries travelling our roads etc.

I don't think this can be right. Coriander has been used in Britain since Roman times. There are lots of mediaeval recipes that use it. It just got forgotten about.

[Grabid Rannies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grassmarket

I don't think this can be right. Coriander has been used in Britain since Roman times. There are lots of mediaeval recipes that use it. It just got forgotten about.

Oh fair enough, and very informative. Maybe it was a boost or resurgence or something that was being referred to

[riverside 57]

Another one I've remembered is couscous! I hadn't even heard of it until the 90s when Moroccan food became fashionable, but I use it quite a bit now! It was just semolina when I was young!

[clm2071]

Fresh parmesan - we had this small black tub of 'grated italian hard cheese' instead, it tasted like vomit! (you can still get it, I passed it in the supermarket a while ago and the memory came flooding back!)

[stud u like]

Argan Oil
Sundried tomatoes
Anchovies
Refried beans
Courgettes in oil.
Dragon fruit
Mangoes
Blackberries

[clm2071]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grassmarket

Any kind of rice other than long-grain, short-grain or brown.

I remember my mam getting a cookbook with a recipe for risotto in it, she couldnt get the right type of rice so just used long-grain.

It didnt go well

[Summat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frood

When I was young the only herb you ever saw was mint - in a sauce with lamb.

'Spices' were salt and that horrid white pepper.

Garlic - no chance.

Pasta came in tins with a horrid tomato sauce.

Curries - vesta

Ginger went in to cakes, cinammon with rice pudding.

The idea of something like harissa paste was beyond comprehension.

The quality of sausages and burgers now is far better.

And I would say the same (price adjusted) for meat generally as well.

FROOD!, My Long Lost Sibling!!!

Anyway, all the above and more; To be fair to the rise of the supermarket they have helped to stretch our experiences beyond compare to the pre-80's generations. I remember some of the fixed-menu my mother would prepare (Sunday roast for Sunday lunch, salad for tea, stew or similar from the leftovers Monday tea, corned-beef casserole Tuesdays, and so on). God help us when the Falklands conflict kicked off and corned-beef was taken off the shelves. I remember the 12-month old packet of Vesta curry in the cupboard waiting for it's moment of glory with my old man, and those funny little noodles that you deep fried and they curled up into little slivers (a bit like prawn crackers, without the prawn).

But to answer the OP's question, and just thinking about what's in the cupboards / freezer at the moment:

Seafood (that's not pickled!), King Prawns by the bag-load, Scallops, and fish (tuna loin in the freezer)
Meat - actually, that's probably unchanged. It may have been better, as well, "back in the days" before commercial intensive farming. I'm fairly traditional with my meats (cba with the exotics), although I'd say that we enjoy better quality than my youth (compare a twin-income, no kids against my childhood family one blue-collar income, 3 kids and I think that can be understood)
Herbs & Spices - once upon a time the mint/curry powder/white pepper and salt alluded to above (nothing wrong with white pepper, btw), now, we have a (full) cupboard full of a massive variety (all moaning their lot in life for never being used). Saffron keeps well (well, I never use it), that would have been unheard of in my youth, as well as tamarind, curry/lime leaves. Sechzuan peppercorns for my salt&pepper dishes would be unheard of.
Moving up a cupboard we have tins: Coconut milk for those thai/malaysian dishes that we love, and a whole variety of sauces (mainly curry in our kitchen) for those lazy evenings. Exotic mushrooms and oriental mixed vegetables support those 5 minute stir-fries. Tinned tomatoes offer more scope today than yesteryear (when they were a side-dish to a fry-up, and nothing else), now they're the base of any number of (curry) sauces.
Heading left, our basics cupboard, with flours a plenty (probably nothing too exciting there) and sugars - palm sugar for the oriental dishes, noodles and rice - once upon a time the staples were either long-grain for curry, or short-grain for pudding; Now we have a greater depth of choice, of course the basmati that should be in every home, but also the jasmin and sticky rices that make oriental cooking so much more pleasurable. We still have a box of cornflakes in there (circa Y2k), but a much greater variety of healthy cereal (all unopened )
Left, again, and we're into the potions cupboard, tubes of garlic puree, tomato puree (think that existed as a child, but no-one knew how to use it), bouillion powder (traditionally, the stock cube), and a myriad of stock-pots gels for whatever takes our fancy. Instant gravy granules (unheard of when I was young) and the odd carton of herbed bread-crumbs (again, unheard of in the 70s/80s).
Left, once more and we're into the sauces and oils cupboard. Chilli oil, Olive Oil all alien to me as a child. I knew of sunflower oil but that was posh stuff back then. What we miss now are the blocks of lard used for chips, however, those are still available to buy. Chinese wine (can't remember how to spell it), oyster sauce, mirin, fish sauce are all a central part of my cooking now, which I think would be impractical in my youth. Although there was always a crusty bottle of soy sauce in the back of the cupboard - god knows why/where/when that was bought by mum. Funnily enough, we still have the heinz tomato ketchup and HP Sauce from our childhood (although I'm sure we'd all agree these taste nothing like as good as we remember).
To the fridge: Fresh herbs galore, and lots of thai cooking pastes to shortcut the preparation time for our cooking. The traditionals are still there : Lancashire cheese, tomatos, cucumber, spring onions, but these are met with more contemporary choices of a variety of cheeses (mostly English), shallots, garlic, ginger root, turmeric root and lemongrass. Some mouldy jars of pesto (Italian cooking does little for me), next to a block of equally mouldy parmesan cheese (in my youth that'd be a small cardboard tub of grated parmesan which stank to high heaven, and would be at least 2 years past it's sell-by). But, WINE, wonderful selections of wines from around the world. Back in my youth you was considered posh to have a Black Tower at christmas, now it's almost a staple for the fridge. Fruit Juices, variety and freshness, all good to have.
Then there's all the ready meals as well (mostly for the wife to take into work).

Or, if the OP was asking what meals, rather than what foods, then I think you can guess from the above - we now embrace a more worldly view of food than what I experienced as a child. In my youth you could probably pinpoint my birthplace by the foods that I ate, now, globalisation has set in, for the better...and I drink more wine.