Food cravings from your past.

In recent times I have noticed that I've developed a craving for food from my childhood. Dishes which I've simply not cooked for years on end because I've either been too busy trying other things or juggling whims, fancies and fussiness of family members.

But, the cravings have been so strong! So, even though I'm the only one who will eat it, I've succumbed to childhood delights of: cauliflower cheese (in my youth it was a meal in itself and not an accompaniment "au gratin" dish ); bubble and squeak topped with a poached egg; vegetable broth (made using stock from a marrow bone) served with crusty bread; humble mashed potato (instead of rice, pasta or couscous) and the ultimate ... dripping on toast topped with mushrooms.

Crikey, makes my childhood fare sound very basic

What foods from your past do you sometimes get a craving for? If any!?

 

Condensed milk spread on a crust of bread.

 

I've been craving proper fish and chips with scraps on for months.

I've had fish and chips with scrapson loads of times since the craving came on, but I have yet to satisfy the craving.

Stuff fried in veg fat then shoved in grease proof paper to sweat in their own cheap grease, not good. Not like stuff fried in lard then wrapped in breathable, absorbant newspaper. Now that's what I need.

 

I'm definitely with you on the dripping on toast M. I have fond memories of sitting in front of the fire on a cold winter's morning with a thick slice of bread stuck on the end of an old fashioned toasting fork, crisped to a turn then smothered with beef dripping.

My mum used to make a pork, onion and potato pie. Made with belly pork and topped with suet crust pastry, it was good, simple filling fare. Made with cheap readily available ingredients, it was a staple for generations of hard up Suffolk rural folk. To this day, I've never tasted anything so good.

Same here, doesn't seem to have done us any harm though does it?

 

Nail on head!

 

Aha! That was the other thing I've been craving ... but, we didn't have pork (or a suet crust) just plain and simple: CHEESE, onion and potato pie: nom nom nom nom NOM!!! Leftover mashed potato, add grated cheese and finely chopped onion. Pack into an enamel oven dish and bake until piping hot and golden and crispy on the top: cor!!! The proviso was that the oven had to be on cooking other things at the same time - a cake, jam tarts, sausage rolls, bread, doesn't matter just so long as *some*thing was also being cooked at the same time so that fuel economy was also satisfied.

 

And another old fashioned thing: caraway seed cake!
We had a neighbour, Mrs Killion (not a name I've heard since ) who would, very kindly, pop round with a caraway seed cake once in a while:
"Oh dear, I seem to have made too many. Would you be able to make use of this?" (This was after my father died and Mum had 5 young children to feed).
We were fair drooling and hoping she wouldn't stay too, too long so we could tuck in - it was fab!

 

I love caraway seed cake "M". Right now I can't think of my favourite meals but sweet things in abundance come to mind. A sugar sandwich. The sugar was sprinkled over the butter so it clung to it. Bread and butter pudding. Even better bread pudding! My mum used to make this war time recipe regularly when we were young with six members of our family to keep fed and I got a fancy for it again last year. Sadly, my mum's recipe is now locked away in her mind, but I found one that's almost identical and it's the perfect piece of filling stodge!

 

OMG!! I thought we were the only ones to have those
Trouble is, I wasn't overly keen - the first one, yes, gimme more YUMMY! Scoff, scoff, belch; the second one, yum; and then I recall a rather unpleasant, gritty *blur* factor about them which put me off.

As for bread and butter pud or bread pudding ... to DIE for! And that's saying something because I'm not a lover of sweet things (except cake at shineyland Shh! ).

When my eldest brother used to come home on leave, he would make two things (maybe more, but these two have stuck in my mind): home made ginger beer (slurp, slurp, hic!) and proper English curry! Now when I say proper English curry, I really do mean, proper ENGLISH curry - none of your authentic Asian curry stuff I'm talking *real* English curry: the sort with little nuggets of bramley apple in it; and sultanas and ... curry powder! Not mild/medium/hot curry powder, just bog standard "curry" powder (three varieties hadn't been invented then. If you wanted "mild" you only put a sniff in; if you wanted "medium" you put a sneeze in; if you wanted "hot" you put a cough in and risked your coff-in ).

Mind you, to be fair, he worked alongside Ghurkas, on and off, so it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that he picked up a tip or two on curry making. But hey, back in *those* days, he could certainly give Vesta a run for their money

 

I remember those curries, we were dished them up for school dinners on a regular basis.

I'm Essex born/reared and my parents Londoners who moved out during the Blitz, so it follows that I've been reared on some very traditional food. We always had fish on a Friday, more often that not boiled Skate wings with mashed potatoes and liquor (parsley sauce). Another treat when going back to visit relatives was pie, mash and liquor. The inside contained meat of some sort and if it wasn't at least partially burnt we felt cheated!



We quite often visited the cockle sheds at Leigh-on-Sea too and would come away with cockles, shrimps, winkles and whelks - my dad's favourite. Mussels were also cleaned and steamed at home, served from the grey juices that were left in the pan and eaten with bread and butter.

Crabs were a family get together round the kitchen table to 'clean' them, us kids being given the challenge of the smaller claws.

 

And there you go again @Sheal tickling my memory buds!
When I was just a small girl (as young as 5yo!) my brothers and I would walk to the nearest beach to go winkle picking; only a distance 10 miles round trip. When my mother finally cottoned on I was with my brothers, she was horrified that I'd been made to walk that far, so young. However, a pot of hot water, a bowl of winkles and a safety pin later ... mmmmmmmmmm, supper!!!

When I first met Mr "M", I was extolling the virtues of lobster and he claimed he was a fan of crab. Fair do's. Well suffice to say we were a bit pinched for pennies with our young family, but, one day I saw a dressed crab on the reduced counter and I thought: he works hard, he provides well ... let's spoil him with his favourite treat! When he came home from work, I was very excited to be able to produce this exotic delight ...


... he looked at his plate and, it would be fair to say, instantly took up gurning!

Wassup?
What is *that*?
It's your favourite!
It is?
Yes! Crab You said you liked crab.
I do!
So: wassup?
It's not crab!
Yes it is!
No! Crab comes in pink and white strips.
Erm .... no ... that's called "Crab Sticks"; it isn't real "crab"!
Oh! Well, that's the crab I meant and that's the only crab I eat.
Whatever

 

I don't know about you "M" but I'm feeling my age with all this reminiscing!

 

Home made rice pudding always takes me back to my childhood plus scouse (I make the veggie version now) and a thick home made lentil soup with soft doughy bread. Yum!

 

Cravings from the past? Try moving to a country in which home made chips are considered exotic, and malt vinegar is never seen. Even beef Oxo cubes, the greatest invention man has ever made are unavailable...

So my two cravings are malt vinegar and Oxos....Where are the Red Cross parcels when you need them most?