The first time I saw a seedless watermelon I had no idea such a thing was even possible let alone available. I was so amazed it was like I had been a time traveler who woke up in the future.
I had a similar experience the first time I saw one of those Coke machines that let you pick any variety and add a flavor. They are everywhere now but the first time I saw one was in a QDoba and it was like something out of a sci fi movie.
I remember…
Yogurt: 1970
Fresh mushrooms: 1972
100% whole-wheat bread: 1974
Kiwi fruit: 1975
Jalapeños: 1976
Granola bars: 1977
Alfalfa sprouts: 1977
Hummus: 1978
Tofu: 1979
Red bell peppers: 1979
Cilantro: 1980
Miso: 1980
Good arabica coffee beans: 1982
Tempeh: 1983
Arugula: 1985
Fuji apples: 1995
Shiitake: 1998
Habaneros: 2000
Fresh turmeric: 2012
First time I saw a Nashi fruit (not technically a pear), was in the 90’s when my brother brought one home for our mother:
“Look mother, a special fruit from the special shop!”
“Oh yes, a nashi”. crunch. eat.
Damn know-it-all old people…
As dramatized in Reign—year 1565
Captain John Hawkins: Fruit from the New World! It’s called a tomato.
Queen Elizabeth I: This is a fruit?
Captain Hawkins: Some say vegetable. Standing argument.
Good memory! I’m kind of surprised red bell peppers came in so late.
Things started getting a little more varied in the 90s, from what I can remember, in terms of grocery stores.
Restaurants, same thing. As a kid, my town had one Indian restaurant, which most people were scared to go to. There was no other cuisine one would call “ethnic,” unless you count “Chinese food” and Italian. Today, no self respecting Ontario town would not have Indian, Thai, sushi, Vietnamese, Lebanese, and the like.
I had never heard of these before, but I remembered this thread while at the grocery today and sure enough they had some. Since I had a couple of Indiana vine ripened tomatoes from the farmer’s market I thought I would see how they stacked up. I tried mine side by side and had my wife do a blind taste test without explaining. We both thought the Indiana tomato was far better. BUT… the Kumatoe was much better than a normal grocery store tomato. So, I guess the end result is these will probably be something we will use through the winter, but once “real” tomatoes are available that will be our choice. There was another hybrid next to these that were red but also touted the fresh vine ripened taste so I may have to give those a try once we go through the others.
The thing I remember from my youth that’s so different from today is the sheer number and variety of ethnic restaurants. Growing up in the 1960s in an Idaho town of 45,000, there was a Chinese restaurant, and that was it. The first pizza parlor (who nowadays considers pizza foreign?) opened in the mid 60s. I think it was called Gay Nineties (gay meant happy in those days) and they showed old Laurel and Hardy and Keystone Kops movies. I remember when the first Taco John’s opened in Boise, and we were all like Wow! Mexican food! A Japanese restaurant also opened in Boise in the early 80s, and that seemed tres exotic. I remember in 1987 we drove miles up the Oregon coast to dine at the only Japanese restaurant we knew of, specifically to try sushi. My wife and I were about to move to Japan for a year, and we wanted to try sushi before we got there. The idea of eating raw fish was so off-putting that I wanted to know before we got to Japan whether it was going to make me gag or grimace (turned out I loved it!). In Corvallis, a college town of about 45,000, the only ethnic restaurant, again, was a Chinese place. The first Mexican eatery opened there about 1985. Nowadays there is hardly a town anywhere so small that you can’t swing a cat without hitting an ethnic restaurant.
Stipulating that fresh tomatoes from the garden, or right off the farm, are clearly the best, kumatoes are far and away the best supermarket option.
I do remember a local pizza joint similar to Gay 90s in my town, but pizza wasn’t a mystery at all because my family is Italian, there are a lot of Italian heritage people where I grew up, and my mom made it now and then.
One thing that was maybe a “discovery” for some other folks was Buffalo wings–growing up in the Buffalo area they were ubiquitous, so much so that I wouldn’t eat them for a loooong time. Pro tip: go to Duffs, not the Anchor Bar, particularly the place on Sheridan
I remember clearly in the mid-70s when fruit yogurt became available. Firm and fruity was the brand.
You reminded me of something. Cherry Coke was introduced in the mid-80s when I was a kid and we heard about it but it hadn’t yet come to our neck of the woods in NE Indiana. I went on a vacation that summer to Niagara Falls with my grandparents. Granddad stopped for gas on the way back and came out of the gas station with a bottle of Cherry Coke. My sister and I were super excited to try it. I remember being a little disappointed that it didn’t taste more like cherries but I was still pretty happy about it.
I remember yogurt-with-fruit too. I don’t know if unflavored yogurt would have been available to us before this, but in the mid-70s I remember starting to get the “fruit on the bottom” individual servings in my lunch.
for the longest time in central Indiana when it came out in 86 cherry coke was only sold in the vending machines…at 65 cents a can (this was expensive back then)….I drove grandma nuts until I got one , I remember not trying barqs root beer until I found it in a NM bus station because they didn’t sell it out west until coke bought it out they made a red crème soda at one time too
and they now sel faygo pop here in ca now …. I knew relatives that moved here in CA would have people send them cases of redpop years ago
What is the world is a kumatoe?
In the 1970s Kiwis (aka Chinese gooseberries) were a very rare treat only seen in Harry & David’s Fruit of the Month Club. But now they’re in every grocery store in the US of A.
Looks like a dark purplish tomato.
I remember ordering exotic spaghetti with meat sauce at Shoney’s in the late 60’s
First pizza was Pizza Hut in Tupelo MS circa 1970
Krystal burgers: January 1969 Nashville TN
I made refried beans from a recipe in Creem magazine circa 1975, and made tacos from a recipe I hunted down before I had even tasted either made by a restaurant. What chutzpah!
Now Mexican (or Tex-Mex) is American, as is pizza, spaghetti, and yogurt.
Boysenberries - some time in the 80’s which is apparently when they started to be cultivated and exported from New Zealand.
Similarly, all sorts of citrus crosses - tangerines, tangellos, satsumas … even mandarines were a little uncommon at the time.
On the ethnic food front … I grew up eating all sorts of cuisines, but I vividly remember the first time I encountered Thai food, which was at a cafe/diner in Bangkok at the age of eleven. That did NOT go well - because the fact that my parents had been presenting me with curry on a frequent basis over the past decade had had no actual impact on the low, low spice-tolerance of my pre-teen tastebuds (I’m better now)
I’m re-reading 'Salem’s Lot written in 1975, and one of the characters mentions Fluff, raspberry, to be precise. I have NEVER seen the stuff, I sort of remember hearing something about it in the 90’s-2000’s. I thought it was a new product then, I didn’t know Fluff existed in the 70’s.