Bologna. Good bologna, like from the deli. Mom used to make us “roll-ups,” bologna around american “cheese” with a little hit of yellow mustard. I still love.
Kraft mac & cheese-my go to comfort food.
I won’t eat the Chef’s ravioli any more, the mystery meat skeves me. Hey, do they still make the “cheese” ones? Haven’t seen them in forever.
Fish sticks-no fish, they just got tiny, and they’re all breading.
Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup-omg, so much salt!
Pizza Rolls-what the hell happened to them? They used to be the greatest post-bar food ever! Now there’s nothing inside of them. Yuck.
Yeah, what is up with Oreos? They taste like weird chemicals and sugar. I love that type of cookie, and all are better than Oreos. Even the generics at Target or Aldi don’t have that funny taste that Oreos have. (JoJos from Trader Joes are the best non-Oreos.)
Campbell’s Chicken Noodle O’s. I LOVED that soup when I was a little kid. LOVED IT. A few years ago I bought a can just for nostalgia’s sake and I couldn’t even eat it. Wayyy too salty. I actually wondered if they changed the recipe during the past 20 years because it was repulsive.
Pretty much anything sweet. After The Great Stomach Flu when I was 22, which detoxed my entire system, I can no longer eat candy and junk food like I used to. I used to pig out on every type of crap food there is. Now I look at it and I feel nauseaus. I can have a tiny bite of something sweet, but it has to be worth the headache. Anything more than a tiny bite makes me feel like hurling. I can’t eat milk chocolate anymore but I can have a tiny bit of dark chocolate. I’m actually happy about it, I feel a bazillion times healthier now than when I was younger.
A food that has held up over the years…I’d have to say McDonalds. When I still ate meat McDonald’s was still delicious.
When my grandfather visited South Texas every year, he always brought back two candies: peanut patties and these marshmallow biscuts. When I finally found the patties again, they tasted as great as I remembered. The biscuts? Dry, with marshmallow that tasted like it was colored goo.
When I was a kid, I loved the Vienna sausage sandwiches that my mom occasionally made. I still love them, although I generally only eat them when my wife is out of the house because she thinks they’re so disgusting. In fact, pretty much everyone I’ve asked says that Vienna sausages are disgusting. I can’t be the only person who likes them, though; there’s always a whole shelf or two of those little cans in every grocery store.
Most of the convenience foods people mention I missed out on - my Mom was stay at home, and she made food from the base ingredients - I had never had the fabled Rice a Roni [staple booby prize for 1960s game shows] until I moved out and my roomie made some. [blech, that is supposed to be edible?!]
I will agree that Campbells Cream of Tomato soup has had a flavor profile change - I have tried both the regular and reduced sodium versions and neither matches my remembered flavor profile. [a school I went to for 2 years would have that and grilled cheese sandwiches OR rectangular fish stick slab sandwiches, like a filet of fish but generic and not McDonalds as the friday lunch, got to love Catholic schools.] Grilled cheese is much the same if you use prewrapped Kraft slices and a fluffy white bread like Wonder Bread. Still, I will work grilled cheese and homemade tomato bisque into my evening menus with a nice tossed salad.
I think Tater Tots has had a flavor profile change, I have tried them deep fried, shallow fried and baked, and they taste nothing like what I remember.
The old style fish sticks has turned into fish flavored crumb sticks, you need to buy something like Van de Camps Crunchy Fish Fillets [oo they have nuggets…] to get a product with a slab of fish inside. Don’t get me wrong, I make cod croquettes that are about half crumb/brunoise veggie and enjoy them but when I think fish stick, I think 1 inch wide, quarter inch thick and 3 inch long slab of fish in a crumb coating or in a batter and deep fried or baked. I prefer homemade tartar sauce, but at least the commercial tartar sauce in the grocery store still tastes the same.
I had some freezer fried chicken, and it was boring and bland - everything seemed to be lowered fat, or lowered sodium, or chopped preformed chicken. What ever happened to the boxes of a dozen or so pieces of fried chicken that once baked or deep fried came out more or less like KFC? I think Swanson and Weaver were the 2 biggest brands. One of them had a good honey dipped fried chicken.
McDonald’s used to use ice cream or ice milk in their shakes, but now use frozen yogurt. This accounts for at least part of the taste change. There is a little burger joint about three blocks down from my house, and not only do they use real ice cream in their shakes, they use Blue Bell brand ice cream. If I believed in God, then I would believe that God only eats Blue Bell ice cream.
I’ve mentioned it before, but deviled ham just doesn’t taste the same as it did when I was younger. Neither does canned corn beef. I used to love those products, and now I wince and shudder at the thought of eating them.
