Same here on the turkey gravy…loved it, but liked the hamburger gravy variant even better. It was basically ground beef in a grayish brown gravy over those insant mashed potatoes. I hate instant mashed potatoes usually but for some reason those school taters were pretty passable and didn’t really taste like instant. Johnny Marzetti (spaghetti) was always popular, I think mostly because of the huge portion they gave you and the buckets of mozzarella cheese they put out to put on it. The rectangular pizza they served was everybodies’ favorite by far. I liked em but didn’t see the big deal, they were usually greasy and pretty limp. They tasted damn good though. It was more of a sausage meat sauce with no toppings, just cheese. The desserts were always extremely good when they made cakes or brownies or apple crisps or something homemade instead of jello or pudding. Our school also made killer off the menu salads, taco salads, chef salds, etc.
What’s Burger Gravy, Turkey Gravy etc…? 
Is it a psychological thing that food seemed to taste better when we/I were kids? I could swear the sausages I’ve eaten since those primary school ones have never come close in taste. They were thinnish, crunchy, perfectly brown, no gristle.
My Primary School was a C of E (Church of England) School. We had to say grace (and pray at assembly) the thought/image of me praying makes me cringe, but back then I thought nothing of it. It was just part of the routine.
Just gravy with chunks of meat in. Turkey gravy will consist of a lot of gravy, presumably (hopefully) made of turkey stuff, with shreds and bits of actual turkey in it. Pour it over a scoop of mashed potatoes, and you have a cafeteria classic. I never had the hamburger version, but I presume it was similar. I don’t actually know of any ordinary people who serve it; it’s not something your mom would make, or at least mine never did.
My parents made hamburger gravy w/mashed (real) potatoes all the time when I was a kid, and they still make it for themselves. I know how to make it, but I haven’t so far. My favorite school food were the rib-shaped patties on a bun. Holy crap, those things were good.
I know how to fry burgers. I know how to make mash. I know how to make gravy. Does this mean I know how to make “Burger Gravy with Mash”?
If so. I might try it. I already love “bangers 'n Mash” (shame that the bangers aren’t up to the ones I had as a kid) so I’ll probably like “Burgers 'n Mash”
I remember the pizza and the tator tots, which were great. Other than that, in our high school cafeteria, they made the most wonderful chocolate chip cookies. sighs dreamily
I would kill for those cookies.
Hamburger Gravy over Mashed Potatoes
I don’t know how the schools made theirs exactly, but this seems like the most basic recipe.
Ohhh…another thing, one of my other favorites that I remember was the shredded chicken sandwiches loaded with surplus pickles. They would leave the pickles for self serve, a good shredded chicken sandwich just doesn’t taste right to me even now without the dill pickle slices.
Frito Pie! Am I safe in assuming that’s strictly a New Mexican thing? It consists of corn chips with chili and beans ladled over the top and grated cheddar cheese on top. We had it on Fridays, the day when chocolate milk was an option. The cafeteria in my elementary school also made some kind of peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting. I’ve never encountered it since, but I would do just about anything to get my hands on the recipe. Unfortunately, the lunch ladies of today no longer cook. They just unwrap and defrost nasty-looking overprocessed items that seem to be made mostly of grease and breading.
One of the worst things we had for school lunch was the hamburger meal. The patty was greasier than anything I’d ever encountered at home (rumor had it the burgers were made of horsemeat), and the buns were homemade, nearly unleavened, square chunks of a heavy bread-like substance liberally coated in white flour. This was usually served with thick, greasy fries (okay, I liked those), some kind of limp canned vegetable, and Jello squares.
The school I went to from around ages 5-11 had the nastiest lunches. I don’t think I ever ate lunch from the school. Instead, I carried in a lunchbox every day.
I’ve been back to the building sometimes (even though the school is closed), and the cafeteria still carries that awful smell in it.
Oh, and InternetLegend, I’ve had FritoPie - I never had it until I moved to Atlanta (fall of 1999, left Summer of 2002), but now, when I make chili, it’s the way I eat it. Chili no longer tastes right without the Fritos.
I think I took my lunch to school every day when I was that age… they did sell a little food, but not as much as they do now. Buying food really entered the picture in junior high school and high school (grades 7 and 8 and 9 through 12 for me, respectively). My favorites in high school were the chicken nuggets with biscuits and the cookies- the chocolate-chip cookies were buttery and very popular, especially when they made them very soft. People would specifically request soft cookies in the hopes they’d made them that way that day, it was hit-and-miss. I don’t think they decided to make them that way or normally, it just happened.
The food at my junior high and high schools wasn’t very good, but my elementary school had yummy lunches served on retro pastel-colored plastic compartment trays with your choice of white or chocolate milk. Some memorable menu items:
Chili served with carrot & celery sticks, a cheese stick and a fresh hot cinnamon roll dripping with sweet cinnamon goodness. I wish I knew how to make those rolls.
The Best Macaroni And CheeseTM with little smokies (along with some kind of veggie and fruit).
An octagonally-shaped “Mexican pizza.” Was it pizza? Was it Mexican? Not really. Just a soft, limp crust-like substance with mild sausage and cheddar cheese. Tasted good, though. The unspoken rule for consuming this delicacy was to roll it up into a tube. Sometimes served with a very small salad.
Chicken patty or nuggets with whipped potatoes and that yummy glow-in-the-dark yellow gravy. You were sure to get canned green beans and some jello concoction with this one.
Sloppy Joe and fries. I know they didn’t use Manwich sauce, but they were tasty.
Of course, before Thanksgiving or Christmas break, we’d get the appropriate holiday meal. The lunch ladies would always make an extra special dessert to go with the real turkey (not pressed and processed), stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy. Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day were always fun, with the ladies dressed up, and spooky or green food.
I was always the kid who ate the “gross” veggies like spinach or peas. I always got the looks of disgust from my fellow classmates, but the lunch ladies loved me. I remember a sweet old lady named Virginia who walked around the cafeteria (our gym) and cleaned up spilled milk with a bleachy rag. She’d also escort the occasional puker to the nurse’s office.
And pity the poor soul who dropped his or her tray on the way to the table. The ensuing laughter and applause would make even the most confident sudent beg to be swallowed up by a hole in the floor.
Ahhh, memories! I loved all the aspects of my elementary school so much that I bought a house right across the street from it so my future child could attend.
Oooh, I just remembered; semolina biscuits; the dinnerladies used to make these thick, golden, crumbly sweet biscuits with a glace cherry on top and sell them from the back door of the kitchen at morning break (I’ve got a feeling the money went straight into their own pockets).
Hee hee. My son requested cheeseburgers for dinner last night. I made tater tots to go with them. I am now the coolest mom in the world - according to him, anyway! 
Not having much money, my standard lunch was a buttered hard roll and mashed potatoes with gravy. Put together, it made the best potato sammich I ever had in my life, all for 15 cents. Add a nickel carton of milk, and I could eat lunch every day for a dollar a week.
I loved those cafeteria rolls. They smelled heavenly and tasted even better. I also liked the chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy I had in elementary school. I remember disliking Fridays because we ALWAYS had fish on Fridays, whether it was Lent or not. I liked most of the food in the elementary school, though. I took my lunch in a lunch box many times, and I remember my mother making me rinse out my thermos right when I got home. I’m pretty sure that I took my lunch to save money. I THINK that school lunches were something like 40 or 50 cents, though I can’t really remember. For a while, at least, the cashier would hand out slips of paper, red, yellow, or green. A green slip meant that you had chosen a “healthy” lunch, yellow was when you did something like not take enough vegetables, and red was when you just bought stuff like rolls or dessert. There was a separate line and cashier for those who just wanted to purchase milk.
I got in trouble a lot because I’d bring a book to read while I ate. I will STILL read while I eat, unless I’m with someone I want to socialize with. There’s nothing quite like eating comfort food and reading to make me feel all warm and cozy inside.
I’m 47. We didn’t get tacos or pizza as school lunch options until I was in high school. I don’t know whether this was because the elementary and middle schools didn’t offer such fare, or because no schools were offering these selections. In high school, our school had two cafeterias…one which served regular cafeteria meals, and one which offered more of a fast food selection. My boyfriend (now my husband) used to amaze me by eating two or three full cafeteria lunches at a time. He had just gone through a growth spurt, and was constantly ravenous. I tease him about this now.
Chesterfield Primary School - 1990-96(ish)
Best ever lunch:
“Chinese” rib burgers (drools), chips and sweetcorn
Sponge Cake with icing that had hundreds and thousands. With custard of course.
::continues drooling::
In fact I once “dated” a girl for about 2 hours but she dumped me for having custard. What can I say? It was really nice custard.
Worst ever lunch:
The infamous “Spaceship” burger. It was meant to be chicken or turkey I think. Of course it really wasn’t. It was simply the worst…burger…ever. But I have to say that it required great forethought and determination for an 8-year old (or so) to finish it. It required proper rationing of chip and bean supplies to ensure the optimum amount of taste covering.
I just read through this thread again and this little sentence caught my eye:
bolding mine
Here in the UK, Brownies are something a little different and I must say for you to be munching down on a blonde Brownie is quite concerning. Mmmmmmmm indeed. :eek:
Porcupine Balls!!! Peanut Butter, cocconut, and raisins, rolled into a ball and covered with chocolate. YUM!
Noboby liked them but me, so I got everybody else’s. In return I had the other kids fighting over my nasty little peanut butter and chocolate square. A slab of peanut butter with a layer of hard chocolate on top. They would put so much parafin in the chocolate, that it was like gnawing through a candle to get to the peanut butter.
The grits were fun to play with. We had those plastic trays with the seperate sections for everything. After the grits cooled, they would be congealed and molded into a square. You could slide them out in one piece. We would play a game to see whose grits stayed in one piece after dropping them onto the table from different hieghts. The sound of rubberised grit patties hitting the tables could be heard throughout the cafeteria. “WHAP!!!”
Rolls with cinnamon and sugar on top. Usually fairly fresh from the oven. Num.
The ‘salad bar’ wasn’t bad either. You could buy the rolls seperately, or if you went for the salad instead of one of the two main choices for the day, you got a roll with the salad.
What was nice is that most people didn’t want salad, so they didn’t hassle people about filling up their plate with tons of salad and a lot of dressing. (General rule of thumb was that if you didn’t need to use your hands and/or another plate or other item to keep everything on the plate, you’d be fine.) Added bonus: you didn’t have to wait forever to get your food, since 99.9% of the students would be lined up to get the main choices.
(There were three lines: one for the salad/rolls/milk only, one for one of the main items and the other for the other main item. You could get extra milk with your meal at any line.)
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