During the Depression, Grandma grew lots of her own food. Raised pigs & chickens–so the family did its own slaughtering. Also did plenty of canning, etc.
By the time we (mother & my siblings) moved back to Texas, Grandma & Mom (both widows) had full time jobs. There was not so much time for growing food–or so much poverty. We also enjoyed modern conveniences–like indoor plumbing; outhouses suck. Grandma did use lots of old recipes & we had plenty of “real” food. She managed the elementary school cafeteria & food was actually pretty good there. I know the food at Jr High was quite a shock.
The Spam was only occasional–a hangover from Depression poverty & Wartime rationing. The La Choy & Chef BoyArDee were mentioned because they were initial steps in discovering “exotic” food. We soon learned there was better stuff to be had & even better possibilities opened up later.
“Living off the land” is an interesting concept but can be limiting.
I don’t recall ever drinking coffee.
I absolutely refuse to eat soft crabs.
You know, these posts would make great lyrics to a country and western song.
They’re also very expensive for the amount of food you get in them. However, they are fairly popular with parents of small children, for the convenience, if their kids will eat them.
When the Lunchables Funpacks came out, the first packages had the word “Funpack” emblazoned across the package, and it was opened by tearing off a center strip. (You can probably guess where this is leading) Adults in the graphic arts and marketing departments totally missed this, but small children did not, and they got enough complaints from parents whose kids pointed out that their lunch had a bad word on it that they changed the graphics.
(Small children and people who do not read English also see the arrow in the FedEx logo. It’s there, between the E and the X.)
We ate Spam a lot when I was a kid, and I sometimes had it in my early adulthood, but I haven’t had it in ages, mainly because I can and do eat better cuts of meat now. It’s actually not bad when fried to the point where it has a bit of a crust on it. I think in our family’s case, it was more convenience than budget.
Re: McRib. You’re not missing anything Tried it once. Reminded of this scene from the Simpsons.
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A while back, one of my Facebook friends posted that he had never had one, and decided to try it. It was worth it just to read the post; it was hilarious. Among other things, he said, “I’ve lived 53 years without eating one, and I can live another 53 the same way.”
If they ever need a list of the most isolated, least adventurous, naugahyde-pallated people on the planet, all they have to do is look on the Dope. It’s really rather embarrassing.
That. Which is probably why nobody at the Straight Dope messageboards eats them.
so then:
Big Mac
spam
fish taco
liver eggplant
crawfish
Nutella
corn dog
frog’s legs
caviar
baba ganoush
head cheese
escargot
Whopper
maybe one or two sips of coffee in my life (FUCKING GROSS!!!)
haggis
pig’s feet
turnips
dog
sweetbreads
mutton
bread
When I was a kid we fairly often had baked Spam. Mom would treat it like a real ham – cut lines into it, poke it with cloves, put something like maple syrup over it, then bake it. We liked it, but then, we didn’t know any better. Mom grew up during the depression and was good at stretching a dollar.
I have never eaten head cheese. It looks and smells disgusting to me. My husband used to eat it until I told him what it was made of.
There’s a great article in today’s NYTimes magazine about how the pretentious, over-monied, self-important assholes of the SF tech region have fucked up the idea of what “cuisine” means. You might wanna read it.
I’ve never drank coffee. I’ve inadvertently tried coffee flavored ice cream and candy but I’ve never tried the real thing. It just smells gross to me and why would someone drink something that wasn’t cold and refreshing?
that they changed the graphics.
