# What is your idea of 'poverty food'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218 "2011-11-07T22:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/81 "2011-11-09T13:27:53Z")
I just remembered – spaghetti sauce, to my mother’s family while she was small, was warmed-up ketchup. Snack: Butter a piece of bread and sprinkle white sugar all over it. Roll it up and eat. (I actually tried this and it’s pretty good! We’re pretty tight around Chez Kiz too. I’ve been adding more oven dishes – chicken-and-noodles and chicken-and-rice, for example – to our dinner repertoire. The both make quite a lot, and since there’s only 2 of us, we’re guaranteed leftovers for a good 2-3 days. I usually don’t eat lunch. My husband supplements with cheese-on-saltines or a batch of tuna salad. Breakfast: We always have eggs, bread, and some kind of sausage in the freezer. Sometimes I make corn or some other fruit-based bread/muffin. I hoard cereal because it’s so expensive – a large box of Quaker Oat Squares can last me more than a month. I’ll only buy generic bagels from the commercial bread aisle. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/82 "2011-11-09T14:07:30Z")
We go shopping to a [chinese grocery](http://www.yelp.com/biz/a-dong-west-hartford) in Hartford once a month mainly for odd ingredients and noodles. They have a very good selection of different tofus, fresh and dried noodles and a ramen section. We get a case or two of JFC International brand [udon](http://flclreview.blogspot.com/search/label/JFC%20International). The flavor packets suck ass, but the noodles are great, they are soft and sealed in the packets so all you need to do is drop them in boiling water/broth for non fat non salt intense noodles. It is great to come home with baby bok choy, fresh bamboo shoot, fresh bean sprouts, and [kamaboko](http://www.hapabento.com/2010/01/17/kamaboko-fan-slices/) to make soup =) They are a great source of rice based noodles IMHO. We even found rice based rotini for when my gluten intolerant friend comes for dinner. Of course you have to be a bit adventurous, there is a derth of english in the packaging and employees. But you can get 50 pound sacks of rice 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Aeris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Aeris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeris)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/83 "2011-11-09T17:46:00Z")
I don’t really get why pizza is mentioned so often. Are you guys talking about frozen pizza or delivery? Around me, pizza delivery can get pretty pricey and growing up we would have it every Friday as our “Mom doesn’t want to cook and this is your one fast food meal of the week” kind of thing. We were not poor in any way. In college, we pretty much lived off of cereal. When we ran out of milk and couldn’t afford it, we just ate it dry. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/84 "2011-11-09T19:11:06Z")
If it’s a sit-down meal; beans on plate (like beans on toast but no bread). Fast food; beans out of the tin. For variety the above ingredient can be swapped with tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce. And I second (or third?) sugar sandwiches as a delicious children’s snack, as long as they’re eaten without the parents watching 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/85 "2011-11-09T22:26:33Z")
Navy beans and margarine on white bread are two that stick in my mind. We had a garden, so lots of root vegetables and canned stuff when the fresh stuff was gone. God I hate turnips. I remember other types of beans, but for some reason it seems like navy beans were particularly plentiful. And corn bread, eat it fresh today and soaked in milk tomorrow. Wasn’t much processed food, I do remember bologna sandwiches. Today you can get a can of Pillsbury biscuits for pocket change, but biscuits (and their counterpart dumplings) were made from scratch. Like somebody said, you have to have time on your hands to do stuff like that. No way I’d try to make biscuits from scratch several times a week. I wouldn’t count pizza, that was like a special treat. Even today I can buy 2 whole chickens for what one Pizza Hut pizza costs. Fast food as a whole was a treat, but there were no McDonalds or Burger King around here back then. No Pizza Hut, either, but there was a pizza joint called Pizza Palace or Pizza Place. We probably weren’t technically impoverished, just extremely frugal. My grandparents were genuine dust bowl Okies and both parents grew up in the depression. That’s just the way it was done for them. Aside from the turnips, I still like all that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Miss\_Sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Sunshine)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/86 "2011-11-09T23:05:53Z")
Ramen Noodles and the dollar menu of McDonald’s ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/87 "2011-11-10T18:04:37Z")
Pancakes for supper. No bacon or sausage, just pancakes with margarine (butter is expensive and only used on special occasions) and pancake syrup. This would occasionally happen when I was a little kid, and I always loved it as a special treat, although a couple times noticed Mom seemed a little grumpy. Wasn’t until much later I realized that she only did that when she had nothing else to cook for us. We often had things like spam or baked eggs for supper. Mom could make a small amount of ground meat go a looong way. My parents had a large garden and we very much enjoyed all those fresh vegetables in season. And yet – we were not poor. My parents had lived through the depression and the deprivations of WWII, and were simply frugal. They owned our home, free and clear. My dad was working full time. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/88 "2011-11-10T18:17:30Z")
Similar to MLS, I remember at least one or two dinners of milk and bread for dinner when I was a little kid, and I thought it was a great treat. And my own kids have been allowed to eat cereal for dinner a few times. In my case as a mom, these were “I worked 12 hours today and had a PTA meeting and now someone has called off work and I have to go back to run the audit and I’m too tired to even go pick up a burger so, sure, eat some Cheerios” nights. In my mom’s case, ISTR, based on my age at the time, that it was similar - she had two pre-schoolers and was pregnant and tired. We could have easily gone across the field to eat with my grandparents or great-grandmother, or down the lane to eat at my uncle’s, but Mom was exhausted and that seemed the best option at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/89 "2011-11-10T18:26:44Z")
My uncle grew up on a family farm in the 1940s. They grazed cattle on the land and had an orchard. Their house and clothes were raggedy though, I guess. One time when my uncle’s sister was little, she had to write down everything she ate for a week as a project for school. When she got her log book back, the teacher had failed her, claiming she must have lied because “you can’t afford all that steak and fruit”. Heh. My mother and father both grew up in small Indiana towns in the 1950s. They both remember going to school with kids who had pellagra from living on cornmeal and grease and nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/90 "2011-11-10T18:27:45Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’m pretty sure I’m not living in poverty, but a lot of what has been mentioned is stuff I eat every day. Living single, I don’t get all that hyped up about making fancy meals if I can eat something cheap and simple that (to me) tastes good. Tonight, for example, I had me some ramen with seasoned mustard greens, onion, a bit of garlic, and a dollop of sriracha sauce; maybe not to everyone’s taste, but I love it. Same for rice and beans; same for a meal of braised brussel sprouts and instant mashed potatoes, same for a simple pasta with a bit of sausage and tomato sauce. This. I own a crock-pot and a rice cooker, and most of the time I simply live out of one or the other. Cheap chicken breasts and barbecue sauce dumped in a slow-cooker with peas or peppers, served over rice from the rice-cooker. Or, if I’m not feeling like chicken, perhaps chickpeas or lentils and rice, with a bit of bacon or an egg, seasoned with olive oil, black pepper and smoked sea salt. None of this is the healthiest stuff, but I don’t think of it as poverty food - it’s bachelor chow. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/91 "2011-11-10T19:04:14Z")
Well, I’m sure there’s a bit of overlap between ‘poverty food’ and stuff eaten because you like it, it’s easy or whatever. I think of torn jeans and oversized worn-out jackets as hobo clothes but that doesn’t stop a lot of people from wearing them by choice. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/92 "2011-11-10T21:21:28Z")
I remember “potted meat” . I also remember a relative came to a picnic back in the sixties and brought not just one can of “potted meat”, but a can of _Imitation_ “potted meat”. My mama was disgusted (regular “potted meat” would have been ok). ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/93 "2011-11-10T21:26:09Z")
> [@Aeris](#): > > I don’t really get why pizza is mentioned so often. Are you guys talking about frozen pizza or delivery? . The frozen Totino’s pizzas are on special frequently for about a buck around here. I can see how one of those stretched out over a couple of meals or a couple of people could be considered ‘poverty food.’ ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/94 "2011-11-10T22:58:57Z")
Rice and peas with no seasoning. Chips. English chips, if you were nice to the chippy they’d throw in some old bits of fish batter. I remember a poverty food treat - rolled mutton neck with stuffing - the butcher used to do them up and I’d buy two when I got my dole check. Fry them in a pan over a wood fire in the fireplace. Food of the gods. Chicken back and neck. Off topic, some dude called Ramin … seems like he got eaten! ['Cannibal' fear over German tourist](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/frenchpolynesiatahiti/8830733/Cannibal-fear-over-German-tourist.html) ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/95 "2011-11-11T00:14:05Z")
Man, I feel poor now. ☹ When I was a kid, here are some definitions of foods that I later realized weren’t standard French Toast Pizza = discount-bakery bread rolls topped with ketchup and sliced vienna sausages and if we’re lucky, a few dent-can mushrooms, tossed into the oven and then covered with half-a slice each of off-brand American “cheese product.” Breakfast for Dinner = lots of pancakes and margarine. No syrup, too expensive. Tuna Casserole = offbrand mac & cheese, dent-can tuna, and bread crumbs from the bottom of the toaster. Hard-boiled egg slices if it was a good month. Taco Casserole = thick layer of potatoes, really thin layer of hamburger-bread-egg (mostly bread and egg) covered liberally with spices and whatever dent-can veggies were on hand. Cover with ‘cheese product’ BLT was a whitebread sandwich (bread usually toasted because it had been frozen) with iceberg lettuce, tomato paste, and bacon bits like normal people use for salads. To cool us kids off during the summer (lowcountry South Carolina here) mom would send us outside with frozen hotdogs on sticks to munch on and keep us cool. My husband didn’t believe me for a long time. I still like cold salty uncooked hotdogs… ☹ Potted meat was a luxury - a step up from fried bologna, and almost as special as SPAM, one of which usually ended up being the meat for Sunday dinner. Getting a sandwich with potted meat in it (usually devilled ham - I think it got dented a lot) was a special treat. Likewise having actual hard-boiled eggs or devilled eggs as an individual food, rather than bulking out something else. Sardine cracker sandwiches (two crackers, lots of mustard, half a canned sardine) were likewise great treats. One packet of sardines had about 6 fish, and so that was 12 sandwiches - 4 for each kid! I remember lots of tomato soup. I remember powdered milk going in everything cookable so that we could use the “real milk” for dad’s breakfast and our cereal - a big treat on sunday morning was half a glass of chocolate milk made with chocolate syrup and real milk. If we wanted chocolate milk otherwise, it was off-brand powdered chocolate mix and powdered milk. Lots of beans, lots of rice. Lots of veggies, usually canned, sometimes expired. Lots of leftovers (made on purpose, of course) Lots of meals with no meat. Lots of meats that I really don’t want to think about the actual contents. I remember one Sunday getting “real” blue box mac&cheese, and getting to put fried hot-dog wheels in it, and being ecstatic about how good it was compared to normal. When I got to college, cheapo ramen packages actually made two meals each - lunch was the noodles in just hot water, and dinner was the powder packet mixed into a mug of hot water for “soup.” I find that the only lasting effect of this upbringing is that I really dislike using canned vegetables in my food, and that I absolutely refuse to eat leftovers. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/96 "2011-11-11T05:41:15Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > The frozen Totino’s pizzas are on special frequently for about a buck around here. I can see how one of those stretched out over a couple of meals or a couple of people could be considered ‘poverty food.’ I was just about to mention that. If I’m EXCEPTIONALLY hungry (as in, it’s dinner and I haven’t eaten all day) I’ll eat a whole one. Usually I’ll eat 1/2 or 2/3, leaving the rest for another meal or maybe breakfast. (No, I don’t have a hangup eating “non-breakfast” foods at breakfast - used to drive my husband INSAANE!) So even if for some reason mom and dad were ravenous and ate entire pizzas, and two kids split one, that’s feeding a family of four for $3. That having been said, the second worst poverty food (next to the generic powder-cheese Mac & Cheese) is that Chef Boy-Ar-Dee boxed pizza mix. Holy mother of God was that vile. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/97 "2011-11-11T07:31:40Z")
Call Pizza Hut and order a pizza to go with one weird ingredient on part of the pizza. Do Not show up to pick up the pizza. Hang around by the dumpsters 'till they throw it out. Retrieve and eat. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/98 "2011-11-11T10:27:13Z")
Baked beans from the can. Libby’s Potted Meat Food Product. Unless you’re talking about North Korea or Pol Pot’s Cambodia, in which case it’s “any animal that couldn’t get away” and “anything green that isn’t actually poisonous”. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/99 "2011-11-11T10:41:49Z")
Meh, I’m tempted, unfortunately to say, whatever people tend to donate which is unwanted food. Which is random canned goods such as pickled beets or pineapple or whatever nearly expired goods we find when clearing out our closets. ---
**Author:** ![OldnCrinkly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@OldnCrinkly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldnCrinkly)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218/100 "2011-11-11T16:03:48Z")
A guy I know eats a pack of ramen noodles combined with a can of cheap vegetable soup regularly. He is a single guy, so I don’t know if that is more from being lazy or broke. It just seems like a pitiful meal to me. Beans and weenies was a big treat when we were kids. We loved the government cheese, but when it ran out I remember eating mustard sandwiches a lot, also air sandwiches (two slices of bread). We were quite poor. I am actually still poor, but I like to cook so we eat ok. Sometimes I make pancakes for dinner. My kids love it. Thats one of the cheapest meals to make that they will like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-idea-of-poverty-food/602218.md?page=6)