# Your favorite retro/forgotten/by-gone foods **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [January 4, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611 "2024-01-04T21:56:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/21 "2024-01-05T16:37:34Z")
Chicken Cordon Bleu is in regular rotation at my company canteen. About once every 4-6 weeks, if not more often. Fondue? I live in Switzerland. I had it a week ago and will probably have it a couple more times this winter. There’s even pre-mixed fondue - just heat up on the stove. Haven’t had an icebox cake, the version with Nabisco Famous Wafers, since a long time. My grandmother got me hooked on Brandy Alexanders. Most bartenders have no idea what it is. My great aunt always made angel food cake with caramel icing. So good. I’ve never seen it in any restaurant. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen angel food cake in a restaurant. Took me a while to remember the name, but Chicken (or Turkey) Divan was one of my favorite meals. So good. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/22 "2024-01-05T16:44:57Z")
Whither Philadelphia cheesecake bars? [![](https://assets.change.org/photos/7/bb/fs/hSbBfsyEisXTlPF-800x450-noPad.jpg?1492624343) ](https://assets.change.org/photos/7/bb/fs/hSbBfsyEisXTlPF-800x450-noPad.jpg?1492624343) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/23 "2024-01-05T16:47:19Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Fondue? I live in Switzerland. I had it a week ago and will probably have it a couple more times this winter. There’s even pre-mixed fondue - just heat up on the stove. Colorado here. As we (as everyone I think) got a fondue pot for a wedding gift (or something) we did do fondue quite a bit. Love it. And the local store used to have the premix which was quite good. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/24 "2024-01-05T16:59:07Z")
Chicken A La King? I remember it from MREs, it was just chicken and cream sauce in noodles with vegetables? Always seemed old timey to me, like a fancy name for casserole. Steak au poivre? The name rings a bell and sounds like a Don Draper three martini lunch dish. I think it’s just steak with a cream sauce and capers? Speaking of Colorado, does anyone call their omelets “Denver omelets” anymore? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/25 "2024-01-05T17:04:24Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Took me a while to remember the name, but Chicken (or Turkey) Divan was one of my favorite meals. So good. Yes!! Chicken Divan seemed to be popular when I was younger, then it just sort of disappeared. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/26 "2024-01-05T17:05:04Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Speaking of Colorado, does anyone call their omelets “Denver omelets” anymore? Still on the menu here. But mostly people choose what they want. The Denver is pretty good. Ham, onion, red and green peppers, cheese. The ingredients vary from one place to the next. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/27 "2024-01-05T17:36:28Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > Liver and onions. They seem to have died out with the type of restaurant that served it. > > I’ve had it twice in the last ten years. Once in the only restaurant/gas station/grocery store for miles in Nova Scotia, and the other in a restaurant in Tidewater Virginia with a mostly military clientele. > > Used to be more common in the 1980s. Liver and onions was about the only thing my dad knew how to cook, so it was what we had whenever Mom was out for some reason. I don’t think I’ve had it in 40 years or more. Note that I never said Dad knew how to cook it _well_. I was thinking recently that I’d like to give it a go, now that I’m a decent home cook. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/28 "2024-01-05T17:37:53Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > My grandmother got me hooked on Brandy Alexanders. Most bartenders have no idea what it is. My mother-in-law is not a drinker, but on a cruise recently she discovered Grasshoppers, and now that’s all she wants. 😃 Brandy Alexanders might be right up her alley. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/29 "2024-01-05T17:39:42Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Steak au poivre? The name rings a bell and sounds like a Don Draper three martini lunch dish. I think it’s just steak with a cream sauce and capers? I still see steak au poivre not infrequently. Lots of good black pepper is the key (that’s the “poivre” part). What I _ **don’t** _ see is Steak Diane. Might have to give that one a try. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/30 "2024-01-05T17:41:30Z")
> [@carlb](#): > > What I _ **don’t** _ see is Steak Diane. Might have to give that one a try. Oh yeah, maybe I was getting the two confused. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/31 "2024-01-05T17:52:35Z")
A buddy of mine makes fondue for the family all the time. He says Trader Joe’s has a great premade product. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/32 "2024-01-05T20:58:50Z")
Turtle soup. A stereotypical “rich people food” from ca. 1900. Nobody makes it any more. Even Mock Turtle Soup has vanished. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/33 "2024-01-05T21:03:06Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Chicken A La King? I remember it from MREs And I remember it from when it came frozen in plastic bags that you heated in boiling water and served over toast (back before people had microwave ovens). [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/87/6b/6a876b364cf95738965d61338b0c4d37.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/87/6b/6a876b364cf95738965d61338b0c4d37.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/34 "2024-01-05T21:25:10Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Turtle soup. A stereotypical “rich people food” from ca. 1900. Nobody makes it any more. [Court of the Two Sisters](https://www.courtoftwosisters.com/) in New Orleans has it. I’ve enjoyed it there twice: Once in 1978 and once in 2016. I also had it at the Taste of Chicago festival back in the mid 1990’s. Damn, it’s been delicious every time. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/35 "2024-01-05T21:39:21Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Turtle soup. A stereotypical “rich people food” from ca. 1900. I’ve known a few people who fished for snapping turtles for use in soup. They are far from rich. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/36 "2024-01-05T22:10:56Z")
In Ken Follett’s _ **Night over Water** _, turtle soup is served at luncheon to the passengers on the special train carrying them to Southampton to board Pan Am’s Atlantic Clipper. You had to be rolling in money to afford a ticket on that plane. I love Chicken à la King and make it myself sometimes when I have leftovers I want to use up. The night before my brother left for the Air Force, he could have had anything he wanted to eat. He chose Chicken à la King, the kind you boiled inside a plastic bag. I also love chipped beef on toast, aka SOS. My dad would make it for me when I was a kid, as an example of “Army food.” It too came in a plastic bag that you boiled. Something I’d like to try is Brown Windsor soup, which I first heard of watching Hercule Poirot on TV: > **[Windsor soup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_soup)** > > Windsor soup or Brown Windsor soup is a British soup. While commonly associated with the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the practice of calling it 'Brown Windsor' did not emerge until at least the 1920s, and the name was usually associated with low-quality brown soup of uncertain ingredients. Although Windsor soup comprised elegant recipes among famous chefs of the 19th century, the 'Brown Windsor' varieties became an institutional gruel that gained a reputation as indicative of bad Engli In 1834 ... I’ve had a couple of large bags of pre-mixed fondue cheese in my pantry for a while now and still haven’t found a use for them. Fondue isn’t the kind of thing you crack open for a quick nosh on a weeknight. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/37 "2024-01-05T22:23:35Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > > [@Neidhart](#): > > > > Turtle soup. A stereotypical “rich people food” from ca. 1900. > > I’ve known a few people who fished for snapping turtles for use in soup. They are far from rich. How does this taste? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/38 "2024-01-05T22:30:56Z")
> [@De\_La\_Rue](#): > > Whither Philadelphia cheesecake bars? > > [https://assets.change.org/photos/7/bb/fs/hSbBfsyEisXTlPF-800x450-noPad.jpg?1492624343](https://assets.change.org/photos/7/bb/fs/hSbBfsyEisXTlPF-800x450-noPad.jpg?1492624343) These remind me of the cream cheese bars that are popular in Russia. They’re called _syrki_ (singular: _syrok_) and are coated in dark chocolate. They don’t contain any kind of biscuit, though. Just the cheese, chocolate, and jam filling. The cheese is a little sour, too. (It’s called _tvorog_.) An entrepreneur pitched them as “Russian candy bars” (or something like that) to the moguls on _ **Dragon’s Den** _. They declined to invest because they didn’t like the taste. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/39 "2024-01-05T22:37:02Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > [@kayaker](#): > > > > > [@Neidhart](#): > > > > > > Turtle soup. A stereotypical “rich people food” from ca. 1900. > > > > I’ve known a few people who fished for snapping turtles for use in soup. They are far from rich. > > How does this taste? Reptiles in general taste a lot like chicken, just more rubbery. Since turtles are aquatic, I suspect they have a hint of fish too, like amphibians. The first time I tried frogs’ legs, I was surprised at just how fishy they were. I had always been told they taste like chicken, just a lot more expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611/40 "2024-01-05T22:40:04Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > How does this taste? In all 3 of my experiences, I found it somewhat similar to, but more delicious than beef. No fishy/gamey elements, no ‘tastes like chicken’ moments. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-retro-forgotten-by-gone-foods/995611.md?page=3)