When did you last eat spam? [... if ever]

[Pabmusic]

The family story is told of Uncle Jac encountering his first roundabout on his motorcycle - the sign said Keep Right so Uncle Jac kept right ... and again ... and again ... til he fell off!

My equivalent story is of my maternal grandmother, who got her first phone in later years (she must have been in her 60s - oh! not so late, then) in the early 70s. For quite a long time various members of the family thought there was something wrong with her phone because she was always so faint. Then her son realised that for the past x weeks she'd been speaking into the earpiece.

[amateur51]

My equivalent story is of my maternal grandmother, who got her first phone in later years (she must have been in her 60s - oh! not so late, then) in the early 70s. For quite a long time various members of the family thought there was something wrong with her phone because she was always so faint. Then her son realised that for the past x weeks she'd been speaking into the earpiece.

Bless!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

spam in wartime

[vinteuil]

My equivalent story is of my maternal grandmother, who got her first phone in later years (she must have been in her 60s - oh! not so late, then) in the early 70s. For quite a long time various members of the family thought there was something wrong with her phone because she was always so faint. Then her son realised that for the past x weeks she'd been speaking into the earpiece.

... or Thurber [ "My Life And Hard Times" ]:

"The telephone she was comparatively at peace with, except, of course, during storms, when for some reason or other she always took the receiver off the hook and let it hang. She came naturally by her confused and groundless fears, for her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house. It leaked, she contended, out of empty sockets if the wall switch had been left on. She would go around screwing in bulbs, and if they lighted up she would hastily and fearfully turn off the wall switch and go back to her Pearson's or Everybody's, happy in the satisfaction that she had stopped not only a costly but a dangerous leakage. Nothing could ever clear this up for her."

[aeolium]

There must be some masochistic strain in MBers wishing to recall the horror foods of their childhood (as with the thread on school food which was in places hard to read without a feeling of physical revulsion - S_A's post in particular).

I'm waiting for a thread on tripe

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

There must be some masochistic strain in MBers wishing to recall the horror foods of their childhood (as with the thread on school food which was in places hard to read without a feeling of physical revulsion - S_A's post in particular).

I'm waiting for a thread on tripe

.... or woollen swimming trunks!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

1969.

The nearest I have had to spam since then is Granose Nuttolene.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a blast from the past there Eine Alpensinfonie!

my father was on a constant diet to prevent heart attacks etc and my regular errand was to fetch his Granose rolls from the health shop on Kensington High St in the late 50s ... and nut butter to!
wonderful lady served there with the most impressive plaited and swept up grey hair ....

[Anna]

I honestly cannot recall any horror childhood foods. I didn't have school dinners as we lived very close to the school and had them on only two occasions (I think my mother was in hospital or away visiting) I recall one meal in the juniors as being delicious roast chicken, mash and carrots with sponge and custard for pud. I was quite jealous at the other children being allowed to stay for dinner. Food at home was always fresh cooked, nothing too elaborate (Mother had to cater for six) so it was roast on Sunday, cold on Monday with jackets or made into shepherd's pie and then the usual sausages, chops, gammon, 1001 ways with mince, fish and an absolutely gorgeous fish pie, casseroles and stews, curry, etc. Puds were fruit pies, Angel Delight!, rice pudding, ice cream, usual sort of thing but an outstanding peach gateux which I still sometimes make (it's rather like a tiramisu)

She made two outstanding mince dishes: savoury mince with rice (and I'd love to know what spices she put in it) and savoury meatballs (ditto as to ingredients) which were the family's favourite. So, no bad childhood memories here. I was probably lucky.
Edit: Only horrors were when Nan came over and cooked pigs trotters and brought the brawn she'd made. I never tasted either of them, they just looked horrible.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm waiting for a thread on tripe

The whole forum is full of it already!

[EdgeleyRob]

The whole forum is full of it already!

A lot of it talked on Radio 3 too.

[mangerton]

I'm waiting for a thread on tripe

That might be deemed to be a political thread.

[Pabmusic]

... ah, the Philippines. Land of the chicken-in-pepsi-cola, a riposte to us Europeans with our poncey coq-au-vin ?

Memories too of endless chicken-in-7-up in Iloilo

Somehow pab's spam-fried-rice breakfast comes as no surprise...

Iloilo is only about 80 miles from here. Yes, chicken in Sprite is not unknown. How about a party dish (called, somewhat optimistically, a "fruit salad") made with tinned fruit cocktail, sweetcorn, macaroni, condensed milk, cheese (processed) and ... chicken. There's probably some onion in there, too. Very popular.

Mind you, I do believe the two Philippine culinary principles are (1) if it moves, eat it, and (2) if it makes your stomach move, eat it. Oh, and add sugar to everything. I wondered at first why so many people ask me if if have diabetes (I don't), before I realised how much sugar they use.

Having said that, the food (especially the fish and seafood, or traditional things like adobo) can be incomparable in the best sense. The recipe I posted is very tasty, though I usually avoid cooked breakfasts.

[P.S.: Guidebooks often say that Filipino food can be an acquired taste. Do you recall the character in The Vicar of Dibley who would bring homemade cakes to events? They always had one eye-opening ingredient, such a marmite. Well, Filipinos would miss the humour in that.]

[teamsaint]

Not had spam since having not eaten them frittered at school, neatly 40 years ago !!

Processed meat , generally a bad idea, but Haslet , as mentioned above, is the tops.

Surely one of the worst quality foods ever has to be Lorne sausage as sold in Tesco?

[amateur51]

Not had spam since having not eaten them frittered at school, neatly 40 years ago !!

Processed meat , generally a bad idea, but Haslet , as mentioned above, is the tops.

Surely one of the worst quality foods ever has to be Lorne sausage as sold in Tesco?

Lorne sausage?

Me neither

This is informative ... http://www.aboutaberdeen.com/lornesausage.php