What was yours....?

[Lusciouslush Profile]

The Waitrose concept of essential cooking staples for new students!?!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmpLn4KWsAAqr6v.jpg

Mine was Vesta Chow Mein & the very exotic Spag Bol.....!

what was yours..........?!?!

[Joanbunting Profile]

I lived in with all meals but I was sent off with a fruit cake made by Gran, a jar of Mum's marmlade and a bottle of sherry.! Actually the food was very good indeed.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Oh for heavens sake
The essentials are salt pepper and veg oil of choice
Then rice and pasta and canned tomatoes

Harissa is a good idea but a tube of Le Phare du Cap Bon at 75p would be more to the point than spending £4.50 on rose harissa that goes off rapidly when opened

Similarly soy sauce is a good idea, but a bottle of Lee Kim Kee or Pearl River bridge at around £3 per litre would make more sense

Though possibly it is intended that Mum or Nan buys these as a starter kit rather than the student spends their loan on them?

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Though possibly it is intended that Mum or Nan buys these as a starter kit rather than the student spends their loan on them?

I'm sure that's the idea, with their reference to fledglings flying the nest.

I got some free sachets of Belazu rose harissa at the Thame food fair a few years ago. I found it very spicy. A teaspoon or so in a meal for 4 would render it inedible to 90% of the population IMO.


Wot Sue said plus Marmite and peanut butter (if applicable) and several tins of baked beans should help most students. Maybe curry powder or paste. (Harissa hadn't been invented when I was a student ). Plus tomato sauce of course.

[Luca Profile]

As a student in Paris I had a chambre de bonne, what would have been the maid's room and exterior to the main property.

Part of the deal was that I could, if I chose to, eat all meals with the family. Madame B was a wonderful cook and we ate wonderfully and I also was able to prepare my own food.

One of my fellow students who had a car in Paris used to come back from holidays with said vehicle stuffed full of a certain brand of baked beans, Marmite and bacon. I placed an order each time.

We all also got the dried Chinese noodle with soup packets available from the Parisian equivalent of Chinatown and Maggi sauce was a constant.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Bloody Hell, Lush!
My staples were mostly in tins - baked beans, Spam, Heinz Ravioli and mixed veg. Plus the occasional chicken curry.
Do Waitrose still live on the same planet, or have student meals changed so radically?

(Afterthought - " over the past 50 years?" " Well yes, of course they have, Thank goodness!")

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I was going to suggest that a doting auntie might provide a copy of Jack Munroe’s Bootstrap Cook and I see she has published her own list of student basics

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/09/10/student-essentials-under-a-fiver/

Karadekoolaid, I’m sure students do eat differently to when we were there, far more likely to be vegetarian, far more tolerant of chilli than the wimps of the seventies and so on. Veggie chilli would have seemed quite exotic to me in 1972 but I think would seem quite ordinary now

[Joanbunting Profile]

I'm talking 1960 here. So things really were different. However my next door neighbour in the 2nd year was a Ugandan Indian excile. She was Hindu and a vegetarian and, at the weekends would cook all sorts of apparently exotic things on the one gas ring at the end of the corridor. I became fascinated and she was only too happy to share her mum's recipes. We used to make flat breads direct on the flame and a delicious carrot dish I still do.

At my GC's school they run weekend cooking clubs so those two should be quite handy when they get to uni.

[Alexandria Profile]

Hallowed Catalan and regional Spanish, and some Italian and French cusine were the dishes prepared at home by my Mom or during those times, my Grandmothers.

My parents are now retired however, they were in the hospitality business, supplying local hotels and restaurants with A to Z .. Interior decoratives, Servingware, cookware, napkins, linens, porcelain, knives, uniforms, etcetra .. Over the years, the needs of the clients had changed and thus, they adapted rapidly and began to distribute & supply food, wines and specialty ítems.

When my grandparents started the firm, it was an outerwear supply house for fishermen, supplying all their outerwear essentials, boots, jackets, vests, life guard vests & fishing requirements etcetra. There is still a department which my dad runs part time and one of my sons is the Ceo .. They cater to the Basque and Catalan Fishermen, who require these ítems as well as the Coast Guard of the Spanish Military ..


University: I attended Hospitality & Tourism Institute in Paris for two years, and then continued university in Barcelona. For my Masters, I studied in The Madrid Capital for two years. At that time, my parents owned a tiny apartment in The Madrid Capital ( they travelled frequently on business and felt it a worthy investment ) and so, I stayed at that apartment, rent free.
I lived above a now closed well known Restaurant, and the owner and bartenders, knew my parents, and thus, I ate healthy and quite well ! Lentils and White Bean stews, fish, Pisto Manchego, shellfish, calmar / squid, octopus and a slice of a "30 egg Tortilla Española", which was like a "sponge cake texture on the interior " .. Have never forgotten it .. It was the best Spanish Omelette I have eaten ..

Returning to my life in the Madrid Capital, I had already met my mate, and thus, we lived together in Madrid for 2 years ( this was relatively unheard of at that time ! ) ..

We were both doing our Masters at the same University .. And preparing for our Cambridge Proficiency Exams ..


Very interesting post !!

[smitch Profile]

I ate a lot of pasta as a student. I wasn't a very adventurous cook back then, I grew up with very simple meals at home so I didn't really use many herbs or spices. This article from the BBC was shared at work today, which was interesting: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45482227

[jeral Profile]

I agree that Waitrose are probably aiming their kits at the gifts market and do wonder if the buyers themselves would use those ingredients.

In my cupboard at the time was tins, more tins, bread/cereals, and dried spag for the ubiquitous spag bol needless to say. Probably ready meals are most popular now as some uni boarding facilities are microwave only due to fire risk. But probably most popular even with decent cooking facilities

Interesting article smitch, at least more sensible.

[Wic Profile]

I shared a flat with a friend who had v strict ideas about cooking, which was much the same as her mother's, so I generally let her get on with it and we ate well, if not very adventurously. On a budget of £1 each a week, or thereabouts!!! Now and again we strayed into wildly exotic territory, like tinned guavas, which I hate to this day, and avocado, which was so alien we didn’t know what to do with it. Now I eat several a week.

[Amyw Profile]

My cousins at university at the moment and is apparently the “cook” in his shared house . He cooks a roast every Sunday for all of them which I think is quite nice .

When I first moved out at age 19, a lot of takeaways and ready meals did feature . I did cook a lot of pasta , being cheap but tasty . I make a mean omelette so used to cook those quite frequently too

[Lusciouslush Profile]

I shared a student house with 5 others, we each had our own rooms & shared the kitchen & bathroom - that house rocked - literally - always someone playing rock music ( and it was a Victorian terraced house.....!) Everyone was very protective of their food cupboard - woe betide anyone who 'borrowed' anything - even milk so that waitrose stash would have had to have been kept under lock & key - & I can't imagine it's much different today.


Amyw - to cook a roast every Sunday for everyone is magic & must bring them all closer - good on that man.....!

[Amyw Profile]

Yes we’re all very proud of him . He had leaukaemia as a teenager , so due to missing so much time off school , didn’t get quite the grades he needed in his A Levels . However he did an extra year to get the required grades and is now thriving at university

[kavey Profile Website]

I was a student in the early 1990s and since I was perfectly capable of cooking, staples were whatever I fancied, within reason --- I didn't have steak every night! I did all sorts, from keema curries to cottage pies to sausages and oven chips to jacket spuds... a quick staple from store cupboard was tuna, passata or tinned toms, cheese and pasta... usually cheddar as that lasted well in fridge! But really, we cooked all sorts, fajitas, pasta, risotto, soups, lots of meat and veg stir fries... all sorts.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Just remembered an exotic dish we used to prepare after a night down the boozer. ( Early 1970s, SE London)
Poundies.
Stagger back from the bar. Boil some potatoes. Mash. Dump into a frying pan. With butter. Add two eggs and a sliced ( or chopped ) onion. Stir around a bit. Eat.
Blimey - no wonder we survived!!

[WWordsworth Profile]

Nobody had the Fray Bentos pie?
I did, with instant mash!

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Looks like you've been contemplating this for some time Wordsworth

I used to love fray Bentos pies - nice squidgy pastry - the trouble was getting the tin open - the opener always used to stop before completing the circle & you had to start again.
Do they still sell them? I haven't seen any for centuries.

[jeral Profile]

Here yer go: Fray Bentos pies on sale, e.g. Asda (£1.50) or same thing at Ocado (£2.00). Check out the pastry lid!
https://groceries.asda.com/product/pies ... lsrc=aw.ds

Mine came out as three unbelievably super crisp wafers and an underside that was a soggy semi-raw pastry lump, yet was strangely appealing... They were Tyne Brand originally, who came out with a "guaranteed no gristle" version, so perhaps was a forerunner in ground/re-formed meat.

If I still ate meat I'm sure I'd still buy them. Hang about, I see they do a cheese & onion one and a veggie balti one. That's me sorted then