Which branded food . . .

[Amyw Profile]

I’ve just remembered Ambrosia tinned rice. I think it’s still around.

The retro sweets that I used to buy in quantity, until I saw the light and lost weight, were winegums, American hard gums, Rowntree’s fruit pastilles, pear drops, along with the occasional sherbet lemon.

I did this for the girls at work to have for their pudding tonight with a dollop of jam stirred in !

[Pepper Pig Profile]

There used to be long Bluebird toffees that you could buy individually in the sweet shop. They had a picture of Malcolm Campbell on the side of the wrapper. I was always torn between them and a Jamboree bag.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I don't remember Five Boys at all .

Mention of wrapped cheese reminds me of cheese triangles like Dairylea but each triangle was a different flavour - onion, ham, tomato, celery etc. I don't know what make they were but they were a treat.

I too remember the Milk Tray bars - my big favourite piece was Turkish delight.

I first saw Ski yogurt when day girls at my boarding school began to be allowed to bring a packed lunch. I had no idea what it was and longed to try it. Does anyone remember choc top yogurt? I think it was Eden Vale, there was a layer of hard chocolate at the top of the pot you had to break through to get to the yogurt. I loved the lemon flavour.

Someone mentioned Woolworths biscuits. We didn't buy broken ones but loved the choice generally. There was one sort completely covered in a caramel flavoured 'chocolate' which were especially good and seemed unique to Woolies.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

The Eden Vale factory was in South Ruislip about that time EM. I certainly remember choc top yogurt.

I hated Ski though.

[WWordsworth Profile]

My aunt (but not my mother) used to serve dried peas which came with a blue thing;not unlike a dishwasher tablet.
I loved the peas.
What on earth was the blue thing?

[slimpersoninside Profile]

Was it bicarb?

[Earthmaiden Profile]

No idea what the blue thing was but you've reminded me of Surprise peas. We had them quite a lot at one time before home freezers came in.

[WWordsworth Profile]

Remind me what surprise peas were ......
I remember the name.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Crisps that came with their own little blue packets of salt.

Smiths crisps, I think?

I think several makes of crisps had them, Smith's originally were made in Cosham, and had a twist of blue paper to hold the salt, the sachets came later, you could smell th ecrisps frying when you went past the factory, and on your friends if they got holiday jobs there

, yellow kayli so tart it made you face scrunch up - if you were lucky you'd have one of those hard black liquorice sticks to dip with rather than a finger.

Never heard of kayli - - likke lemonade powder or sherbet?

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

We had another aunt who always used to give me a box of Newberry Fruits which I detested, and my parents a bottle of Benedictine which they hated just as much. She lived on a caravan site and would invite the family over for tea whenever the Elsan needed emptying!! My dad and grandad would oblige and we would then all sit down to tea. She was a French teacher at a local school (The Greenway Pat if you’re reading this) and had no illusions about her cooking or lack of.

There are several caravan sites around here ... One in Swan Road, West Drayton and another in Wyatts Covert, Denham, just past Denham Aerodrome, along the same road that Cilla Black and Paul Daniels lived. I only knew the shopping centre in Uxbridge as I went to schools in Harefield, then Grammar School in Eastcote.

The only branded food that I remember as luxurious was Tizer and Lucozade.

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

The Eden Vale factory was in South Ruislip about that time EM. I certainly remember choc top yogurt.

I hated Ski though.

Would that be part of the Express Dairy factory ? I loved Ski yogurt, but only the black cherry one iirc

[Pepper Pig Profile]

This one was in Colham Green near the hospital. It was closed down and built over. Aunt Gladys was rehoused somewhere off Falling Lane on the way to Yiewsley.

She took me for a short break to Paris once when I was about 12. It was one of the worst experiences of my life as she had no understanding of children and just wished to educate. But I did get to know a lot about Renoir.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

The Eden Vale factory was in South Ruislip about that time EM. I certainly remember choc top yogurt.

I hated Ski though.

Would that be part of the Express Dairy factory ? I loved Ski yogurt, but only the black cherry one iirc

Yes!

[Earthmaiden Profile]

WW. Surprise peas were dried garden peas that you cooked in boiling water for about 10 or 15 minutes and they were then ready to serve. A useful store cupboard item and nearer the taste of fresh or frozen peas than tinned garden peas. Feel like a real dinosaur remembering when fresh peas were only eaten in season and not everyone even had a fridge with an ice box!

[Kacey Profile]

Yes Sue, exactly that, not sure where the word kayli (pronounced kay-lie) comes from, but that's what we called those bright yellow lemonade crystals in the Black Country

[WWordsworth Profile]

We had kayli in the North West too

[aero280 Profile]

It appears that Wagon Wheels are still around. The last time I noticed one it seemed to be a lot smaller than I remembered.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

They’ve gone the way of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

can you still get the tins of heinz mixed veg salad - that looked like sick?

I tried to find it or their potato salad a few years ago as they would be convenient foodstuffs on an island bird observatory with limited cold storage. However, they have bitten the dust as far as I could tell.

Not convinced that some of these foods have really deteriorated over the years - surely Vesta ready meals were dreadful even then, but we all thought they were wonderfully exotic. Similarly I doubt that tinned soups were much less salty half a century ago, just that I find them too salty now. Baxter's used to be considered posh. There was also Brand's chicken soup that had big bits of chicken in it. Someone did a bisque, can't remember who.

I used to like Ambrosia, but also HM rice pud and all the milky starchy variants we used to get then.

Elsenham used to do fancy jam. I quite liked those, but haven't seen them for ages. They're no longer based in Elsenham afaik. Gentleman's Relish (even more salty than tinned soup of course) was sold off years ago. Perhaps the family that ran it retired and sold up.

I believe the tablet that came with dried peas ('steeping tablet' iirc) was bicarb. Obligatory for all veg in those days. According to my nan, it was a legal requirement for cooking cabbage.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Someone did a bisque, can't remember who.

Lusty's?

Soup is probably less salty now, as the food police will have been at it I'd have thought?

Talking of Surprise peas, whatever happened to Brooke Farm? Vac packed, almost the only veg available like that now is the handy vac packed beetroot, they had new potatoes, carrots and something else - perhaps a mixed veg? I suppose domestic freezers killed them off