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Retro food

Postby Amyw » Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:03 pm

I had my first ever fondue yesterday , which led to me thinking about retro food in general . One of my favourite ever starters is a prawn cocktail and I love a Black Forest gateau too . Anyone else fond of retro food or seen some modern twists on old classics

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Re: Retro food

Postby mistakened » Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:10 pm

We have a large portion of prawn cocktail as a salad, home made pink sauce of course. As far as I am concerned Black Forest gateau never went out of fashion.

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Re: Retro food

Postby WWordsworth » Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:47 pm

I also enjoy a Black Forest Gateau as long as it's a proper one, not a frozen abomination.

Quite partial to cheese and pineapple on sticks.
Mum used to cover a potato in tinfoil and stick the sticks in.
We couldn't afford to waste a grapefruit, and the potato could be used afterwards.

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Re: Retro food

Postby Suelle » Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:44 pm

At my age, I've seen most things come round in 'fashionable' waves at least twice. I think that means there's no such thing as retro dishes, in my cooking and eating experience.

Nouvelle Cuisine is the only thing that never resurfaced - for vey good reasons! :lol:
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Re: Retro food

Postby Pepper Pig » Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:58 pm

Never occurred to me that a fondue is retro. Not in this house.

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Re: Retro food

Postby Suelle » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:12 pm

Pepper Pig wrote:Never occurred to me that a fondue is retro. Not in this house.


Richard Osman gives a fondue set away every week on House of Games - that must make them fashionable, not retro! :lol:

Having said that, I've never had one! :oops: Neither cheese, nor oil, nor chocolate.
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Re: Retro food

Postby herbidacious » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:17 pm

I don't regard fondu or BDG (edit: I meant BFG!) My typing is terrible. was retro either, but you'd be hard pushed to get a good slice of the latter in the UK. (Please tell me where if you know where I can. I don't rate Patisserie Valerie.) I have actually been craving BFG recently. I had it for the first time in Schwabia (Homemade by the Oma in the home where I was on an exchange.) where presumably it has never gone out of fashion. My first fondue was in France, probably also not subject to fashion. We used to have fondue every New Year's Eve for years. It used to take us so long to make it work, for some reason, that we were usually really quite tipsy by the time it was ready. Part of the fun. And perhaps why we don't bother these days so much.

Pineapple and cheese on sticks only really appealed (when I was a child, which is the last time I had them) I think because they were on sticks and thus novel.

I can't think of anything else, apart from perhaps Angel Delight which I quite like (chocolate and butterscotch flavours only, though). Husband is partial to Dairylea type triangles and smoked Bavarian 'sausage' cheese. (Yuk.)

There are drinks too, of course, none of which I can or would want to consume: Babysham, Advocaat, Slush puppies, Canada dry, ice cream sodas...

I suppose the appeal of these foods is, if indeed they have any appeal at all, more (for me) out of nostalgia for my childhood rather than liking retro per se. But we didn't really have trendy (or 'foreign') food at home.
Last edited by herbidacious on Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Retro food

Postby herbidacious » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:19 pm

I suppose re trendy things there is all that Heston Blumenthal stuff. Never really took off with the genearl public though? And was he a one man show on that front?

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Re: Retro food

Postby Busybee » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:37 pm

I love pineapple and cheese on a stick, ditto dairylea cheese triangles.

BFG is a thing of beauty when done well, but it often isn’t. Prawn cocktail………have it fairly regularly, and have chosen it as the starter for my Christmas meal when we go out with the WI.

I have an ex colleague who is a real foodie, a great home cook but eats out at least four times a week in normal times. His holidays are planned around which Michelin starred places he wants to visit, but his guilty secret is a Toby Inn, he usually has a prawn cocktail, steak and chips and the BFG with an Irish coffee to finish it off. His maxim is that there is room for every kind of eating establishment, and that such a meal really hits the spot when needed.

I like mince and dumplings or stew which I feel is old fashioned, no one under about thirty eats stuff like this anymore, the mince would be used in chilli or bolognaise - are these dishes retro??

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Re: Retro food

Postby Pepper Pig » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:55 pm

I fed my GKs mince, mash and dumplings last week. They loved it.

I suppose an old fashioned rice pudding with skin would be considered retro these days.

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Re: Retro food

Postby Lusciouslush » Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:13 pm

The only thing wrong with a dumpling is if there's only one of them :yum !

I don't 'get' the term retro food unless you think of something like Vesta chow mein et al......which were in a time zone for students/folk of a certain age, usually 70's.

Basically, you could call many of today's classics as retro then - everything comes around again or never went out of fashion in the first place.

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Re: Retro food

Postby Gruney2 » Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:22 pm

A lovely pan of scouse.

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Re: Retro food

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:29 pm

I don't think BFG ever went away in Germany :D

The best prawn cocktail I ever had was about 2 years ago in a Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, if you are dragged to one, bear it in mind; I suppose a steak house is in itself retro, let's all go to a Berni Inn or an Angus and have a schooner of slightly doubtful sherry, an overchilled prawn cocktail, a rump steak with chips and peas and a slice of BFG! What a board meeting that would be (there are plenty of worse meals)

I had real trouble finding a fondue set for a friend a few years ago, eventually got a good one in Habitat of all places, not expensive. Not a fan of the oil/steak version, difficult to control the heat on most home fondue sets (electric ones might be good, assuming a thermostat) and in my experience very messy, the oil spits even if the people are careful

I miss the beef bourguignon and coq au vin type dinner parties, I still make them but they are are now considered rather retro I think

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Re: Retro food

Postby Suelle » Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:51 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:I miss the beef bourguignon and coq au vin type dinner parties, I still make them but they are are now considered rather retro I think


I think the age of the cook might have some bearing on what is considered retro; my friends in their 70s still cook things like that for guests, but a group of people in their 30s probably wouldn't expect to be served those dishes, even as an ironic nod to past fashions.
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Re: Retro food

Postby Pepper Pig » Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:53 pm

I had bouef bourginon at Cote last week.

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Re: Retro food

Postby KeenCook2 » Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:01 pm

not really concentrating and I did wonder why everyone was suddenly talking about the Big Friendly Giant .... :oops: :oops: :lol: :lol:

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Re: Retro food

Postby Earthmaiden » Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:03 pm

I never really went modern as everyone had left home by the time people started having exotic things.
I find if I make a decent beef casserole with jacket potatoes that people fall on it with delight.

I liked vol a vents at parties. You could get the ready prepared frozen ones which you cooked and added your own fillings of mushrooms in white sauce, curried egg, M&S chunky chicken and other such delights. I looked for bridge rolls in Sainsburys the other day as they would have been ideal for hot dogs for GD. I haven't seen them for years - they were always halved at parties and spread with fish paste and garnish.

Love Angel Delight but Instant Whip even more ... and Dream Topping :yum.

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Re: Retro food

Postby Sloe-Gin » Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:06 pm

Suet puddings, devilled kidneys, tripe (One for suffs there), heart, jugged hare, rabbit, pheasant (I dined well, if plainly, as a child). Rice/sago/tapioca, steamed syrup (oh my word). Spotted Dick (whatever happened to him?)
Boiled potatoes, not mashed or seasoned (I did say plain). My GKids would have a fit if they got this.
Pink or blue curry powder in tins.

Actually, I'm very happy with current 'retro food' as it's all been jazzed up.

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Re: Retro food

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:06 pm

I think overdoing it was pretty retro, people mutter about the number of ingredients in Ottolenghi recipes, which are largely a case of a teaspoon of this and an a teaspoon of that mixed and thrown in, but by the time you had made the suggested side dishes, such as green beans with butter and almonds, or Provencal tomatoes (topped with breadcrumbs, parsley and garlic and baked; a more modern cheat's version is to mix the crumbs with pesto from a jar and a splash of evoo) the recipes on SuperCook or Robert Carrier recipe cards were far more faff.

And all vegetarian meals served in non-vegetarian houses had, by law, to contain grated carrots and chopped nuts if not watery veg curry

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Re: Retro food

Postby herbidacious » Sun Oct 24, 2021 8:11 pm

I am making 'mince' tonight, coincidentally.
Nut roast feels very '70s/'80s although it ever really went away

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