~ jan wrote:
On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 15:06:48 EDT, Derek Broughton
wrote:


My wife & I and another couple went to a Chinese New Year dinner, and my
friend still calls it our "Fear Factor" meal. I quite enjoyed it - after
all it's better than they cook in English schools -


I just have to ask, what do they serve in English schools, at least when
you were a kid?

Guessing I'm a similar generation to Derek I'm going to stick up for
English School dinners from the past (I can't excuse the current ones
that are brought in by car from some catering service)....the English
School dinner when cooked in the school's kitchen was an institution. I
guess there may have been some bad ones but generally the food was
"nutritional"....the mashed potato was sometimes suspect and the
cabbage/greens were certainly boiled for a good few hours before they
made the plate. It's funny in adult life to see other adults going for
mashed swede, thick gravy, over cooked greens and lumpy mashed potato
with a degree of nostalga only shared by those that had the same typical
English School dinner.....I can see the description making some say
"yuk" - I guess you had to be there....

Of course the best bit of an English School dinner in the 60s and 70s
was the pudding.....I still have a guilty fondness for sticky sponge
puddings with custard dating from my school days....add to that rice
pudding and the occassional jelly and ice-cream treat....the only bad
pudding was the tapioca which was served with a big blob of jam in the
middle - the only appeal that had for me was stirring it until it had
turned pink all the way through...chocolate semolina was border-line in
the edible or yuk stakes - used to depend on your mood.

To drink we had the choice of water or water (by the jug load) - used to
come in garish metalic coloured jugs (gold, silver, red, green and
purple IIRC) - we thought we'd hit a certain degree of sophistication
when the school bought in glass jugs...The glasses were standard pretty
much throughout the country I believe....

Overall, I think the standard of food served up in my school years was
far superior to the stuff fed to our kids today but JMO :-)

Gill


I use to love our American school food back in my day. Now I not only
couldn't eat it, but much of it would make me sick (wheat sensitive).
~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us