My sister in law is from the UK and is a vegetarian and she has always said she is one because when she was little The meat to her was terrible, over cooked beef, etc. she is my age so that would make her childhood in the 50's. She left the UK in the 70's I think. My brother met her when he was getting his masters at Oxford. Funny story of the first time she met my parents, I was already gone but my sisters have told this story hundred times. Hungarians have a dish that is made similar to chicken Paprikas but it uses pigs feet and ears. It's really good and the Sauce is a sticky gelatinous fatty stick to your hands, face kind of thing. I'm surprised she married my brother knowing his family's meat loving traditional ways. They have a good marriage that has lasted many meat filled dinners, she must eat before but I think everybody now accommodates her with something vegetarian.
Yes I remember family meals from my childhood as being awful, overcooked chewy beef, boiled to death cabbage and stodgy pudding, but that has gone long ago with the influence of travel and a general improvement in the variety of basic foods available. As a child I wouldn't eat the food at home and filled up at my gran's on chips fried in butter and doughnuts
Holly mentioned yesterday that after the war, food was still rationed and poor, so that would have been in the early 50's.
Yes true, though living in a grocery store we didn't suffer from a shortage, but there was a lack of variety. Ironically the post war diet was evidently the healthiest we have ever had.
Probably, but I guess she never tried it again. My youngest sister is a vegetarian. I don't know what it is with her, it's not about being inhumane and killing animals....just disgusts her. She won't even touch raw meat. Last time I visited we were grilling steaks for dinner and I had to put the pkg of meat into the plastic bag. My mom has always done this when she was healthy, now I think her family is going to be vegan.
I did go vegan for a while and found an excellent cookbook which I used to cook some really interesting meals, but I found it became tiring with all the extra preparation in the end. Cathy my daughter has always been a vegetarian but will cook meat for others, she just doesn't like the texture of meat.
Don't know if it's been mentioned in here anywhere, but I've always heard about being served water and other drinks warm in the UK. ..no ice, or at least not cold. Americans seem to love their cold beverages in the warm months served with ice/cubes . Heard it's not done that way there. Also, "American girls are obsessed with hair washing" ... per a friend's grandmother in England. My daughter spent a summer in high school, along with a girlfriend, visiting that friend's grandparents in London. The grandmother was beside herself when the girls did their daily routine of bathing and shampooing their hair. There were several frantic calls made to the girl's mother about what was happening. The girl's mother told the girls to not upset the grandparents, and cut back on all the washing.
@Bonnie Thomas , don't know about the UK but that was definitely true in Hungary, you had to beg for ice for your drink in a restaurant.
No generally speaking the days of warm drinks are over, pretty much all drinks come chilled with ice as optional. I like everything chilled including red wine, which should be at room temperature. Not sure about the hair washing but I have a daily shower and always wash my hair as it is greasy. All my family and Lisa have daily showers but don't wash their hair every day.
I remember eating very plain meals as a child, but they were nourishing enough at the time. I remember corn grits a lot, and if you had a little bacon grease or real butter, your were having a treat. Then there were times when steamed potatoes and onion was the best we could do. For us meat got sold as well as the vegetables we grew. We might have meat once a week. But veggies, potatoes, and grits took us a long way back then. So I remember the '50's has having plain food as well. I had my first hamburger when I was 10, and that was in a hospital.