School Dinners

prefabkid47

Had a thought about a new topic (after readind katnapps's post about her 4 year old daughter). :idea:

We are all different age groups and come from different parts of the country.What were your recollections of school dinners - loves,hates etc.

Perhaps I can start the ball rolling - GYPSY TART (is that now PC?),a concoction of evaporated milk and muscovado sugar cooked in a precooked shortcrust pastry base Mmmm.,always a favourite at school

It's said to originate in my home county of Kent,but may be called something else in other parts of the country (my OH makes a mean gypsy tart but not very often

katknapp

Gipsy tart is something i remember from school,loved it,i make it too! can you remember some of the names we gave school food?wasnt bolegnaise worms and cats meat?

prefabkid47

katknapp wrote:

Gipsy tart is something i remember from school,loved it,i make it too! can you remember some of the names we gave school food?wasnt bolegnaise worms and cats meat?

Yes and not to mention frog's spawn (tapioca)

frogmorton

chocolate concrete and mint custard....


mmmm....

rugbygirl

Banana Custard always with the skin on the top or rice pudding with jam on and of course the obligatory skin.

And of course no matter what was on the menu it always smelt like cabbage

valval

hated school dinners got out of them when ever i could did like pink custard and the salads lol but the watery veg yuk and slop well that what lots of the meat looked like :-) nearly forgot loved the rosehip syrup on rice pudding

dreamdaisy

Roast beef was elephant skin: grey and wrinkled. I hated semolina and tapioca - ghastly concoctions, along with school gravy and custard - colour was the only difference between those two. YUK. Worst of all was the summer milk: warm, sometimes on the turn and we still had to drink it. Revolting. DD

rugbygirl

Worse one for me was the liver that we occasionally had. It was always served with lumpy mash and cold cabbage. There was also that liquid that was so thin it was often described as gravy and sometimes it was something else

barbara12

I loved school dinners especially the meat pie..in the very large trays ....just watching them cut through it...yum...and the lovely thick custard on sponge pud....
Barbara x

suzygirl

I replied to this post earlier, but it appears to have dis appeared!! :eek:

I hated school dinners, I can remember being forced to eat fish with loads of bones in it, and gagging on it, I hated it that much.


I loved the chocolate cracknel though!!! Yum, yum!!

prefabkid47

Must admit school salad was one of my pet hates,having to pick out the beetroot (yuk!) was bad enough but having to dissect the whole thing to remove the greenfly was the last straw.Even the watery,peppery 'salad cream' didn't improve things. :!:

katknapp

can anyone remember the wierd salad,they used to put orange sedgements in it aor apple and nuts i hated it! but the huge tray of meat pie was good,i think we called chicken or pork chewing gum lol

joanlawson

I've had more school dinners than I care to remember, both as a pupil and later as a teacher, so I've seen quite a few changes over the years.

Years ago, school dinners were eaten in a more civilised way, with proper plates instead of those plastic airline trays which are used now. The teachers often used to sit with the children, so it provided an opportunity to teach them good table manners. The food was brought to each table in dishes, and the children were taught to serve it out properly, and to clear the table afterwards. Lunch time was usually an hour and a half, so everyone could enjoy their meal without having to rush. I agree that the quality of the food varied from one school to another, but it was often very good, and nutritionally balanced.

In more recent years, school dinners have become much more like fast food, with children having to hurry to eat as lunch-times have got shorter. Teachers now no longer see it as part of their job to teach table manners, and many kids have no idea how to use a knife and fork, preferrring to use their fingers as with fast food. For many children, their school dinner is the only cooked meal they get, but the meals are often of poor nutritional value.

Joan

mellman01

Oh do I remember school dinners, god awful stuff you wouldn’t feed a dog, mush potato offal and gristle and damp lifeless veg that had all the colour boiled out of it, the damage those evil elves in the kitchens did was incredible, but what got me was why they always came in with big empty bags each day and left with full ones and they were always fat, hmmm now is it me or is there a link here???.

frogmorton

tinkerbelle wrote:

i never botherd just kept the 5 bob meself..............baby school was ok we had cod liveroil and malt

Oh Tink

we did too at secondary...bought ten number 6 a bag of crisps and a packet of polos.....who were we fooling??!!

Love

toni xx

katknapp

A son of a friend of mine has been taken to task by his teachers as he was selling crisps at a lower cost than the school tuck shop and making a fair bit too.

He's stopped the crisps and branched out into chocolate bars but he's not so open about the sale of these.

my son did this,i put a stop to it by buying the really really cheap brands

tonesp

Cheese Pie YUMMY

joanlawson

Spotted dick............I bet they daren't call it that these days ( a steamed fruit pudding )

prefabkid47

joanlawson wrote:

Spotted dick............I bet they daren't call it that these days ( a steamed fruit pudding )

Spotted dick (and lashings of custard),luvly.Have to see if Val's cafe has got it on the menu. :roll:

prefabkid47

tinkerbelle wrote:

i never botherd just kept the 5 bob meself..............baby school was ok we had cod liveroil and malt

Cod liver oil,when I was 'knee high to a grasshopper' mum (God rest her soul) had to hide it away used to drink the stuff out of the bottle,given the chance (must have had well oiled joints - now just well oiled!).

julie47

School dinners were not always bad, meat pie was nice and chocolate pudding with pink custard.... but......Spam fritters...yuk,yuk,yuk

juliepf x

magenta

Hi,
I loved Caramel Flan and custard, macaroni cheese and chips. Hated sausages with 'tights' on them (they had been stewed in gravy and the skin looked like 20 denier tights!). Worst EVER was semolina and prunes-I feel nauseous even thinking about that!
Magenta x

rugbygirl

The worst thing for me was not only having school dinners at school but my mum was also one of the school cooks so guess what I had most of the time!!

She would often come home with a receipe for us to try. Sometimes she would test them out on me and my dad before she cooked them at school.

She was a good one for making stews with those stupid cocktail onions and celery in, with the watery gravy.

I ended up saying that I wanted to have sandwiches because I couldnt deal with having school dinners twice a day. Once is enough for anyone

magenta

I also remember one dinner lady who would hit your hand with a ladle if you touched the area where the food was!!!!!!