Wednesday 22 April 2009

Emily NEEDS chocolate

ON Hell's Kitchen the other night Marco Pierre White asked his celebrity (!) contestants to make him a dish which best summed up their childhood eating experiences - and would provide him an insight into where their palette came from.
I began to wonder what I'd cook for Marco and I couldn't come up with one dish that sums up my childhood so I came up with a list of 10.
Any of these would catapult me back to my formative years.
However, I haven't added a certain 'incident' where an sadistic dinner lady made me eat my sandwiches after a flask of Ribena had leaked all over them.
I'm sure Marco would be horrified and the person in question (you know who you are) would be prosecuted for child cruelty.
Here is my list of childhood flavours, I wonder what it'd say about my palette:
  1. My grandma's strawberry jam. No other jam can compare, but for a memory jogger eating Bonne Maman jam straight from the jar isn't a bad substitute.
  2. Minced beef curry, made with Savacentre's curry powder. Mum used to make it with brown rice mixed with peas. The smell of any curry powder takes me back there.
  3. Ribena blackcurrant squash. Strong and preferably without the soggy sandwiches on the side.
  4. Cadbury Buttons. My letters to granddad stating 'Emily NEEDS chocolate' always resulted in a brown envelope of treats. Once a diva, always a diva.
  5. Similarly Cadbury Wispa Gold bars used to be a favourite treat for my dad and I and we used to savour them together. Can we start a campaign to bring those back too??
  6. Mum's Victoria sponge cakes, especially the one she iced to look like a fairy princess castle for my fifth birthday.
  7. Boursin garlic and herb cheese sandwiches. Even at the age of nine I ate chicer sarnies than the other kids.
  8. Mum's roast dinners. Probably a entrant on the list of most Brits. Great roast spuds. Mint sauce too, whatever the meat.
  9. Strawberry cheesecake, from the supermarket. We often ate it half frozen because it took too long to thaw out properly. A great pudding after Sunday lunch. Similarly shop-bought Victoria sponges with frozen dairy cream inside.
  10. Heinz beans and burger bites. They don't make them anymore. A travesty.
Which tastes take you back to childhood? Let me know....
Why not write about your childhood food memories on your blog and link me in?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, this kinda sucks cause most of my childhood foods I cant get in the UK, but they are Nutter Butters (peanut butter cookies) and Carvel ice cream sandwiches. I always stuff myself silly when I visit home. Cant bring any ice cream back, but usually bring back the cookies. Oh, and watermelon.
Love the "Emily needs chocolate", so cute!

Emily said...

Thanks HH. Carvel icecream sandwiches sound delicious. My boy likes Maxi-bon icecream sandwiches, are they the same thing? Compile your list!

cinabar said...

Kasekuchen - like my grandma used to make. A baked cheesecake that is the most fantastic thing ever, not like an American baked cheesecake at all. It contains curd cheese (or Quark) and the closest recipe I can find to it is: http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/2244/Recipe.cfm the pastry is such effort, but wow... mmmmmm

Anonymous said...

This is a genius idea for a blog!

Maybe you should do one of those competitions and everyone can contribute their list and then link back to your blog and bingo - beaucoup de incoming links!

A dish that sums up my childhood? One early memory: my mum used to make scrambled eggs with a big tomato with its lid sliced off but balanced on the rest of the tomato.

I imagined the tomato was a magical sort of house.

Emily said...

Thanks for reading both. Loved reading about your childhood memories of food. The cheesecake style dessert sounds divine and I just love scrambled eggs!

Realfoodlover, you are a genius. I am just learning about all these clever ideas for linking people to my blog!

Thinspired said...

I love this list :) I get sentimental about foods, too. You can definitely see your British-ness in this list!
This is a great idea for a blog post, and I might take you up on your offer to do a post on it and link back to you. I'm sure you can tell that I'm short on material lately.

Emily said...

Thanks Lara. Have fun with it. It made me so happy writing it. Aaaah, happy days!