Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[jamespowers]

Campbell's new Go soups hits the supermarket shelves next month. I might give it a try.

Be careful of the ones with mescaline in them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

But quinoa is really good. I really like grainy stuff like quinoa, bulghur, couscous and barley.

When I was a little kid, I was terrified of barley. It wasn't that I didn't like it -- I was scared of it. Made my mother pick it out of the soup before I'd eat it, a fact of which she never tires of reminding me.

Nothing wrong with eating foreign foods if that's what you like -- my problem is with the way it's turned into a marketing trend exploiting the tendency of modern middle-class white people to Fetishize The Exotic. Grain is grain, no matter where they grow it, and it doesn't have magical powers to bring you closer to the Simple Values and Native Wisdom of The Other People, or make you somehow more cosmopolitan and worldly because the grain you're eating was grown in a patch of dirt ten thousand miles away. All grain does is make you regular, and you can get that from a bowl of All Bran at a fraction of the price.

 

[sheeplady]

But quinoa is really good. I really like grainy stuff like quinoa, bulghur, couscous and barley. The latter is very traditional here, but coming as I do from an area with plenty of immigrants of non-Scandinavian origin (which here also equals 'low income'), I've always eaten food from all over the world. I never saw 'exotic' food as posh or 'artisanal' since I learned about it from (decidedly un-posh) people I knew. While trendy here these days, there is nothing ridiculous or inherently fancy about, say, Ethiopian cuisine (my grandparents used to live there so I grew up acquainted with injera and wot). Likewise, something like nam plaa may sound fancy-pantsy but it's also a staple in the kitchen of Thai rice farmers...

I do a lot of "foreign" cooking- in other words- foods that are not from my heritage or where I grew up. There's nothing wrong with cooking a traditional meal from another culture, especially since each culture has developed a certain way of dealing with extending, seasoning, and preparing cheap foods. Especially if you have a chance to learn to cook these dishes from someone from that culture. It's not acting uppity or stealing anything, it's about eating good food. I don't get offended when someone from another culture makes or eats my culture's food, I'm happy they like it. Even better if they put a delicious spin on it and teach me how they do it.

I am also a huge fan of Quinoa and Amaranth, particularly for being cheap and good sources of protein. Amaranth, of course, being what my father always called "pig weed" that grew in the garden (it's true name is wild amaranth). Lots of people think amaranth is all "posh" and the only people who eat it are trying to be special, but it's seriously eaten by all sorts of people. The people I've met who eat it regularly around here are either really poor or upper middle class- and in this area you're more likely to find someone who scavenged it from the roadside than bought it from a store.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thing that really makes me laugh out loud is that people pay good money for canned fiddleheads -- the sprouts of ferns that we've been scrounging from the woods for generations. They taste like boiled lawn clippings, and I've never understood what the big deal is about a food we only ate when there was absolutely nothing else available, other than the fact that it's considered "exotic." Pfft. Have some dandelion greens while you're at it, they're exotic too.

 

[Fletch]

You could sue for defamation on the brand name, too

 

[kiwilrdg]

be careful of the ones with mescaline in them.

I thought that was bad advice, then I notced that I misread that as Mescal.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Not completely gone, but they claim it's disappearing fast: white bread.

“Americans still eat a lot of industrial bread — 1.5 billion loaves of it in 2009 — but there has been a marked cultural turn away from the stuff,” Bobrow-Strain, a professor of politics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., writes in an e-mail. “Some of that has to do with health consciousness, and a lot of it has to do with changing status consciousness.” He calls white bread “an icon of poverty and narrow choices in the age of yuppie foodie-ism.”

Pffft. I still eat it and enjoy it unapologetically. It makes superior toast -- which is, after all, just a vehicle for carrying butter into your mouth, and fancy flavors and textures just get in the way.

 

[kiwilrdg]

icans still eat a lot of industrial bread — 1.5 billion loaves of it in 2009 — but there has been a marked cultural turn away from the stuff,” Bobrow-Strain, a professor of politics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., writes in an e-mail. “Some of that has to do with health consciousness, and a lot of it has to do with changing status consciousness.” He calls white bread “an icon of poverty and narrow choices in the age of yuppie foodie-ism.”

It is kind of odd that the processed foods are now considered poverty foods when the more rustic breads and non-processed foods were really the poverty foods in the past.

 

[dnjan]

Yes - I grew up with real butter that my dad churned. Margarine from the grocery store was a treat!

 

[scottyrocks]

I remember when I mom first began to buy margarine. I believe the main reason for it (in my house) was because it didn't tear up the bread when spread.

 

[John in Covina]

I remember when I mom first began to buy margarine. I believe the main reason for it (in my house) was because it didn't tear up the bread when spread.

My mom used it for higher temperature frying.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It is kind of odd that the processed foods are now considered poverty foods when the more rustic breads and non-processed foods were really the poverty foods in the past.

Even more interesting is that much of the "non-processed hand baked" bread of the early 20th century was made with adulterated flour, with every sleazy corner-cutting trick imaginable taken to cheapen the cost of making the product. It wasn't uncommon to buy a loaf from your friendly neighborhood baker that had as much sawdust in it as it did flour, and had been handled and squeezed by who knows how many people before you bought it. The advent of pre-wrapped, sanitary bread made from certified flour was a huge step forward from what people were getting before it came on the scene.

 

[MissMittens]

I was brought up on margarine.......but switched to butter when I reached adulthood.

 

[MissMittens]

The thing that really makes me laugh out loud is that people pay good money for canned fiddleheads -- the sprouts of ferns that we've been scrounging from the woods for generations. They taste like boiled lawn clippings, and I've never understood what the big deal is about a food we only ate when there was absolutely nothing else available, other than the fact that it's considered "exotic." Pfft. Have some dandelion greens while you're at it, they're exotic too.

Dandelion greens are great with a salad

 

[jamespowers]

Dandelion greens are great with a salad

An Exotic salad.

 

[St. Louis]

Some things that have disappeared in my lifetime (though I'm doing my best to bring them back):

portieres -- I love the idea of curtains in indoor doorways. Makes the room feel cozier and definitely keeps out chills and drafts.

Saying "glad to know you" when introduced to a new person. So much friendlier than "nice to meet you," I feel, because it implies that you're willing to know the person over the long haul.

Wearing gloves as an elegant accessory, rather than only as a way to keep hands warm in the winter.

Handkerchiefs and table linens for everyday use.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The thing that really makes me laugh out loud is that people pay good money for canned fiddleheads -- the sprouts of ferns that we've been scrounging from the woods for generations. They taste like boiled lawn clippings, and I've never understood what the big deal is about a food we only ate when there was absolutely nothing else available, other than the fact that it's considered "exotic." Pfft. Have some dandelion greens while you're at it, they're exotic too.

Aren't fiddleheads used a lot in French-Canadian cuisine?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep. And they're tres vile in any language.

 

[Stanley Doble]

My mom started to buy corn oil margarine in the sixties because it was promoted as a healthy low cholesterol alternative to butter. My dad hated margarine and didn't like to even have it in the house. He would never eat it. So mom kept her Blue Bonnet for herself and butter for him.

It turns out, margarine contains just as much fat, just as many calories, and at least as much cholesterol as butter even if it is made of corn oil. In fact hydrogenated vegetable oil is the next thing to plastic and not as healthy for you as butter.

It also turns out cholesterol is not the villain in heart disease everyone thought it was. Heart disease has declined over the last 30 years as people take more vitamin c and eat more salads and vegetables (I'm not saying everybody).

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Oleo used to be banned in Wisconsin, and I believe it still cannot be served in restaurants as a substitute for butter, unless the customer asks for it.

I was brought up on margarine.......but switched to butter when I reached adulthood.