Grim Britannia

[Mr. Tea]

I'm more perturbed by the molten marmalade on top of it than by anything else.

 

[martin]

Unless someone's mentioned it and I've missed it, surely something major you have to factor in, in the then-vs-now which-is-grimmer argument, is that a lot of what people ate in the 70s and 80s wouldn't even be recognised as food by young or young-ish people today.

True, but child obesity was much rarer then, so every cloud.

Does anyone use chip fryers anymore? They were obviously enough of a 'kitchen staple' that the fire brigade churned out regular public information films about them, usually with some terrified old granny sobbing behind a fireball.

I think it's ground lamb and peach, by the way.

 

[luka]

True, but child obesity was much rarer then, so every cloud.

Does anyone use chip fryers anymore? They were obviously enough of a 'kitchen staple' that the fire brigade churned out regular public information films about them, usually with some terrified old granny sobbing behind a fireball.

I think it's ground lamb and peach, by the way.

Craner does.

 

[Mr. Tea]

True, but child obesity was much rarer then, so every cloud.

Yes, that's true. I guess there was a lot of food that was uninspired but nonetheless basically wholesome. Far fewer McDonald's etc. (first in the UK opened in 74, in Woolwich, the internet tells me). I guess there probably weren't snack machines in sixth form common rooms back then, either. And kids played outside far more - fewer cars on the roads and much less parental fear of paedos, even when that sort of thing was probably a lot more common, in part because people weren't wise to it back then. (Or, in Jonathan Meades' words, "the gutter press hadn't yet turned us into a nation of moralistic vigilantes".)

 

[Mr. Tea]

Plus fuck all to do at home except watch two, or at best three, channels of TV.

 

[IdleRich]

Curious about the Bristolian novels you cite. Subtle but highly significant differences in world-views and social norms are difficult to convey in 140 characters.

Yeah I was gonna ask about that too.

 

[sufi]

View attachment 3904

Several+ Perceptions+( Virago+ Modern+ Classics+ Book+ 75) Nodrm : Angela Carter : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Several_Perceptions

archive.org

this is the 2nd out of the bristol trilogy

 

[IdleRich]

Unless someone's mentioned it and I've missed it, surely something major you have to factor in, in the then-vs-now which-is-grimmer argument, is that a lot of what people ate in the 70s and 80s wouldn't even be recognised as food by young or young-ish people today.

And it's not just poor-quality food that poor people ate because they could afford nothing else - arguably the worst monstrosities were aspirational middle-class foods, novelty foods, dishes intended to "wow your guests" at your dinner party, or make use of your fancy new microwave oven to cook an entire meal.

Whereas today you can buy an actually pretty decent pizza from Aldi for about three quid.

Is it meatloaf in a suet pastry? Could work I guess, love suet.
Reminds me of being in Paris and we went to my friend's aunt's (long lost rich aunt in fact like in a book or something )house. She was this mad old lady in her 80s and she pulled out loads of booze, but also this seventies French cookbook stuffed with things like the above but more so, we spent the whole afternoon getting utterly wankered with her and all laughing at this stupid food.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Yeah, even if the ingredients are basically OK, you can't really get past the twee novelty presentation.

 

[IdleRich]

this is the 2nd out of the bristol trilogy

This is the Angela Carter who wrote all the feminist fairy-tale stuff? Is she from Bristol?

 

[Murphy]

@Mr. Tea

 

[Mr. Tea]

@Mr. Tea

I've not even seen that, but it was nonetheless in my mind while I was writing about gross 70s novelty party food.

The fag in her mouth prompts another thought: virtually every indoor environment, public or private, must have permanently stunk of smoke.

 

[...]

I remember when I started at Foyles there was a specific staff room for smokers. It had a pernenant grey haze of smoke in it and the air had a stench of death.

 

[Mr. Tea]

 

[Mr. Tea]

I remember when I started at Foyles there was a specific staff room for smokers. It had a pernenant grey haze of smoke in it and the air had a stench of death.

Sounds like the staff room at my high school. The Forbidden Zone.

 

[luka]

Airport smoking rooms are good like that. Everyone furiously chugging away like their lives depended on it

 

[Mr. Tea]

I don't know if it's still there, but in Restaurant 1 at CERN ca. 2005 there was cubic section of the seating area that was sealed off from the outside world by clear perspex sheets, with a spring-loaded door (also perspex), and that was the designated smoking area. So it was just a cube of smoke-filled air in the otherwise smokeless restaurant. It was jocularly referred to as 'the gas chamber', which I thought was a bit close to the bone, given that Switzerland was not entirely uncooperative with Nazi Germany.

 

[Mr. Tea]

chugging away like their lives depended on it

Kind of ironic, put like that.

 

[Murphy]

No Roy Castle jokes?

Dedication’s what you need.

 

[hmg]

Unless someone's mentioned it and I've missed it, surely something major you have to factor in, in the then-vs-now which-is-grimmer argument, is that a lot of what people ate in the 70s and 80s wouldn't even be recognised as food by young or young-ish people today.

And it's not just poor-quality food that poor people ate because they could afford nothing else - arguably the worst monstrosities were aspirational middle-class foods, novelty foods, dishes intended to "wow your guests" at your dinner party, or make use of your fancy new microwave oven to cook an entire meal.

Whereas today you can buy an actually pretty decent pizza from Aldi for about three quid.

And yet... Obesity a fraction of what it is today