primitives discuss school food

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/115717881

Oh my.

First up, the diet cola primitive, the former professional chef in New England, who got into trouble for tasting the cooking sherry way too much, and had to go away for a cure.  Several times.

Tab (8,882 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:31 PM

School foods that you hated

I grew up in the 60s and 70s, the era of shitty institutional food. Certain ones I could not stand, and they haunt me to this day:
 
(Elementary school)
- Canned creamed corn
- Peas
- Shepard's pie
- Spinach

(High school)
- Tuna Tetrazzini

My high school seemed to have some affinity for Tuna Tetrazzini. I hate the smell of canned tuna (I'll take fresh in sashimi, tho), and whatever the hell they did to Tuna Terrazzini made it difficult to be in the lunch room at all.
 
I can tolerate peas and spinach now (though I won't eat them) but canned cream corn and Shepard's pie and TT gross me out still.
 
How 'bout yourselves?

franksolich ate in the school cafeteria once in a while when in elementary school; being leery of the food, I'd just dine on the half-pint carton of milk, and if there was something on my plate another kid wanted, which about half the time there was, I'd give it to him for his half-pint of milk.

CurtEastPoint (3,582 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:33 PM

1. Ewww... we used to get LIVER MUSH in elem school

after which an image of.....something

cbayer (114,361 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 07:06 PM

5. That reminds me of what they do at Angola prison.

My son went there as part of a "Scared Straight" program. They took them to death row and told them that they take all the leftovers from the other areas, ground them, made loaves and served them to those prisoners.
 
I doubt they had those pretty pieces of parsley though.

Manifestor_of_Light (15,315 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:52 PM

2. vienna sausage. YUCK!

I would not eat a lot of cafeteria food b/c my mom cooked much better quality meat.

cbayer (114,361 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:55 PM

3. Shit on a shingle.

after which an image of.....something else

Otherwise known as chipped beef on toast.

I don't remember ever getting shepherd's pie, but I love it now.

Also, any canned vegetables. To this day, I can't stand them.

Otoh, I have a fondness for canned tuna, but dislike most cooked fish. Raw fish of all kinds I love.

dixiegrrrrl (27,665 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 07:11 PM

6. SOS can be good , actually.

If made at home, the right way.

cbayer (114,361 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 07:12 PM

7. Perhaps, but what I had in grade school ruined me for life.

I had trouble even posting the image, lol.

dixiegrrrrl (27,665 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 08:40 PM

8. I understand. Totally.

My Mom was such a bad cook that school lunches were great, overall, in my book.

Every once in awhile, when I think back to the 3rd grade for some reason, I will get a smell memory of the lunchroom, and how the smell wafted thru the entire school.

Lugnut (8,303 posts)    Fri Dec 7, 2012, 01:55 AM

11. I hear you!

The grade school cafeteria served SOS over mashed potatoes. I'd always ask the lady spooning out the SOS to put mine on the side of the potatoes so I'd at least have that to eat for lunch.

DrDan (14,241 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 06:59 PM

4. spanish rice . . . just horrible!

Tab (8,882 posts)    Sat Dec 8, 2012, 01:49 PM

14. Really?

How can you **** up Spanish Rice?

DrDan (14,241 posts)    Sat Dec 8, 2012, 02:54 PM

15. it was like rice in tomato paste . . .

except not quite that good

nadine_mn (2,205 posts)    Thu Dec 6, 2012, 11:33 PM

9. Root beer punch

I had after school care in 1st and 2nd grade and they served root beer punch...basically watered down flat root beer water. Most disgusting thing ever...to this day 30 odd yrs later I cannot stand the smell of root beer
 
Fish sticks

Spinach

Lima beans

pinto (96,020 posts)    Fri Dec 7, 2012, 01:51 AM

10. Mystery Beef Stew.

There were obvious little orange and white cubes - tasteless carrots and potatoes. And the feared mystery beef. Talk about conspiracy theories...

jackbenimble (237 posts)    Fri Dec 7, 2012, 08:52 PM

12. Stewed Tomatoes

At the time I couldn't stomach even looking at them. Smelling them made me ill.

Now I can use diced tomatoes in recipes no problem but I still don't care for the looks of a stewed tomato.

Warpy (65,961 posts)    Fri Dec 7, 2012, 10:09 PM

13. Stewed okra & tomatoes (junior high and high school)

Institutional pizza(I think they used government cheddar).

The rest of it has faded into a brown haze. I mostly ate rice and green veg and if it was all terrible, I'd eat an apple.
 
However, slimy okra & tomatoes and cardboard institutional pizza have stayed with me.

<<after reading this whole campfire, am still wondering what the cbayer primitive's son did, that he needed scared straight.

[Dori]

My grade school didn't have a cafeteria.  We all brown bagged it.  Jr. High (middle school) had a cafeteria, but I never bought unless it was pizza or burger day.

[Bad Dog]

I see in the news today that Moochelle is going to let the school kids have a little meat & bread in their school lunches. 

[blitzkrieg_17]

Puke-ola at all of those. I'll agreee with DU on one thing. School food cannot legally be called "food."

[DumbAss Tanker]

Our school food was always pretty good, actually.  The only thing that really made me gag (Literally) was the spinach/greens/kale (It all looked and tasted the same to me, and my throat would clamp down and refuse to swallow any of it).

[blitzkrieg_17]

Our school food was always pretty good, actually.  The only thing that really made me gag (Literally) was the spinach/greens/kale (It all looked and tasted the same to me, and my throat would clamp down and refuse to swallow any of it).

Gross. Kale is good sauteed or in soup, but I haven't had either in years.

[Delmar]

I always liked the school lunches.  I always cleaned my plate but that isn't saying much since I was always hungry.  My palate never discriminated. 

We all sat with our left arms protectively curled around the front of our trays to keep other guys from messing with our food--reform school style.  Those were the days.

One of my buddies always swallowed his pear halves whole, without chewing.  I tried it once and it almost killed me, it got stuck halfway down and it took one heck of a gulp to swallow it.  This was in the days before the Heimlich maneuver was known--before it was widely known as far as I know, anyway.  That was just one of the times I could've been royally screwed while growing up.  I'm lucky to have made it to adulthood.

[ChuckJ]

School lunchroom food doesn't have to be bad.

A few years back I ran into my old fifth grade teacher. He's now retired, but at the time he was the principal at one of the middle schools. He told me that I ought to drop by and have lunch with him one day at the school. I laughed and told him that my eating in the lunchroom days were long behind me. He assured me that the lunchroom food at his school wasn't like what we had back in the good old days so I took him up on the offer. I was very surprised. It was as good, if not better, than any of the buffet restaurants in town. He said it was because the lady that was the head of the lunchroom cooked like she was cooking for her own family.

[I_B_Perky]

Our school food was always pretty good, actually.  The only thing that really made me gag (Literally) was the spinach/greens/kale (It all looked and tasted the same to me, and my throat would clamp down and refuse to swallow any of it).

Same here. Our school food was actually daggone great. You couldn't beat what you got for lunch... at 20 cents if I remember... and it was hot! I ate there up until I was a senior in HS and didn't have any classes in the afternoon and we always ate at the Burger Chef or Mickey D's. It was more expensive, but that was a status symbol eating at the BC or MD.

We always had nice ladies that were the cooks too. If you went back up and asked for more, they always had more. I was always real skinny, 6'3 and 130 lbs, and I think the ladies thought that I didn't get fed at home.

All the teachers ate there too.

Not to mention the fresh school rolls. Dayum, those things were good!!!   

I never had a bad school lunch. Those old ladies knew how to cook.

[thundley4]

School lunch is too good.  Cook told to make it not as good.

[catsmtrods]

I guess their two mommies were to busy doing other things to pack them a lunch?

[JohnnyReb]

Same here. Our school food was actually daggone great. You couldn't beat what you got for lunch... at 20 cents if I remember... and it was hot! I ate there up until I was a senior in HS and didn't have any classes in the afternoon and we always ate at the Burger Chef or Mickey D's. It was more expensive, but that was a status symbol eating at the BC or MD.

We always had nice ladies that were the cooks too. If you went back up and asked for more, they always had more. I was always real skinny, 6'3 and 130 lbs, and I think the ladies thought that I didn't get fed at home.

All the teachers ate there too.

Not to mention the fresh school rolls. Dayum, those things were good!!!   

I never had a bad school lunch. Those old ladies knew how to cook.

That was the way it was when I went to school....1950's to mid 60's.

We got food at school like we'd get at home. A meat 2/3 vegetables, bread, desert and milk/water. No snack vending machines or drink machines in the school house.

The grammar school I went to had 75 to 80 students, 3 rooms, 3 teachers and a black cook. We all loved the cook. She "cooked" everything. When we were in the fifth and sixth grades, 2 of us would be assigned to help in the kitchen for a week. We all always looked forward to working in the kitchen with the cook. Boy, would the lawyers have a field day with that now days.

My favorite desert in grammar school was pineapple upside down cake.....where is that slobbering smilie when you need it.

[marv]

That was the way it was when I went to school....1950's to mid 60's.

We got food at school like we'd get at home. A meat 2/3 vegetables, bread, desert and milk/water. No snack vending machines or drink machines in the school house.

The grammar school I went to had 75 to 80 students, 3 rooms, 3 teachers and a black cook. We all loved the cook. She "cooked" everything. When we were in the fifth and sixth grades, 2 of us would be assigned to help in the kitchen for a week. We all always looked forward to working in the kitchen with the cook. Boy, would the lawyers have a field day with that now days.

My favorite desert in grammar school was pineapple upside down cake.....where is that slobbering smilie when you need it.

Fixed it for ya........

[catsmtrods]

Yeah I remember that pineapple upside-down cake! That was good! I want some.

[Dori]

Yeah I remember that pineapple upside-down cake! That was good! I want some.

That's one of my favorites too.  Mom used to bake it in her cast iron skillet.

[Big Dog]

Lugnut (8,303 posts)    Fri Dec 7, 2012, 01:55 AM

11. I hear you!

The grade school cafeteria served SOS over mashed potatoes. I'd always ask the lady spooning out the SOS to put mine on the side of the potatoes so I'd at least have that to eat for lunch.

How did that work, DUmmy? Did the lunch lady put the toast on the mashed potatoes, then ladle the creamed chipped beef on top for a mountain of starchy goodness? Michelle Antoinette would not approve!

Actually, that doesn't sound half bed, especially with a soft fried egg and some Tobasco sauce on top. It's making me misty-eyed for some old fashioned Army chow!

[Big Dog]

Yeah I remember that pineapple upside-down cake! That was good! I want some.

Yeah, what you said. My other favorites were school chili and cinnamon rolls.