"Fancy" Food
As an adult I now realize that as a kid, I had some real misconceptions about what it meant to be "wealthy." I used to think only "rich" people shopped at JC Penney and I thought anyone who owned a pool was rich, which is why my best friend and I would walk to school every morning and chuck the remains of our breakfast into pools ... even though they were located in what amounted to be back alleys behind a liquor store and a dive bar in a bad neighborhood. I don't know what the hell we were thinking.
This skewed way of thinking also applied to food. I used to think my grandpa was like, the richest man alive because he'd give me twenty bucks whenever I saw him once a month and because he put canned beets in his chef's salad and knew how to make homemade mac and cheese with chunks of ham in it. I also thought it was incredibly "fancy" that he'd make grinders for us and use oil on the bread instead of mayo.
I also remember being a kid and going to Sizzler's for the first time and being blown away by their buffet. I remember thinking, "They have a seafood buffet? It must cost SO MUCH to eat here!" I guess that reasoning came from the fact that the closest thing my family ever came to fresh fish was frozen fish sticks. I remember asking for "real" fish, like the kind on the PBS cooking shows and my mom said, "You've got champagne taste on a beer-bottle budget, Queen Elizabeth."
Did anyone else have any major misconceptions about "fancy" food when they were kids? What kinds of items did you think were the be-all-end-all?
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15 Comments:
Spaghetti wasn't company food, it was stuff you'd eat at home, but lasagne was something that could only be had at a restaurant or maybe if you were invited to someone's house and they happened to be Italian. But it was beyond the skills of anyone who wasn't born into it.
I thought that drinking soda was pretty special, too. Not so much that you had to he wealthy, but it had to be an occasion. Desserts, too, were for occasions.
And I thought that going out to lunch, anywhere, was a big deal. I was astounded when I went to McDonalds the first time with some other kids and their parents, and these kids knew what to order, and they talked about how they went there all the time. It was my first time, and I had no idea what it was all about. As far as I can remember, my parents never set foot in either a McDonalds or a BK, with or without me.
I guess I didn't think much in terms of rich and poor, as far as home-cooked meals, but it was more like special occasion food compared to family food. Like meatloaf and stews and soups were family food, but you'd serve a roast or pork chops or even a chicken to company.
I had one friend whose family was rumored to have some money, and we all thought it was amazing that her father was always home, so they had to be rich. In truth, dad was a garbage man and was home from work before we got out of school, so we never actually saw him come home. Her mom would make lunches and it would seem so fancy to me to go there, and she'd be eating a wedge salad for lunch.
dbcurrie at 2:15AM on 12/27/08
From the time that I remember till I was about 9 years old there was an upscale Italian restaurant downtown that my parents used to take me on special occations a few times a year. When i went to this places each time I felt so grown up because the owner would make sure I would have a Shirley Temple.
pjracz10 at 3:27AM on 12/27/08
Oh I had the shirley temple whenever we went out till I was 16 then I had whatever the heck I wanted. My parents believed that for us to get used to social drinking we had to socially drink. I LOVED this theory.
We entertained often. We prepared feasts in grand tradition. I cleaned silver, ironed napkins and set tables. I realize now I was very lucky to have been raised in a great environment and today I still keep some of that tradition going. We had a punch bowl that weighed 35 pounds ffs.
I thought in transverse that everyone lived like we did. How shocked I was when I met people who didn't even eat dinner together on holidays. Was a rude awakening. I often would find people who were minus a family for a holiday and bring them home with me. We had so much to share, why not?
I am pretty sure since I went grocery shopping with my mother often I knew what was expensive when dining out and what was not.
JerzeeTomato at 3:41AM on 12/27/08
Definitely. The idea of having lobster on any other night than Christmas Eve was so foreign to us growing up. Steak? Another special occasion food. My mother was big on roasts and braised meat - and chicken. Cream in a sauce? Definitely fancy.
Now I think of shee shee savory pastries as "fancy." Anything in phyllo dough, puff pastry, that isn't dessert is fancy food to me. However, my current definition of "fancy" has less to do with what something costs as it does with the time and effort taken in its preparation.
Holy Hanna, I just looked at the times of the preceding posts...God, you guys are night owls! :D
chiff0nade at 6:57AM on 12/27/08
What a fascinating thread! Although my home came with a pool, and may I say, after cleaning it myself for 4 summers thus far, I hope you, PumpkinBear, one day have the 'pleasure' of vacuuming, skimming, and scrubbing a pool of algae for your childhood transgression!
My mother had very little money growing up (she went to work at 17 to help support the family) and my father grew up on an isolated Greek island during WWII. Food was scarce for both of them, so when they had me late in life and could afford to do so, they ate out all of the time. My mother loathed cooking, and for my father eating out was an important part of the culture he had grown up in, during times of plenty.
There were lots of very hearty, well-prepared meals to be had at the restaurants in my area when I grew up--places that served a relish tray/soup/bread basket/cheese and crackers/Gorgonzola dressing/honking cuts of prime rib or 'seafood samplers' and dessert in a way that was definitely much better and cheaper than a lot of restaurants I've been to in New York since. Because I was just a kid I didn't know this was 'fancy' or not--I just liked eating out better than my mom's cooking :p And also loved McDonald's and pizza and so forth.
It wasn't until I was 13 that I began to understand what 'real' French food was, and probably even later than that before I fully appreciated how much food cost, not because we were super-wealthy, but because money was usually discussed in relation to other matters than food.
HeartofGlass at 8:12AM on 12/27/08
Growing up, it was really rare that we would eat out. And the few times we did we went to a place called "The Peking Palace". It was basically cheap Chinese food but as a kid I thought it was really fancy.
blankplate at 8:30AM on 12/27/08
steaks and oven beef roasts were rare in our household, most of the time it was seafood of some kind or ground beef. I grew up in new england so seafood was not expensive at all and pretty common on the table. But steaks and things like a standing rib, were almost never seen.
huneybumper at 8:49AM on 12/27/08
Growing up in New England my folks were of the "thrifty" mindset a.k.a. CHEAP! We did however have a roast of some kind every Sunday after church which my mother cooked till it was D.O.A. but the vegetables cooked in the broth still make my mouth water. Seafood was plentiful, sometimes too much so as were the obligatory casserole's. My mother was the casserole queen. We would only eat out on special ocassions, and never at an ethnic restaurant. My mother to this day doesn't eat Chinese, Mexican, Thai...etc... Fear of the unknown I guess.
The first Chinese restaurant I went to with a friend and his family, was in hindsight dreadful chinese food, but at the time I thought it high brow. I couldn't believe all the different foods on the buffet! (surely this cost someone a fortune) I moved to the south end of Hartford and was in the Mecca of Italian food and would eat it as often as I could... This was a time of ramen, minute rice and canned veggies in my cupboard so paying $12.95 for osso bucco was mind blowingly expensive....wow, wished I could find Osso Bucco for 12.95 again.
I had no Idea what expensive was until I took a date to The Butlers Room at the Inn at Essex in Essex Jct. Vt. That was the first time I paid over $100.00 dollars for dinner and it was mind blowingly good... It was also the first time I had gorgonzola cheese. (which I thought had gone bad due to the color) What a rube!
I'm not sure if I really ever thought about other people having fancy food much, as I grew up in a fairly ethnically "sterile" town in rural New England where everyone ate pretty much what everyone else ate with the exception of the greek folks who lived up the street with their fancy pastries and always cooking lamb outside. A lot of French Canadians, Finns, Sweeds, and the ocasional Italian families... italian was papa gino's (anyone who knows of it will swear it's not really italian) we didn't have a mexican place in town until Taco-"H"ell came some 5 yrs. after I left and the other restaurants were all "family" restaurants... whatever that means.
Oh yes, I did have a 4th grade teacher who was Jewish and when Hanukkah rolled around she made the class לאַטקעס ,ok latkes with something like creme fraiche if memory serves... I remembered thinking they were almost as good as McDonalds hash browns! God what the hell was/is wrong with me....
Pavlov at 10:13AM on 12/27/08
We didn't have much money growing up, but we always ate well. Also, I've been doing grocery shopping since I was 7-8 (not at all an unusual thing if you grew up in the centre of a big city 25 years ago - at least back then, it didn't seem like anything special), and I was fairly well educated about food prices, so I don't think I had any real misconceptions about that since an early age.
Of course, we had "special occasion" food. My parents hosted dinner parties every holiday (we're Jewish, but always ended up having a dinner party on Christmas day, for all my parents' family-less, out-of-town friends who, Mum was worried, were lonely. The friends absolutely loved it!). Soda wasn't "fancy", but it was also a special occasion drink. A whole goose or duck, or prawns or other shell fish were certainly special occasion food.
Oh, and eating at a real restaurant was "fancy". We never ate at McDonald's (I believe I was 16-17 when I first set foot there), I adored employee cafeteria at my Mum's work, and eating street food anywhere was a treat and adventure (something that my Gran would never allow because "you don't know where his hands were before he touched your food", but Mum or Dad would occasionally treat me to).
brooke29 at 10:33AM on 12/27/08
OMG Pav we had a papa gino's in town once, they burned the owner in effigy and ran them out of town. ;-)
huneybumper at 11:36AM on 12/27/08
Growing up in the UK with a brilliant mother cook, we did not often know the difference between rich or poor food. Food from the local shops and our kitchen garden was always plentifull. We never ate out, except for the jaunts to the local fish and chip shop. Back in the states, we had a 6 day drive from New Jersey to CA and feasted on McDonald's cheeseburgers, small fries and a coke each for me and my 5 sisters. Store bought bear claws and chocolate milk for breakfast. I thought that was the most decadent thing ever.
lamora at 12:59AM on 12/28/08
My great-grandfather used to give me waffles with jam spread on them. Not too fancy, but we would eat them with our hands! HANDS!
schwartz at 9:51AM on 12/28/08
when i was a kid i thought that the height of elegance was a jar of that lumpfish caviar you could buy in the canned fish aisle at the supermarket.
cybercita at 11:18AM on 12/28/08
The Whitman Sampler box. Oh my goodness. I guess from the time I was nine or so (no candy allowed before then) my dad would buy me one of the red heart-shaped boxes for Valentines Day every year. Let me tell you, I felt like Little Miss Snooty Patootie eating them. I'd actually stick out my pinky exactly like how I figured the Queen of England would.
chisai at 1:32PM on 12/28/08
@Pavlov, my version of New England life was growing up in a NH Boston suburb. We went to every type of ethnic food we could find.
Seafood other than white fish was an extravagance (mostly my mother's allergic and why would she buy something she wants and cant eat). Special desserts (like gulab jamin) or full blown meals were also an extravagance. By full blown meals I mean something that means complete planning and hours work and multiple pots with more than 2 pots having a theme. Also whole fruits were a treat, readily embraced, but highly regarded. Expensive restaurants were always far away and pretty. Flowers for a garnish is expensive restaurant food.
blizcheetah at 12:22AM on 12/29/08