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When Britain fought the Falklands War in 1982:
Pasta was only eaten by Italians.
Curry was a surname.
Spice was used in a Christmas cake.
Chilli was something from Mexico. Scotch bonnets were an item of clothing worn by old women in Dundee.
Herbs, apart from parsley and thyme, were medicinal.
Rice was a milk pudding, and never served with a main course.
Oven chips were unheard of. Chips were deep fried.
Fruit was seasonal. No strawberries in winter, but figs and dates were only available in December.
The only vegetables were potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips, peas, cauliflowers, cabbage, and sprouts.
Pineapples came in chunks in a tin. Hardly anybody had seen a real pineapple.
Pomegranates, passion fruits, guavas, and mangoes were only known about by botanists or people who had visited countries where they grow.
Coconuts were only encountered at a fairground.
Grapes were very exotic and not generally sold at supermarkets or local greengrocers.
Salads were only served at buffets and parties for adults. Children were not expected to eat them.
There was only one salad dressing, and that was salad cream. Mayonnaise was American. Only the French used French dressing.
Oil was for lubricating car engines. Beef dripping and lard were used for cooking.
Olive oil was sold in small bottles from chemist shops and used to soften ear wax.
Eating out took place at a pub or a Berni steakhouse.
The only ready meals came from the local fish and chip shop.
A takeaway was a mathematical exercise.
Kebab wasn't even a word in the dictionary.
Prawn cocktail as a starter and Black Forest cake as a dessert at a dinner party were seen as posh.
People thought you were poor if you bought brown bread.
Only poor or stingy people used margarine. The middle classes used butter.
Bottled sauces were either tomato ketchup or HP.
Frozen food was called ice cream.
Pancakes were only eaten on pancake day / Shrove Tuesday.
Boil in the bag white fish in sauce was popular and socially acceptable to eat.
The tinned food section in supermarkets were twice as big as they are today but the chilled food section were less than half the size they are today.
People who didn't eat bacon were considered weird.
It was normal (and expected!) for kids to eat liver, and it would not have freaked out classmates at school.
Vegetarians were weird. Soya? Err, don't you mean soil! Quorn? That's a village in Leicestershire.
Anybody feeding a vegan diet to their kids would most likely have had a visit by the NSPCC.
Eggs were not free range unless you owned a hen.
Tea had one flavour – black tea. Most people made tea in a teapot using tea leaves. Tea bags were available but were seen as a bit naff, or only suitable for builders.
Coffee was still seen as a posh drink for the middle classes. Common folk drank tea. Fancy coffees sold in coffee shops hadn't been invented. A cup of Maxwell House with drop of milk and a spoon of sugar was considered exotic.
There were only two varieties of milk – full fat and sterilised. Semi-skimmed didn't exist. Plant milk hadn't been invented.
Anybody who ordered meals was considered disabled. The only company that delivered meals to homes in most towns was the council run meals on wheels service.
Small independent shops would deliver food to customers but supermarkets didn't do deliveries.
People paid for their weekly shopping at a supermarket with cash or by writing out a cheque. Small independent shops only took cash. No contactless back then.
Only the bigger supermarkets had bar code scanners. In other shops the prices had to be manually entered into cash registers.
Water came out of a tap. Anybody who suggested bottling it and selling it would have ended up in a psychiatric hospital.
When Britain fought the Falklands War in 1982:
Pasta was only eaten by Italians.
Curry was a surname.
Spice was used in a Christmas cake.
Chilli was something from Mexico. Scotch bonnets were an item of clothing worn by old women in Dundee.
Herbs, apart from parsley and thyme, were medicinal.
Rice was a milk pudding, and never served with a main course.
Oven chips were unheard of. Chips were deep fried.
Fruit was seasonal. No strawberries in winter, but figs and dates were only available in December.
The only vegetables were potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips, peas, cauliflowers, cabbage, and sprouts.
Pineapples came in chunks in a tin. Hardly anybody had seen a real pineapple.
Pomegranates, passion fruits, guavas, and mangoes were only known about by botanists or people who had visited countries where they grow.
Coconuts were only encountered at a fairground.
Grapes were very exotic and not generally sold at supermarkets or local greengrocers.
Salads were only served at buffets and parties for adults. Children were not expected to eat them.
There was only one salad dressing, and that was salad cream. Mayonnaise was American. Only the French used French dressing.
Oil was for lubricating car engines. Beef dripping and lard were used for cooking.
Olive oil was sold in small bottles from chemist shops and used to soften ear wax.
Eating out took place at a pub or a Berni steakhouse.
The only ready meals came from the local fish and chip shop.
A takeaway was a mathematical exercise.
Kebab wasn't even a word in the dictionary.
Prawn cocktail as a starter and Black Forest cake as a dessert at a dinner party were seen as posh.
People thought you were poor if you bought brown bread.
Only poor or stingy people used margarine. The middle classes used butter.
Bottled sauces were either tomato ketchup or HP.
Frozen food was called ice cream.
Pancakes were only eaten on pancake day / Shrove Tuesday.
Boil in the bag white fish in sauce was popular and socially acceptable to eat.
The tinned food section in supermarkets were twice as big as they are today but the chilled food section were less than half the size they are today.
People who didn't eat bacon were considered weird.
It was normal (and expected!) for kids to eat liver, and it would not have freaked out classmates at school.
Vegetarians were weird. Soya? Err, don't you mean soil! Quorn? That's a village in Leicestershire.
Anybody feeding a vegan diet to their kids would most likely have had a visit by the NSPCC.
Eggs were not free range unless you owned a hen.
Tea had one flavour – black tea. Most people made tea in a teapot using tea leaves. Tea bags were available but were seen as a bit naff, or only suitable for builders.
Coffee was still seen as a posh drink for the middle classes. Common folk drank tea. Fancy coffees sold in coffee shops hadn't been invented. A cup of Maxwell House with drop of milk and a spoon of sugar was considered exotic.
There were only two varieties of milk – full fat and sterilised. Semi-skimmed didn't exist. Plant milk hadn't been invented.
Anybody who ordered meals was considered disabled. The only company that delivered meals to homes in most towns was the council run meals on wheels service.
Small independent shops would deliver food to customers but supermarkets didn't do deliveries.
People paid for their weekly shopping at a supermarket with cash or by writing out a cheque. Small independent shops only took cash. No contactless back then.
Only the bigger supermarkets had bar code scanners. In other shops the prices had to be manually entered into cash registers.
Water came out of a tap. Anybody who suggested bottling it and selling it would have ended up in a psychiatric hospital.
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