Food during the Falklands War in 1982

[George 1978]

It was the same with 1992 - things were inherited from the previous decade and changed around a quarter of the way into that decade. I assume that you started nursery school in 1982, Richard, as I started in the Infants in the following year.

In 1983 when Children's ITV launched, it was only a year and a half after Charles marrying Diana but looking back it felt longer - two years were ancient history back then.

[SunnyLeslie]

My mother says that there is plenty of truth in it - certainly for the geographical fringes of Britain and lower class white British areas (like South Yorkshire, Sunderland, Hull, possibly Merseyside) but middle class folk were eating pasta, cooking with herbs, and frying food in Mazola by 1980. They knew what curry was even if they didn't eat it themselves. Takeaways and exotic fruit were available in cities with immigrant communities. Frozen food, apart from ice cream, had become reasonably mainstream although the range of items was limited. The teachers at her school drank tea made with leaves at breaktime. Coffee at work was more popular with professionals and office workers and other non-manual jobs, whereas manual and blue collar workers stuck to tea.

The 1983 general election was when the 80s really started, which included a transition towards more exotic food, takeaway food, eating out, and bottled water. A rise in interest in healthy eating began around the same time.

Well, I think the change was quite appropriate. Anyway, rethinking approaches to nutrition for the better is cool. A healthy lifestyle is still in trend today, and this trend is good and useful. I ask you not to confuse weight loss with a healthy lifestyle, otherwise the desire not to overeat and reproaches of conscience for an extra piece eaten even comes to anorexia.

[George 1978]

The 1983 general election was when the 80s really started, which included a transition towards more exotic food, takeaway food, eating out, and bottled water. A rise in interest in healthy eating began around the same time.

I suppose that the gap between the 1979 and 1983 General Elections were an era which was neither the 1970s or 1980s - or in some ways, an overlap of both. Thatcher's first term as Prime Minister brought so many changes to society - fashions changing so much, but also landmarks such as technology developing fast such as computers; the ITV network strike followed by new ITV companies on the air and breakfast television. Not to mention news such as Charles marrying Diana; Pope John Paul II visiting Britain; John Lennon's death and all that.

One thing that one can pinpoint with regards to food is how it was advertised - food such as Pot Noodles and toasted sandwiches (what one could make in the kitchen thanks to Breville) were relatively new during this period. Even a lot of cities were experiencing their first McDonald's restaurant opening - this was the case in Nottingham in 1982. Lucozade was veering away from the medicinal drink of the 1960s and 1970s advertising to becoming a simulant for sports celebrities (Daley Thompson, take a bow). McCain introduced their oven chips in this era as well.

[Arran]

Some of those might have been true in 1972, but many had changed by 1982.

My mother says that there is plenty of truth in it - certainly for the geographical fringes of Britain and lower class white British areas (like South Yorkshire, Sunderland, Hull, possibly Merseyside) but middle class folk were eating pasta, cooking with herbs, and frying food in Mazola by 1980. They knew what curry was even if they didn't eat it themselves. Takeaways and exotic fruit were available in cities with immigrant communities. Frozen food, apart from ice cream, had become reasonably mainstream although the range of items was limited. The teachers at her school drank tea made with leaves at breaktime. Coffee at work was more popular with professionals and office workers and other non-manual jobs, whereas manual and blue collar workers stuck to tea.

The 1983 general election was when the 80s really started, which included a transition towards more exotic food, takeaway food, eating out, and bottled water. A rise in interest in healthy eating began around the same time.

[Arran]

This has been making it's way around WhatsApp...

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.