Food during the Falklands War in 1982

[George 1978]

Curry was a surname.

It was also a brand of electrical retailers across Great Britain when pluralised.

[George 1978]

Microwave ovens don't seem to have changed much in their appearances - it's only their power and efficiency that has improved over the years. I saw a Noel's Telly Years where Noel Edmonds showed two different microwave ovens from 1980 (the edition of Noel's Telly Years which was being featured) and 1997 (the year it was seen on BBC 1), and to be honest, both microwave ovens looked just as good as each other - it only the radio cassette recorder that he featured in the same slot that looked as it had improved a lot in those 17 years.

[Semi42]

With a previous post mentioning expensive microwave ovens, I remember buying my first one from Comet. Carried it to the bus stop then off the bus to home , it weighed a ton!

[George 1978]

The fact that 1982 was the year that Nottingham had got its first McDonald's meant that locally, fast food was different around the time of the Falklands War as well - not many Nottingham people had tasted a Big Mac before that, I assume.

[Arran]

Was beef and pork liver the most commonly served varieties in schools? It is the cheapest because of low consumer demand.

[SunnyLeslie]

It tended to be Pakistani kids rather than white British kids who ate liver at home. Chicken and lamb liver was most popular. It was usually cooked with lots of spices.

Halal butcher shops still resemble the old school butcher shops that cut off pieces of meat on request and always have a stock of organs.

All families have their own traditions. The liver of a chicken or rabbit is very tender, does not have an intense taste like beef or pork. Offal is very tasty, the main thing is to cook it right.

[Arran]

It tended to be Pakistani kids rather than white British kids who ate liver at home. Chicken and lamb liver was most popular. It was usually cooked with lots of spices.

Halal butcher shops still resemble the old school butcher shops that cut off pieces of meat on request and always have a stock of organs.

[SunnyLeslie]

I used to know kids at primary school who ate liver at home but I don't think the school ever served it when I was there back in the 1990s.

And from the age of 9 I like liver pate with the addition of chicken or rabbit meat. And a little later he began to eat liver stewed with vegetables. The main thing is to cook it right, it's very tasty.

[Arran]

I don't remember ever having liver at school, even my Mum never really tried to get me & my siblings to eat it.

I used to know kids at primary school who ate liver at home but I don't think the school ever served it when I was there back in the 1990s.

[George 1978]

Do anyone still do fondue sets, I wonder?

[Arran]

Back in the 1980s the nation had to endure Keith Floyd as a celebrity chef and get peptic ulcers from just watching him cooking.

[George 1978]

.

In the 1990s there seemed to be quite a big change in the sort of food people cooked at home. Ingredients like balsamic vinegar & capers would have been tricky to find outside of specialist shops in 1990s, but by the end of the decade most supermarkets stocked them. Delia Smith & many other celebrity chefs seemed to help this happen, a far cry from Fanny Craddock's stodgy pretend-French fare.

Yes, cookery programmes have changed in the past 40 years - can anyone imagine Jamie Oliver presenting Farmhouse Kitchen on a weekday afternoon?

[Arran]

I have to admit that I am surprised that we are talking about what food was available in 1982 - back in 1942, let's say, I could understand, but 1982 wasn't too much like a world away to today as 1942 was to 1982?

There have been many changes with food even since the 1990s. For a start, there are thousands more eateries around now compared with 25 or so years ago. Eating out was an occasional activity for most families during the Falklands war but has become very much an everyday activity in recent years – hence the impact of coronavirus on the hospitality sector and people's lifestyles. I can remember some pizza shops that would deliver food – by teenagers on mopeds – and I think a local curry house did as well back in the late 1990s although delivery times were restricted. I think the Chinese dominated the takeaway market during the 1970s and early 80s before the McBurger places and Indian takeaways took off.

The variety of chilled foods in supermarkets has significantly increased as well. Supermarkets sold plain houmous back in the 1990s but now there are several flavoured varieties to choose from. Also those pots of olives with feta and sun dried tomatoes - you would probably have had to buy the three ingredients separately just 20 years ago. Every supermarket now has a diverse selection of ready prepared salads and dressings to go with them. Supermarkets now sell ethnic chilled food such as samosas, onion bhajis and spring rolls, which would have to be bought from specialist ethnic shops back in the 1990s. Even the cheese selection is more diverse than in the past.

During the Falklands war microwave ovens were rare in British kitchens as they were very expensive. This probably explains the popularity of boil in the bag food at the time – gradually superseded by microwaveable meals. Sponge puddings in tins were a store cupboard staple during the Cold War era, but most now come in plastic pots as they are easier for customers to microwave. Tinned food in general sold in higher quantities in the 1980s as there were many families that didn't have freezers, or only had a small freezer compartment in the top of the fridge that was just big enough for some ice cream and fish fingers! Tinned meat products were mainstream whereas now they appear nostalgic, or even downmarket.

There definitely were plenty of people who had a very traditional and conservative taste in food well into the 1980s. In the 1970s spag bol was commonly used as a derogatory term by British people for any foreign food, although it had somewhat fallen out of use by the early 1980s.

At what point in time was liver perceived to be revolting by the younger generation? I seriously doubt that any primary school has served liver this side of the Millennium but it definitely featured on the menus during the Falklands War.

[George 1978]

I have to admit that I am surprised that we are talking about what food was available in 1982 - back in 1942, let's say, I could understand, but 1982 wasn't too much like a world away to today as 1942 was to 1982?

[Arran]

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.

Interesting point about the 1979 to 1983 era. The Conservative government got off to a slow start in 1979 and didn't implement any particularly radical reforms during it's first term. It just tinkered around the edges with tweedledee tweedledum policies, and Thatcher was quite unpopular as a PM both within her party and amongst the general public before the Falklands War. There was even pressure within her party for her to resign. Nobody used the term Thatcherism in 1982 anymore than they used the term Callaghanism. The Falklands victory made Thatcher a hero, resulting in a landslide victory in 1983 and that's when she showed her true (economic?) colours and the 1980s really started.

Does anybody know if Channel 4 had any impact on the nation's taste in food with new cookery programmes? I think that TVS produced some cookery programme about spices and curries quite early on, but was it networked or just shown in the south east region?

The appearance of iceberg lettuce in the late 1970s (little gem and cos were previously popular varieties) transformed salads a decade or so later, but ironically it may have been popularised by the fast food outlets rather than the healthy eating community.

Food served in schools had barely changed since the 1950s and vegetarian meals generally weren't available.