Vesta curries were a real treat in the 70s and i loved the chicken and mushroom crispy pancakes with chips, wagon wheels were huge! Dream Topping and Angel Delight remind me of Sunday teatime and I wish they'd bring back Ski yoghurt, it had the best taste. As for Pot Noodle and McCain pizza, yuk!
Crispy Pancakes I have in the freezer. Now made by Iceland. I’ve got some Cuppa Soup coming with my ASDA shop this week. There’s other stuff there that is still around. I now must look up if Angel Delight still exists because I fancy some!
@TheSirfurryanimalWales Yes: Bachelors Cup-A-Soup in my cupboard, bought only a couple of weeks ago, I think from Lidls or Tesco.
Angel Delight is one of the county's most popular manufactured desserts, now owned by Premier Foods. So yes, you can still buy it!
I feel hungry now... despite having had dinner only an hour or so ago! (Dessert for which was a portion of apple-cake by our local bakery, warmed in the oven and served with potted custard.)
Many of those are still available, even if the packings have changed!
For example, the Cup-a-Soups are now in paper sachets in a carton. The Cadbury's Cookies are more likely now in tubular foil wrappings.
Quantities are of course now metric. E.g. look at the Marmite jar - the modern one presently in my kitchen, shows the weight in grammes, and the vegan "V" symbol, on the rear label.
(Plastic milk bottles are still of pint, quart and four-pint volumes, but the label gives the volume in litre equivalents, alongside the pint amount in smaller font and brackets.)
Not sure if the Vesta ready-meals, nor a few others, are still made, though. The Lyons brand seems to have vanished, but perhaps I am not using the right shops.
Vesta curries were bearable, Daddies sauce was popular but Dream Topping and Angel Delight are proof that not everything was better in the past!. I remember eating the Findus Crispy Pancakes too. I remember seeing all of them at one time or another but I definitely haven't eaten all of them
@ninalanyon A rival to Angel Delight was Instant Whip, also in various flavours - we often had those in our family but I don't know if they are still manufactured.
There was also a very nice Lemon Meringue Pie mix, with fluffy meringue topping, but I forget who made it.
I don't recall the pancakes but I think we ate many fish-fingers by Findus, and by Bird's Eye.
Not really foods, but two preparations I think intended really as tonics, especially for children; and perhaps sold only by the chemists. (Back when those emporia of health had their big jars of coloured liquids decorating the windows.) These were:
Minadex. A sweet, fruity, syprupy liquid concoction dosed by the teaspoonful.
This seems still made.
Virol. Its name and appearance suggested a grease for machinery bearings, but I recall rather liking this sweet, malty syrup.
.... created by Bovril in 1899. Resembling treacle, it contained bone marrow, malt extract, egg and syrup. Rich in vitamins A, B and D,....
Source: [rcpe.ac.uk]
Sold by pharmacists as having health benefits especially for pregnant woman, children and the infirm. The source says it was discontinued in the 1940s but that is not really correct. It was halted during WW2; but I remember it from the 1950s and Wikipedia reveals it changed hands a few times, but was produced until the 1980s.
They were all the Queen Mother’s favorites. During the war she would slip down to the Buckingham Palace kitchens and spend hours preparing little treats for Elizabeth and Margaret from those very ingredients. And above her—day after day—the Jerrys were raining bombs on London. Remember the Blitz?
Heavens I do, and in much larger quantities too. Wagon Wheels that were so big, Daddies Sauce that tasted strong enough, Pan Yan and many others take me back. If you have any I will come and help you finish them🤗
I remember Vesta curries and pot noodles from college. They were appalling and in combination with the near contemporaneous BSE scandal made me swear never to touch ready-made meals again.
I remember many. I recently bought some Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies that I remembered from my childhood. Unchanged and just as absurdly delicious 😂
