Foods you miss from the 1970s

[docsconz]

If I miss anything from the 70's, it was a greater availability of fresh, wild caught fish. The real truth is that the downward food quality spiral had already begun. Small family farms are probably in better shape now then they were then. The 60's and 70's brought Frank Perdue and his tender factory chickens, amongst other things.

[David Ross]

If I miss anything from the 70's, it was a greater availability of fresh, wild caught fish. The real truth is that the downward food quality spiral had already begun. Small family farms are probably in better shape now then they were then. The 60's and 70's brought Frank Perdue and his tender factory chickens, amongst other things.

So right. And those chickens were injected "with up to 10% solution," which I don't think we had heard of before. Nothing against folks in other parts of the country, but I remember first seeing "Arkansas" chickens show up in our markets in Oregon and we were really shocked. I was just a teenager in the early 70's, but I remember thinking at the time why aren't our chickens good enough.

[Muffinzz]

McDonald's french fries cooked in beef tallow. Not sure what year they switched.

This was my first thought, too. Also, I think supermarket pork tasted better back then, before they started breeding for leanness and trimming the crap out of everything.

[Lisa Shock]

I forgot to mention cuisine classique French restaurants. Nouvelle cuisine was the hot trend in fine dining. (Remember main courses the size of a quarter? Remember complaining that they cost $10?) But classic stalwart places were still around -although most were in their twilight years. There's nothing like the Escoffier cannon served by gloved waiters in rooms decorated in the style of Versailles at its most opulent, and the 70's was the last decade to enjoy this experience, at least in most U.S. cities. (Bourdain writes about having recently found such a place in NYC, and is so protective of it, he will not name it.) I was a teen in the 70's and lucky enough to have parents who took the family traveling and who took us to good restaurants of all price ranges in the 60s and 70s, so, I experienced both classique and nouvelle cuisines in amazing settings that no longer exist.

[plum tart]

Restaurants like La Crepe Bretonne in Montreal where you could get all manner of authentic savory and sweet crepes from noon until late in the evening.

Greek restaurants where you could go into the kitchen and point to what you wanted to eat that night. There were a number of these restaurants in Montreal and Toronto but they disappeared for fancier, not necessarily better joints.

The Copenhagen Room in Toronto where there was an endless choice of perfect Danish open face sandwiches as well as delicious authentic Danish pastries. I used to go quite often on my own and when my Danish mother came to town we would have a blowout - huge platters of open face sandwiches, acquavit encased in ice, and Tuborg.

The Courtyard Cafe at the Windsor Arms in Toronto which served wonderful terrines, and galantines for lunch and wonderful fruit ices for dessert. I was particularly addicted to vacherin glace -homemade vanilla ice cream, raspberry ice with almond and whipped cream on a meringue. I had that dessert once a week for my entire pregnancy.

Vintage French wines, burgundies in particular (eg. Clos des Mouches, Clos de Tarte, Chateau Margaux, Ygrec) for between $12 and $35 a bottle. This was obviously before wine became a big deal.

I could go on and on.

[maggiethecat]

Restaurants like La Crepe Bretonne in Montreal where you could get all manner of authentic savory and sweet crepes from noon until late in the evening.

D'accord!. I loved A la Crepe B. Likewise The Coffee Mill on Mountain St.--real espresso from a baroque pocelain machine long before one could buy it at any gas station. The Hungarian food was cheap and terrific.

In Chicago I think the Berghoff was at its best during the seventies -- ah, for the corned beef hash sandwich or the sauerbraten.

[andiesenji]

A & W Root Beer stand with the real "Draft Root Beer" and the root beer floats.

Loved their hamburgers and "steak" fries with the potato skins on.

There was one three blocks from where I lived and they had "house" accounts so the kids could eat there after school and I could pay at the end of the month.

Edited February 9, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[Kerry Beal]

A & W Root Beer stand with the real "Draft Root Beer" and the root beer floats.

Loved their hamburgers and "steak" fries with the potato skins on.

There was one three blocks from where I lived and they had "house" accounts so the kids could eat there after school and I could pay at the end of the month.

And they would hang the tray on the window of your car. Went out with a fellow with sports cars - not the best windows for those trays - especially with a couple of big mugs of rootbeer.

As kids we used to take that rootbeer home in gallon jugs.

[Anna N]

. . . .

The Copenhagen Room in Toronto where there was an endless choice of perfect Danish open face sandwiches as well as delicious authentic Danish pastries. I used to go quite often on my own and when my Danish mother came to town we would have a blowout - huge platters of open face sandwiches, acquavit encased in ice, and Tuborg.

...

We SO miss the Copenhagen Room. We kept a large jar where we put our change so we could afford a meal there. So many memories of birthdays and anniversaries and just special days. And when the chef opened Tastefully Done on Elm Street we went there until even it closed.

[suzilightning]

interesting to read this...don't remember much from the 70s but then i was in college at the time. enough said.

where i grew up the nearest mcdonald's was 30 miles away. though i guess i do miss going to Buffalo Memorial Aud then off to the Anchor for wings or before a concert to Schwabel's for beef on weck. or the smell in the fall eminating from the Red Wing factory - in september it was grape jelly followed by chili sauce followed by peanut butter. the whole town smelled of it.

oh, my favorite fish - walleye - from lake erie with a koch's beer brewed lakefront in dunkirk.

[Lindacakes]

A & W drive-ins is the first thing that came to mind.

Hough's Bakery in the Cleveland area, but local bakeries in general. The ones in my Brooklyn neighborhood have been wiped out and "replaced" with a hipster joint or two where dry crumb topped muffins or a slice of bad pie can be purchased, but you can't buy a loaf of bread and have it sliced.

Even though I miss the bakeries, I also miss the generic coffee rings and date bars that were available in any grocery store. And those jelly rolls . . .

I miss flavors that are rare now, but not in my house: lemon, black walnut, molasses, buttermilk, ginger.

Mickey's snack cakes, particularly Mickey's Banana Flip.

[Brown Hornet]

As a kid in the 70's living in small farm towns I wasn't exactly exposed to the best the 70's had to offer. There are probably more foods from the 70s that I never want to see again than I miss -- surely I'm not the only person who remembers choking down a tuna salad jello mold.

Still, I do miss a few things. No one seems to make London Broil anymore -- it's still my favorite use of flank steak. I also remember cod being relatively inexpensive, plentiful and tasty, even in the midwest.

[heidih]

As a kid in the 70's living in small farm towns I wasn't exactly exposed to the best the 70's had to offer. There are probably more foods from the 70s that I never want to see again than I miss -- surely I'm not the only person who remembers choking down a tuna salad jello mold.

Still, I do miss a few things. No one seems to make London Broil anymore -- it's still my favorite use of flank steak. I also remember cod being relatively inexpensive, plentiful and tasty, even in the midwest.

Welcome Brown Hornet. The markets around here charge a fortune for flank steak and market their top round as "London Broil"??

[TongoRad]

Chinese restaurants that served flaming drinks and Pu Pu Platters (OK- I'll admit that back then all I had from the drink department was the maraschino cherries from my dad's cocktails, but I'm essentially recalling a style of place). I would probably pine for this stuff more often if I didn't have a relic from that era not too far from home:

Chan's Dragon Inn

[gfweb]

As a kid in the 70's living in small farm towns I wasn't exactly exposed to the best the 70's had to offer. There are probably more foods from the 70s that I never want to see again than I miss -- surely I'm not the only person who remembers choking down a tuna salad jello mold.

Still, I do miss a few things. No one seems to make London Broil anymore -- it's still my favorite use of flank steak. I also remember cod being relatively inexpensive, plentiful and tasty, even in the midwest.

I just sous vided a london broil tonight. If that isn't an oxymoron.

[David Ross]

I miss the demise of the local Hayesville market we went to as kids. We would go there on the days we collected dues from the people on our newspaper route. Back then a lot of customers paid the paperboy direct rather than mailing in their subscription fee. We got a take on the fees plus a few tips from customers. On collection day we'd go to Hayesville market and buy candy and maybe some pepproni sticks and a soda. I remember hanging out in the store and the employees were always glad to see us. They never shooed us away. It was probably about 1970 or 1971. The market closed down about 1985 or so, but the owners relocated to a large, new supermarket down the block. It's an independent, employee-owned local market, but it's a supermarket with a thread of the feel of the old place.

I also miss the other local market my Mother used to go to. We started going there when we moved to Salem in 1964 and it closed sometime in the mid-70's. I can't remember the name of the store, but the butcher was Oliver Kuykendall-a good German butcher. He had played football in college in the days when they didn't wear faceguards and he looked like Knute Rockne with his knobby nose. He always had bloodspots and stains on his white apron, always wore a paper white butcher's cap. What stands out in my memory was the fresh ground beef Mother got from Oliver that she fed to our dachshund Snoopy. (Mother served Snoopy a spoon of cottage cheese with his fresh ground beef).

Oliver let his customers pay monthly on account. When we went in for a pound of bacon, he simply wrote it up on a paper receipt, gave us a carbon copy and filed the original. Mother would go back down to the store at the end of the month to settle her balance in cash. This was standard practice in local stores going back decades, but sadly, by the 70's I think few stores were left that let customers pay on good faith at the end of the month.

[haresfur]

A & W Root Beer stand with the real "Draft Root Beer" and the root beer floats.

Loved their hamburgers and "steak" fries with the potato skins on.

There was one three blocks from where I lived and they had "house" accounts so the kids could eat there after school and I could pay at the end of the month.

And they would hang the tray on the window of your car. Went out with a fellow with sports cars - not the best windows for those trays - especially with a couple of big mugs of rootbeer.

As kids we used to take that rootbeer home in gallon jugs.

Yeah, 'dubs drive in - even in the dead of winter; being able to order (and survive eating) a Grandpa-Teenburger.

[haresfur]

A & W Root Beer stand with the real "Draft Root Beer" and the root beer floats.

Loved their hamburgers and "steak" fries with the potato skins on.

There was one three blocks from where I lived and they had "house" accounts so the kids could eat there after school and I could pay at the end of the month.

And they would hang the tray on the window of your car. Went out with a fellow with sports cars - not the best windows for those trays - especially with a couple of big mugs of rootbeer.

As kids we used to take that rootbeer home in gallon jugs.

Yeah, 'dubs drive in - even in the dead of winter; being able to order (and survive eating) a Grandpa-Teenburger.

[DanM]

Does anyone here miss Trader Vic's before it was kitch?

[rebgold]

Original Pizza Hut pizza. It was once just a local pizza place here and when I was a kid in the 70's we used to eat there a couple times a month. The thin crust would get bubbles that were soft on the sauced side, I peeled the topping off so i could eat the crust bubbles plain. The sauce was a little spicy, so good. Then they became a national chain and it was all down hill from there.

[StanSherman]

I miss the Good Trader Vics. I also miss Swedish smorgasbords.

[andiesenji]

I miss the Good Trader Vics. I also miss Swedish smorgasbords.

In L.A. on the West side, it was Kelbo's Tiki Bar & Restaurant, on Pico Blvd. There was another on Fairfax, across from CBS "Television City" but I preferred the other.

They had the best ribs I have ever tasted. Not only meaty like candied pork.

And the coleslaw was addictive.

The bar was very popular, especially with folks who traveled often and would stop on the way home to the Valley from LAX.

Edited February 10, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[plum tart]

. . . .

The Copenhagen Room in Toronto where there was an endless choice of perfect Danish open face sandwiches as well as delicious authentic Danish pastries. I used to go quite often on my own and when my Danish mother came to town we would have a blowout - huge platters of open face sandwiches, acquavit encased in ice, and Tuborg.

...

We SO miss the Copenhagen Room. We kept a large jar where we put our change so we could afford a meal there. So many memories of birthdays and anniversaries and just special days. And when the chef opened Tastefully Done on Elm Street we went there until even it closed.

We went to Tastefully Done many times until it closed. I do miss it. I have to make my own open face sandwiches now.

According to my uncle, the chef had another restaurant after he closed Tastefully Done. I don't remember the name but it served French food. Apparently the food was good but the location was poor. So sad.

[IowaDee]

I loved Kelbos. I worked near-by and went there for lunch. Later, it was a special destination for my husband and

me. The layout of the tables made you think you were the only patrons there. Remember that cool screen in the

entry way. Lots of disks embedded with everything under the sun. I recently bought a box of tiny paper umbrellas

at a yard sale with plans to hold a Kelbos party next summer. Another find was a old copy of Trader Vic's cookbook.

Come on Spring!

[kbjesq]

There was a place in Brattleboro, VT called, "The Common Ground". It was my first experience with a vegetarian restaurant. Prasantrin might remember it - I think she was in that area of the world back then (?)

It was there that I learned that a simple dish of beans and rice, properly prepared, could be a feast. And that the most humble cheese sandwich, (just good wheat bread and aged Vermont cheddar), could change your life. A $2 sandwich could change your life! Hard to believe.

I really miss that place.