Foods you miss from the 1970s

[andiesenji]

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!

I still have two of the "coconut" tumblers made by Malibu Pottery and sold at Kelbo's.

I could still have alcohol at that time and loved their Mai Tais because they used only fresh fruit juices, no mix, no frozen concentrates. And they weren't so strong as in other places.

My most memorable visit to the Fairfax Kelbo's was in the late '60s when a friend and I, she a secretary at CBS, were joined by Jerry Dumphy the popular news anchor for lunch. He was supposed to meet some people but they failed to show so he had lunch with us and kept us laughing the entire time.

Edited February 10, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[toolprincess]

Pepsi Light

[angevin]

The horse-drawn Huckster meandering through the neighborhood on a hot summer afternoon selling fresh Jersey peaches and tomatoes - "two pound fa qwahta"

Junket

Horn and Hardart's Creamed Spinach from the automat. Damn that was a treat.

Taconnelli's Pizza when it was the only place in town using a real wood-fired oven. (We use to call the charred puffy bubbles that formed on the crust the "roaches".)

The mom-and-pop candy store where a quarter bought you a brown paper bag filled with smarties, pixie stix, wax lips, flying saucers, BB Bats...(that's a whole separate thread in itself!)

Real milkshakes sold in every corner steakshop.

Steakshops. (In Philly, these were luncheonettes that sold hamburgers, cheesesteaks and fountain sodas. And milkshakes.)

Edited February 11, 2011 by angevin (log)

[janeer]

The horse-drawn Huckster meandering through the neighborhood on a hot summer afternoon selling fresh Jersey peaches and tomatoes - "two pound fa qwahta"

Junket

Horn and Hardart's Creamed Spinach from the automat. Damn that was a treat.

The mom-and-pop candy store where a quarter bought you a brown paper bag filled with smarties, pixie stix, wax lips, flying saucers, BB Bats...(that's a whole separate thread in itself!)

Aren't you going a little further back than the 70s? The automat? (which I miss IN GENERAL).

[karlos]

Woolworth's lunch counter. Not specific to the 70's but it was for me as that was the decade I was a kid. Mom and I would go shopping and get lunch there. Good memories.

[andiesenji]

I went with friends to an Automat in 1984 when I was in NYC for the Westminster dog show.

The only thing I remember was the rice pudding, which I thought was excellent.

[gfweb]

The horse-drawn Huckster meandering through the neighborhood on a hot summer afternoon selling fresh Jersey peaches and tomatoes - "two pound fa qwahta"

Junket

Horn and Hardart's Creamed Spinach from the automat. Damn that was a treat.

The mom-and-pop candy store where a quarter bought you a brown paper bag filled with smarties, pixie stix, wax lips, flying saucers, BB Bats...(that's a whole separate thread in itself!)

Aren't you going a little further back than the 70s? The automat? (which I miss IN GENERAL).

I think an Automat hung on in Philly and NYC into the 70s

[angevin]

Yeah, my memory's probably from the late 60's; my mom use to bring it home for me. But I didn't realize yous were gonna be so technical.

[Mjx]

Am I wrong, or was there an still automat in Manhattan in the 90s, not far from the Art Student's League (on the SE corner of Broadway and 55th? 56th?)?

[janeer]

Yeah, my memory's probably from the late 60's; my mom use to bring it home for me. But I didn't realize yous were gonna be so technical.

Sorry Didn't mean to be picky. Actually, I think there was still a Horn and Hardart in Philly in the 90s when I lived there with a sign outside that said "automat" but no automat features inside. Does anyone remember? Around the corner of Sansom and 16th, I think. Anyway, going to the automats in NYC was one of the great treats of my youth.

[rooftop1000]

Pepsi Light

oh YES

[andiesenji]

Am I wrong, or was there an still automat in Manhattan in the 90s, not far from the Art Student's League (on the SE corner of Broadway and 55th? 56th?)?

According to one of my book club members, that store closed in '91, shortly before he retired and moved out here. He worked at MoMA and says it was only a few blocks to the Automat but says the quality of the food declined greatly in the last few years before it closed.

[Porthos]

Good restaurants serving food that didn't have to look like a sculpture in the middle of stuff squirted all over the plate.

I SO agree.

[ruthcooks]

I miss the food atmosphere of the times: people were interested in good food, rich food, and no one was obsessed with the horrible LOW FAT mentality. Food tasting good was the most important thing.

And you know what? Butter and cream did not make the Americans obese, it took fast food and sugary drinks to do that.

[Mjx]

. . . .

According to one of my book club members, that store closed in '91, shortly before he retired and moved out here. He worked at MoMA and says it was only a few blocks to the Automat but says the quality of the food declined greatly in the last few years before it closed.

Thanks! I kind of wish I'd eaten there at least once, though, just to see what it was like, even if it had been pretty bad.

[andiesenji]

Good restaurants serving food that didn't have to look like a sculpture in the middle of stuff squirted all over the plate.

I SO agree.

Ditto from me!

I detest "architectural" compositions on my plate. I never know where to start with no "deconstruction" guide.

[Porthos]

Carl's Jr California Roast Beef Sandwich.

[Melic]

Real Caesar Salad - boy will I second that!!!

I got so fed up with the last "Caesar Salad" I was served - basically mayonnaise coated leaves with shaved Parmesan on top - no anchovies, no garlic, no taste, no nothing, that I went home and, next day, made my own.

Anchovies - including both fillets and paste in the dressing - check!

Coddled egg - check! Heck, I'd just use a raw egg yolk.

Lemon juice - check!

Worcestershire - check!

Really good Parmesan, fresh-grated by me - check!

Good croutons - check!

Good oil - check!

Fresh-ground pepper - check!

Prepared in a large wooden bowl - check!

Perfect hearts of romaine - check!

I think I made a bathtub full - and I Ate The Whole Thing.

I didn't even get sick ...

Boy, do I remember those tableside preparations and presentations! Even as a little kid, it was one of my favorite dining treats.

I swear, I will never order Caesar Salad in a restaurant again. It just infuriates me to have to deal with the pitiful plates of fake Caesar Salad that populate the food universe. Yes, I understand the legal liabilities with coddled or raw eggs. Newsflash - I understand that pasteurized whole eggs are available to the restaurant trade. But to leave out any taste or hint of anchovies (never mind the fillets; no one serves them w/o a request) or garlic or Worcestershire - just call it watery mayonnaise salad with Parmesan crusty flakes.

That'll bring the dining universe to your doorstep, yessiree!

And for my next trick, Steak Tartare

[azurite]

Eclair (Viennese coffee & pastry shop) on the upper West Side--just down the block from my grandparents' apartment. NY delis-there are only a few left on the Island. Real bakeries-- in MI (where I lived as a child) and in NY (where I lived as a teen & college student)-- my mom was not much of a baker, but she didn't need to be when those bakeries existed.

[Kouign Aman]

Rumaki.

[janeer]

Rumaki.

One word says it all!

[Snadra]

I happened across this item on the Sydney Morning Herald website today:

Still living (and eating) in the 70s

[patrickamory]

Just focusing in on the ingredients issue for the moment (I miss the fast food and Continental dishes as much as anybody):

Is it possible that the explosion of interest in cooking and preparation - of which this entire website is an example - is a result of the fact that we don't have easy, cheap access to a huge variety of wild fish and seafood, seasonal produce that actually had flavor, real baked goods and pastries with ethnic traditions, professional butchers cutting well-marbled prime meats, and the rest?

Maybe the reason that all of us care so much about cooking and food is because it's so much HARDER to get what we all took for granted in those days?

I remember my mother introducing me to a real French peach in France in the summer of 1976 when I was 11. The flavor EXPLODED in my mouth, and the juice, of course, dribbled all over my chin. I don't think it's only nostalgia that I haven't had a peach close to that - bought locally, in season, at a farmer's market, or whatever - in recent years, including in France.

I will also echo this from abooja:

"A predominance of real deal bakeries, and not the par-baked, made-from-a-mix crud that passes for baked goods these days, and is available in most supermarkets. I particularly miss Jewish bakeries. Even if I still lived in New York, I'd be hard pressed to find a decent slice of seven layer cake or, God forbid, an individual Charlotte Russe baked in a small paper cup. People don't value great bakery items like they did in the 70s. This saddens me."

YES. And especially an ultra-dense, nearly spherical rye loaf available from Jewish bakers in NYC (such as the Cakemasters chain) known as "corn bread." The crust was so chewy it nearly pulled your teeth out. One of the best breads I've ever had in my life. Impossible to find now. It's been renamed "corn rye" so that people don't confuse it with southern cornbread, but the places that make it, such as Moishe's on Second Avenue, turn out a pale imitation of what they used to make.

In many ways we have it better eating in 2011... but the vast majority have it much, much worse. And so much of our effort is focused on trying to recapture what was available so easily back then - at every Stop'n'Shop and Star Market.

[rickster]

Is it possible that the explosion of interest in cooking and preparation - of which this entire website is an example - is a result of the fact that we don't have easy, cheap access to a huge variety of wild fish and seafood, seasonal produce that actually had flavor, real baked goods and pastries with ethnic traditions, professional butchers cutting well-marbled prime meats, and the rest?

I can't comment to the growth of interest in cooking, but as someone who was a teenager in suburban New Jersey in the early/mid 1970's, I would strongly challenge that it was a golden age of food availability. Outside of the decline in high quality local bakeries which has definitely occurred, my recollection is that there was a much more limited variety of produce available. Was it more seasonal and local? Probably,but I don't remember it tasting better. I think there's also more fish available now than then. Prime meats - no, at least not in my nieghobrhood. Ethnic foods - maybe, but it depends on the ethnicity and where you lived. Chinese food meant Chun King and Hispanic was non existent in my neighborhood. Yes, we had German and Jewish delis, but here in Chicago we have an explosion of ethnic foods from a a much more diverse universe.

I do miss the bakeries though.

Edited February 24, 2011 by rickster (log)

[patrickamory]

To clarify: I absolutely agree that there are more ingredients available now than ever, and way way way more availability of ethnic ingredients across the country.

But I bet if you could travel back in time you'd find that the average supermarket apple, orange, plum or peach tasted far better than what you'd get in a supermarket today.

And as a child visiting Maine in the summers, the quantity, variety and quality of fresh fish was stupendous. As you are probably all aware, groundfish stocks in the Gulf of Maine have been decimated. You can get lobster, clams and mussels now - the occasional piece of haddock. That's IT. Everything else is flown in, and there isn't very much of it. The walk-in at the general store carried sides of prime beef - the butcher cut your steaks to order. That store is now a community center, and the new store carries the same bland, fatless chops wrapped in cellophane that you get at the Shaw's on the mainland. Can you get pre-bottled Curry Simple brand Thai food sauces at the new chain-like store? Sure, you probably can - but is this really an improvement? Ersatz variety over true local and seasonal quality that everyone took for granted because it was part of the natural cycle?

I think the variety of ingredients available today is the result of more open minds, better transportation networks and logistics, and advances in breeding and freezing.

Whether this has led to an improvement in the TASTE of foods is another matter entirely.

Edited February 26, 2011 by patrickamory (log)