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Foods you miss from the 1990s


Fat Guy

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Yesterday I started a topic about things we miss about the 1970s. I can't do the 1960s because I don't remember anything -- I only lived through one year of the 1960s. I thought about doing the 1980s, and may get to that soon, but I wanted to be sure to cover the 1990s.

The culinary thing I miss most about the 1990s is Gray Kunz cooking at Lespinasse in New York City.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I'm embarassed to admit this but I miss fried mozz sticks. They used to be available at every bar in the universe. Now, I don't remember the last time I saw them on a bar menu.

Edit: I realize that this is probably an 80s thing that bled into the 90s but I think they mostly disappeared in the 90s.

On a more serious note, I miss that an appetizer in the 90s was still an appetizer instead of an amuse bouche masquerading as it's bigger cousin.

Edited by BadRabbit (log)
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I'm embarassed to admit this but I miss fried mozz sticks. They used to be available at every bar in the universe. Now, I don't remember the last time I saw them on a bar menu.

Really? I still see them on bar menus...pubs/sports bars mostly

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The X-Files. Industrial boots and no-name jeans as a fashion statement rather than work clothes. "Alternative" music/film/whatever. Smoking allowed everywhere. Eating processed foods and drinking cheap beer and liking it.

This is my skillet. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My skillet is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my skillet is useless. Without my skillet, I am useless. I must season my skillet well. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My skillet and myself are the makers of my meal. We are the masters of our kitchen. So be it, until there are no ingredients, but dinner. Amen.

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I'm embarassed to admit this but I miss fried mozz sticks. They used to be available at every bar in the universe. Now, I don't remember the last time I saw them on a bar menu.

Really? I still see them on bar menus...pubs/sports bars mostly

They're pretty rare nowadays where I live. They might still be available at the chain sports bars but I usually go to local places so I wouldn't know. I guess the ubiquitousness of them in the 90s is what I miss.

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There were a few places near the Art Student's League, where I was working as a model, which I really miss; there was an Irish pub around the corner, right next to the N/R station that was pretty good, and there was Petrossian (which is still there, but it seems to have both downgraded and become more expensive). I'd often bolt out on my long break in just a really long t-shirt and harness boots, scoot across to Petrossian to get coffee, and chocolates or a pastry. They knew me pretty well, and I can remember sometimes the staff was comprehensively boiled, usually from a wine tasting (according to them), and they'd just give me stuff to try, then grill me about whether or not I liked it, and why... it was brilliant.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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I will not miss the food in the college cafeteria. It was so bad that I gave the school a letter stating that unless they give me a certified kosher meal plan, I want out of the cafeteria requirement. And they did.

Snapple before it went mainstream.

"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

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I miss the shows that I liked on Food TV in the '90s.

John Ash, Curtis Aikens, David Rosengarten, Two Hot Tamales.

And I really miss Julia.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Another thing I miss about the 90s: cheap "leftover" cuts of meat. This was before the chicken wings craze (at least around here), beef skirt was what you got when you couldn't afford to put steaks on the grill and they'd practically pay you to cart away sweetbreads and beef cheek.

Oh yeah. And short ribs and brisket didn't need you to take out a second mortgage to buy.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

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I can't decide whether I actually miss it, but have a definite sense of nostalgia for the way that everything was doused in pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. My high school friends and I would make boatloads of pasta with pesto, SDTs and bocconcini and feel we were very sophisticated for doing so.

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Grant's Scottish Ale. One of the original Pacific Northwest Microbrews. It wasn't really a Scottish ale - but really defined what I think of as the PNW hop profile with Chinook and Cascade hops. I think the brew-pub in Yakima might still exist but they disappeared from the shelves after selling to a major (no blame for selling out - I would have if the price was right).

It's almost never bad to feed someone.

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I can't decide whether I actually miss it, but have a definite sense of nostalgia for the way that everything was doused in pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. My high school friends and I would make boatloads of pasta with pesto, SDTs and bocconcini and feel we were very sophisticated for doing so.

My favourite dish of the nineties was pasta bowties with sundried tomato pesto. Yeah, I remember SDT and pesto fondly. But I was in uni, so....

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I can't decide whether I actually miss it, but have a definite sense of nostalgia for the way that everything was doused in pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. My high school friends and I would make boatloads of pasta with pesto, SDTs and bocconcini and feel we were very sophisticated for doing so.

My favourite dish of the nineties was pasta bowties with sundried tomato pesto. Yeah, I remember SDT and pesto fondly. But I was in uni, so....

Yeah, it was ALWAYS bowties! In a pinch, penne, but bowties were the good stuff.

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I thought of one more though I think this one was fairly regional.

Sauteed Crab Claws- they were generally sauteed in butter with onions, garlic, SDTs, and roasted red pepper. They were always made with the blue crab claws that people in the south usually batter and fry.

Best things ever.

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the one thing my father-in-law doesn't miss is what he called that "tall food" - everything stacked high and many times deconstructed.

mozz sticks at my local bar so if you need a place to crash after eating them...

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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I miss the shows that I liked on Food TV in the '90s.

John Ash, Curtis Aikens, David Rosengarten, Two Hot Tamales.

And I really miss Julia.

You just reminded me how much I enjoyed Two Fat Ladies.

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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