NewBasfordlad 3,599 Posted January 4, 2018 Report Share Posted January 4, 2018 Marrowfat peas are a variety that are allowed to fully mature then dry out in the field before harvest instead of being picked whilst young. Their main use is would you believe mushy peas...... You will remember mum soaking them overnight with a tablet of bi carb for use the next day. I will never eat bright green veg away from home its usually a sign that it has been over cooked and some kind of food dye added. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stavertongirl 1,713 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Our school dinners were so so. I can remember cabbage that splattered on the plate it was so over cooked and full of water, chocolate and pink custard which I hate. The school always smelt of cooking fish on fridays, put me off fish for life it was so gross (can manage fish fingers but that is it). It was a relief when my mum started letting me take sandwiches instead. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
catfan 14,793 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 12 hours ago, IAN123. said: I loved them, cornflake tart, beef cobbler, chicken supreme and chips and salad! Grub was superb...and if you went to the last sitting- you got seconds. The Dinnerladies were lovely at our school..one womans husband escaped from occupied France through Lifeline during the war. Did'nt like the yellow fish though. That was smoked haddock, beautiful ! Loved school dinners. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 10,269 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 I never had school dinners as a child. At primary school, I went home for lunch every day and at Manning, I took sandwiches. The dinners smelled pretty disgusting. Sandwich girls were supposed to eat them in the dining room but we soon stopped doing that. I remember a pudding bowl amnesty being issued. The dining room was running short and most were discovered in the science labs, growing penicillin! It was all the sponge and custard was fit for! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
catfan 14,793 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Most of the kids at our school only had a free school dinner, nothing to eat at home ! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 10,269 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 17 minutes ago, catfan said: That was smoked haddock, beautiful ! For his tea, every Saturday, when I was a child, dad liked smoked haddock. Mum bought it from the fishmonger near to St Paul's church on Radford Road. Can't just bring the name to mind** It was run by a plump lady in a blue overall. Dad would eat his haddock and then check his football coupon against the pink newspaper. He was usually lucky! ** Braddocks comes to mind but perhaps just because it rhymes with haddock! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,089 Posted December 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Smoked haddock. Beautiful. Used to get it from the 'proper' fish market in the old Central Market. Also the large Portmadoc mussels. The mussels in the supermarkets seem to come ready shelled these days and taste awful. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,089 Posted December 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 19 minutes ago, Jill Sparrow said: I never had school dinners as a child. At primary school, I went home for lunch every day and at Manning, I took sandwiches. The dinners smelled pretty disgusting. Sandwich girls were supposed to eat them in the dining room but we soon stopped doing that. I remember a pudding bowl amnesty being issued. The dining room was running short and most were discovered in the science labs, growing penicillin! It was all the sponge and custard was fit for! We were allowed to take sandwiches in the 6th. form. The school canteen at Mellish was run by an angry looking woman called Mrs. Frost. Her cooking skills were negligible. Universally disliked. I remember the day she retired and there was a presentation to her in assembly. I was up front in the choir and she stood next to me whilst the headmaster read out a eulogy. It caused her to burst into tears and I had to put my arms around her and let her cry on my shoulder. Never lived that one down! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jonab 1,644 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Beardall Street school in Hucknall housed the main kitchens for all the local schools. The smell from that place sticks in my memory even now. Nothing like cooking food at all but showed a great resemblance to our washing machine at home on the 'boil' setting. Chocolate sponge and pink custard - both of which devoid of any flavour, YUK! Pink potatoes (as they'd been cooked together with beetroot). Lumpy mash, lumpy custard, carrots that must have been cooked for days, they were so soft, cabbage a ghastly grey colour. Does all that need a special talent, I wonder? When I was full time at the technical college, the restaurant was on the top floor of the Newton Building and run by Mrs Mawson. That place was excellent (compared with the school dinners I was familiar with). My only problem with it was (and this is not the restaurant's fault) was that we had practical zoology on Friday mornings and with wasn't particularly pleasant to go from dissecting stinking, half-rotted fish to having Mrs Mawson's excellent cod, chips & peas. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,089 Posted December 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 I remember that restaurant. I was only a part time student at one time but I managed to get a card to enable me to eat there. Very cheap and they did a good curry. Cracking views as well. I remember dissecting rabbits, dogfish, frogs and earthworms for A level biology at school. They were preserved in a tank of formalin for ongoing dissection. Not the right subject for an accountancy qualification but then I never experienced a quadratic equation or differential calculus after leaving school. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 16,118 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Never had a school dinner,, if Mam and Dad were out or working,,just went to Grandma's or one of many Aunts,, spoilt proper i was,, 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loppylugs 8,424 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Same here Ben. I was raised on Beans on toast. Probably why I'm still full of wind. Lol. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,089 Posted December 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 An old friend of mine, a well heeled sort of guy, would only eat beans on toast for his main meal every weekday. His wife absolutely despaired. At the weekend, for a special treat, he would take her out for a meal at a Little Chef! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 16,118 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 When on the road 70s 80s 90s loved the 'Little Chef's' used em all the time,, sad when they more or less vanished,, the odd times i'm on the road now i always look out for the 'American Diners' love their ''Yankee doodle dandies''...........used to sing a couple of lines from the song (al la james Cagney) to the Waitresses......don't know why,, just got blank looks......... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,089 Posted December 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 I used to look forward to a Little Chef breakfast after an early start on a business trip. Must have visited most of them over 25 years. If I was really hungry it was the Olympic Breakfast with a side order of beans. There are still a few around. The nearest to me is on the Hykeham roundabout on the A46 near Lincoln. Just checked - it's gone, soon to be a Greggs and a Burger King. Is nothing sacred? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 16,118 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Same here Phil,,used them country wide over 3 decades,, liked em all,,and the one at Hykeham used to do interviews there for Security Guards,, for the Lincolnshire area. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
trogg 2,002 Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 The wife and myself always stopped in the one on the way to my sons in Cheshire for a large breakfast, his wife was a very good cook , but she was a "healthy" food cook. It was our last chance for real food until we returned home. A sad day when they disappeared . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,089 Posted December 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 Having just checked, they all seem to have closed now. A sad day. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Oztalgian 3,218 Posted December 25, 2018 Report Share Posted December 25, 2018 If I remember correctly Little Chef were mainly on the "A" trunk roads and were a great place for a good value meal unlike the Motorway Service areas Blue Boar and Kennings etc. School dinners, "How would you like your mash, one lump or two?" and your gravy, "lumps or slices" Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brew 5,380 Posted December 25, 2018 Report Share Posted December 25, 2018 Little chef was quite unpopular among trucking fraternity. They seemed to specialise in buying out the busiest transport caffs - and then banning lorries from using them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 16,118 Posted December 25, 2018 Report Share Posted December 25, 2018 Yes Brew i would agree with that........the thing was Little Chefs'' were consistent on Quality,,you knew what you'd get,, whereas Transport Cafes varied so much.. don't get me wrong ,there were some excellent ones. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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