What kind of food did you grow up with?

[Ban my account ffs!]

Yes.  I strongly subscribe to the belief that food is probably the great pleasure in life and good food is central to a long, happy life.

But I'd like to know what kind of food you grew up with in your family. 

I grew up mostly with mom cooking as a young kid... but also lived with my grandparents for about a year when my mom was sick.  Afterwards, my mom could still cooked, but made a concerted effort to teach all us kids to cook, as to pass down her traditions.

When I was little, my mom made a lot of basic, easy foods that she learned as a young adult.  Her favorite cookbooks was actually a cookbook her school district sold (with all the school lunch recipes... because they actually used to make the food at the school).

We got some pretty weird things like pizza burgers (which include hamburger, spam, cheez Whiz, and lots of shredded cheese and worcestershire sauce and spices.. which is spread on a half hamburger bun and baked)... and creamed tuna over shoestring potatoes.  Another favorite was smoked ring sausage cut up and cooked with southern style hash browns with onions, peppers, and spices.

My dad being from Omaha and my mom loving red meat... we had "steak night" all the time.  I always loved New York strip grilled to medium rare with Adolf's meat tenderizer, pepper, and garlic on it.. with a green salad and potato on the side.

My family owned a family resort on a lake.  My mom was a big believer in not "nickeling and diming people"... she said "These people are paying $1200 bucks to spend the week up here.. who cares if we lose money on the penny candy or blueberry bread.. I want the kids to come up with a pocketful of change and to leave with an armload of candy"

We threw a walleye fish fry every week, free of charge (just bring your own beverage) that included fresh caught walleye filets dredged in flower, egg, and crushed up soda crackers and fried in a Frydaddy.. with marinated vegetable salad, fruit salad, rolls, and fresh chocolate chip cookies.

I never got tired of walleye.  It's the king of mild, non-boney, non-fishy, melt in your mouth whitefish.

As I got older, my mom got really into trying new stuff and so I've learned a lot of new stuff.  Chili Relleno casserole, quiche lorraine, chicken mornay... were common.  My mom can also do a mean apple crisp (the trick is a really high ratio of buttery crumble with oatmeal in it to apple filling).

My grandma is a typical grandma cook.  She is also incredibly Norwegian-Minnesotan... ketchup is a little too spicy and pepper is a sin!  Go light on the salt.. but dear God you can NEVER have too much butter.

I'd bet 75% of the meals she cooked were some variation of hotdish with a green salad... always with store bought sliced wheat bread and butter in the middle of the table to use as a vehicle for the hotdish.  Her favorite seemed to be a typical hamburger macaroni hotdish with tomato sauce, onions, and peppers. 

She makes great Swedish meatballs (you have to use both sausage and ground beef for the best results!)  Though she left her mother's cast iron skillets to my mom.  They've never been washed with soap.  They make the best fried pork chops and fried chicken with fatty brown or milk gravy.

So I'd say I grew up with a fairly typical diet.  My grandma was a huge baker and was forever baking oatmeal cookies and blueberry bread (blueberry muffin batter in small loaf pans that she'd wrap and put in the cabins for the guests).  She also makes really good coffee cake and rhubarb pie.

How about you?  What was typical in your house?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

THe same thing I am eating now. I ate more desserts and sugars, but I was eating calamari when I was 7 years old. I was not the typical child and that's probably thanks to my Greek heritage.

[phk]

South Asian and American/Americanized Food.

[Ban my account ffs!]

South Asian and American/Americanized Food.

Yes, and I drive an American made car and live in one of the 50 states and I am between the ages of 15 and 59.

[Хahar 🤔]

Rice, always. Lots of fish, of course: standard Bengali fare like carp and hilsa, but also American fish like trout. Shrimp on occasion; I've always loved shrimp. As I've gotten older, I've been having more and more beef and chicken. Beef is my favorite meat. I never took to goat. As for vegetables, generally I have a lot of cauliflower and broccoli, with spinach on some days. After a meal, I've for years had a "salad" of cucumbers and tomatoes when I could fit it in.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Rice, always. Lots of fish, of course: standard Bengali fare like carp and hilsa, but also American fish like trout. Shrimp on occasion; I've always loved shrimp. As I've gotten older, I've been having more and more beef and chicken. Beef is my favorite meat. I never took to goat. As for vegetables, generally I have a lot of cauliflower and broccoli, with spinach on some days. After a meal, I've for years had a "salad" of cucumbers and tomatoes when I could fit it in.

Do you eat pork at all?

[Хahar 🤔]

Rice, always. Lots of fish, of course: standard Bengali fare like carp and hilsa, but also American fish like trout. Shrimp on occasion; I've always loved shrimp. As I've gotten older, I've been having more and more beef and chicken. Beef is my favorite meat. I never took to goat. As for vegetables, generally I have a lot of cauliflower and broccoli, with spinach on some days. After a meal, I've for years had a "salad" of cucumbers and tomatoes when I could fit it in.

Do you eat pork at all?

No.

[phk]

South Asian and American/Americanized Food.

Yes, and I drive an American made car and live in one of the 50 states and I am between the ages of 15 and 59.

It was nothing spectacular.

Mostly the same as any South Asian American kid.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Rice, always. Lots of fish, of course: standard Bengali fare like carp and hilsa, but also American fish like trout. Shrimp on occasion; I've always loved shrimp. As I've gotten older, I've been having more and more beef and chicken. Beef is my favorite meat. I never took to goat. As for vegetables, generally I have a lot of cauliflower and broccoli, with spinach on some days. After a meal, I've for years had a "salad" of cucumbers and tomatoes when I could fit it in.

Do you eat pork at all?

No.

I won't chastise you for your beliefs.  But you're missing out. 

Or is it simply because your parents don't eat it?

[dead0man]

We tended to have the same 8ish things over and over again.
generic American spaghetti (w/ ground beef)
fried pork chops
stuffed peppers (but really it was just one big pepper, none of us liked to eat the pepper...basically it was a big bowl of ground beef with rice in it and a single giant green pepper for my dad)
hamburgers
grilled cheese
breakfast for dinner (fried eggs, bacon, sausage)
some salmon thing..but not very often..it sucked
fried chicken
meat loaf

some other sh**t I forget.  My mom wasn't/isn't a great cook.  The meat loaf and fried chicken were pretty bad even for home made meat loaf and fried chicken.  It's hard to mess up burgers, pork chops or americanized spaghetti so those were pretty good.  We ate a lot of sandwiches too....ham, balogna, turkey.

[opebo]

We tended to have the same 8ish things over and over again.
generic American spaghetti (w/ ground beef)
fried pork chops
stuffed peppers (but really it was just one big pepper, none of us liked to eat the pepper...basically it was a big bowl of ground beef with rice in it and a single giant green pepper for my dad)
hamburgers
grilled cheese
breakfast for dinner (fried eggs, bacon, sausage)
some salmon thing..but not very often..it sucked
fried chicken
meat loaf

some other sh**t I forget.  My mom wasn't/isn't a great cook.  The meat loaf and fried chicken were pretty bad even for home made meat loaf and fried chicken.  It's hard to mess up burgers, pork chops or americanized spaghetti so those were pretty good.  We ate a lot of sandwiches too....ham, balogna, turkey.

Ha ha, not far different here!  Actually, in my family's case not quite as bad as the horrible plight you describe, but close.  We did also eat a lot of reasonable-quality beef - like roasts and steaks, and dad liked good quality roast beef for sandwiches - and we did eat out a lot even in those days. 

But as far as what my mom could actually cook, it wasn't much more than your list.  Well, some other pastas, some casseroles, stuff like that.  It was so very boring.  And I have to say we never did have breakfast at any other time of the day - that would have been really beyond acceptability.  We did also eat even worse things than you describe - like tamales from a can and Chef-Boy-Ardee.  Oh and cream of wheat and oatmeal, which were actually pretty good.

Mom was a terrible cook, but to her credit she always made a salad with every meal (american style of course, so not much benefit, but at least she made it).  Vegetables were always the soft boiled kind, never anything al dente.

Anyway, it was really not appetizing overall - it was no wonder I was a very skinny kid.  There was no joy in eating until I escaped to college and ethnic foods.

[dead0man]

Yeah, we did the pot roast thing too...it sucked.  We did always have a veggy on the side...nearly always out of the can, or conversly, fresh corn straight from my grandpa's farm.

Oh and "cube" steak was a regular.

[useful idiot]

Lots of Southern food, most of the vegetables off of the farm. Chicken and pastry, fried okra, fried squash, liver pudding, tomato sandwiches, pimento cheese sandwiches, butter beans, venison during hunting season or left over, pork ribs, collard and mustard greens, cole slaw. The seafood was of the fried Calabash-style variety, with fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried scallops, etc. However we'd have cookouts and steam the oysters. Most of all though was North Carolina BBQ, and when I say North Carolina I don't mean that sweet sauce sh-t they eat in the western part of the state. Washed it down with sweet tea or Sun Drop.

When we lived out West we generally either tried to recreate these things or had typical American food or whatever kind of foreign stuff my mom made. When she was married to my step dad we had lots of Croatian food at gatherings. Since he was a commercial fisherman we had tons of west coast seafood; I lived on the fishing boat in Alaska during the summers so we'd catch fresh King Salmon or Halibut off the side of the boat and cook it right away. We'd pick up a stray crab pot every once in a while (it was out of season) and we'd have tons of Alaskan King Crab fresh, and we'd freeze whatever we didn't eat.

I also remember eating a lot of Mexican food as a kid, something I still can't get enough of. Living out west we had lots of Mexican friends who would cook us the real stuff, and it's always great to find a Mexican restaurant that comes close to that.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

My mother was the worst cook alive......no wonder I was a skinny runt

[opebo]

... Sun Drop.

Useful, I enjoyed your tale of inter-regional mobility and cross-ethnic camaraderie.  Also I have never tried 'Sun Drop', so I looked it up - a different kind of Mountain Dew!  With even more caffeine!  I don't look forward to returning to the bad place, but I will enjoy trying the Sun Drop when I do - I hope I can find it in St. Louis.

[Torie]

Overcooked un-spiced blah Midwestern fare from another era. My mother (born and raised in Iowa) was not a good cook, and she was taught that meat was not done until no red was left in it, and spicy was bad for the digestion, and had an ethnic connotation of which she was not fond to boot. It was pretty grim. Thank heavens some of the meals were cooked by black or Hispanic maids.

The worst was the frozen vegetables, that she would cook in water until soggy, and then she would dump a bunch of the cooked water on the vegetables because that was where the nutrients were. The thought of steaming fresh vegetables never hit her radar screen, and back in my youth, markets did not have that much in the way of fresh vegetables anyway. I would try to feed the soggy green mess to the cats (my mother had poor eyesight), but one quick smell of it all by the felines was enough for them to turn their noses up at it all.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Overcooked un-spiced blah Midwestern fare from another era. My mother (born and raised in Iowa) was not a good cook, and she was taught that meat was not done until no red was left in it, and spicy was bad for the digestion, and had an ethnic connotation of which she was not fond to boot. It was pretty grim. Thank heavens some of the meals were cooked by black or Hispanic maids.

The worst was the frozen vegetables, that she would cook in water until soggy, and then she would dump a bunch of the cooked water on the vegetables because that was where the nutrients were. The thought of steaming fresh vegetables never hit her radar screen, and back in my youth, markets did not have that much in the way of fresh vegetables anyway. I would try to feed the soggy green mess to the cats (my mother had poor eyesight), but one quick smell of it all by the felines was enough for them to turn their noses up at it all.

Damn man........that's my mom

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

A wide variety of different kinds of food, but especially Italian.

[opebo]

Thank heavens some of the meals were cooked by black or Hispanic maids. 

Damn man........that's my mom

You were also a privileged with servants?

[Хahar 🤔]

Rice, always. Lots of fish, of course: standard Bengali fare like carp and hilsa, but also American fish like trout. Shrimp on occasion; I've always loved shrimp. As I've gotten older, I've been having more and more beef and chicken. Beef is my favorite meat. I never took to goat. As for vegetables, generally I have a lot of cauliflower and broccoli, with spinach on some days. After a meal, I've for years had a "salad" of cucumbers and tomatoes when I could fit it in.

Do you eat pork at all?

No.

I won't chastise you for your beliefs.  But you're missing out. 

Or is it simply because your parents don't eat it?

I've heard conflicting reports on pork.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Thank heavens some of the meals were cooked by black or Hispanic maids. 

Damn man........that's my mom

You were also a privileged with servants?

No, my parents weren't country club pubblies like yours

[??????????]

Rice, always. Lots of fish, of course: standard Bengali fare like carp and hilsa, but also American fish like trout. Shrimp on occasion; I've always loved shrimp. As I've gotten older, I've been having more and more beef and chicken. Beef is my favorite meat. I never took to goat. As for vegetables, generally I have a lot of cauliflower and broccoli, with spinach on some days. After a meal, I've for years had a "salad" of cucumbers and tomatoes when I could fit it in.

Do you eat pork at all?

No.

I won't chastise you for your beliefs.  But you're missing out. 

Or is it simply because your parents don't eat it?

I've heard conflicting reports on pork.

From awesome to godly?

[useful idiot]

... Sun Drop.

Useful, I enjoyed your tale of inter-regional mobility and cross-ethnic camaraderie.  Also I have never tried 'Sun Drop', so I looked it up - a different kind of Mountain Dew!  With even more caffeine!  I don't look forward to returning to the bad place, but I will enjoy trying the Sun Drop when I do - I hope I can find it in St. Louis.

If you're ever back in St. Louis and can't find it then let me know and I'll send you some.

[dead0man]

Rice, always. Lots of fish, of course: standard Bengali fare like carp and hilsa, but also American fish like trout. Shrimp on occasion; I've always loved shrimp. As I've gotten older, I've been having more and more beef and chicken. Beef is my favorite meat. I never took to goat. As for vegetables, generally I have a lot of cauliflower and broccoli, with spinach on some days. After a meal, I've for years had a "salad" of cucumbers and tomatoes when I could fit it in.

Do you eat pork at all?

No.

I won't chastise you for your beliefs.  But you're missing out. 

Or is it simply because your parents don't eat it?

I've heard conflicting reports on pork.

From awesome to godly?

AYE!

[phk]

I gave a pretty vague answer.

But its pretty much North Indian/Pakistani fare plus American things like hamburgers, pizza, hot dogs, burritos.