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When I was little, the Helms man (bread, doughnuts) would drive his panel wagon down the street once a day. I could hear his distinctive whistle from miles away. My mom would give me a dime or whatever it cost, and I would fly out of the house to buy a doughnut. He would open the back doors and pull out a big drawer. I would admire the doughnuts and pick out the kind I wanted. I still remember Mike, the driver.
It was the same the ice cream truck, although it was more of a summer thing. The kids would all come out and crowd around the truck. It was one of those Good Humor trucks with the refrigerator box behind the cab, not a van. Again, I could hear the distinctive music the truck played from miles away. The driver's name was Rolly.
My mom always made the meals for our family. We didn't go out when I was a kid. There were no drive through "fast food" restaurants back then. Her dinners were pretty boring. But one comfort food that I still love is tuna casserole.
Oh, and I remember warm toast with melted butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.
I had a similar nostalgic memory but with Yaki-Imo (sweet potato) truck during winters and autumn. The truck driver would sing into a megaphone advertising the sweet potato and we'd hear it across the entire neighborhood, like so:
https://youtu.be/yOw99dt1h3o
Unlike the one in that video, the one in my neighborhood in the 80s actually sang the song live instead of just playing a recording. The actual singing of the song seems to have died as a tradition; I never see drivers doing that anymore.
That's fascinating to me, highlyvolatile. So different from what I've experienced. I can't even imagine making a living by driving around selling baked sweet potatoes/yams. And actually singing instead of having an automated sound.
My first experience with Japanese pastry was when I was in my early 20s. A friend and I came across a Japanese pastry shop. I had no idea what any of it was and wound up getting a daifuku. I was surprised when I realized that it was a ball of bean paste and not very sweet compared to western desserts. Filling, though, and probably very nutritious.
In my late 30s, I worked in an office that was in a small shopping center. One of the shops there was a Japanese market. I went there often to buy lunch items. I tried dorayaki. I don't remember the filling, but again, it wasn't very sweet.
Thanks for the MHO, my friend. :-)
Cheers sir and honored friend! It was a bit of a culture shock to me when I went to the US with how sweet some things were, at least in my childhood when I visited. I remember trying Kool-Aid and wanting to spit it out like, "Blarrrghhh! What's this?" I did love old-school American lemonade though. I think if there was enough sourness to it, I didn't mind the sweetness, but Kool-Aid to me just seemed like sweet on sweet. Classic American Lemonade seems to be one of these things that have sort of faded out of fashion, but that's something I miss from the US -- including lemonade stands. I never tried one with little kids but I tried something run by adults but still a bit informal like that. Just pleasant and nice.
@sage2021. Th family of one of my best friends had a dairy in Lakewood, but they relocated to Ontario in the late 60s when dairies in Lakewood got driven out by housing tracts. Lakewood and the surrounding communities were once full of dairies.
Helm's bakery closed in 1969 because the business model could no longer keep up with the region's growth and change in shopping habits. But you're probably right. Being a driver would no doubt become more dangerous.
A particular kind of pizza with the black burn bubbles reminds me a lot of Chuck E Cheese cheese-pizza, which there was no other type like that, anywhere else I've been to. It tastes better than it looks, but I don't think the current restaurants use this recipe anymore, cause the modern versions don't look the same. I can't think of any other food more related to my childhood than this particular kind of cheese pizza only Chuck E Cheese made.
I've only managed to try Chuck E Cheese a couple of times in the 80s at the birthday parties of my cousins while visiting the US for a Summer or Christmas vacation. I can't remember the taste so well but I remember the cheese being especially stretchy and awesome. I kinda lumped it into the types of pizzas they'd have at skating rinks and bowling alleys back then.
I've been experimenting with pizza making for the past several years and typically for the cheese to develop bubbly burn marks like that on the top, it has to be a fairly dry (low-hydration) or low-fat cheese. I'm thinking the cheese they used must have been some blend of both (low-fat and low-hydration) but not too extreme of both (maybe mid-high-hydration and low in fat, or high in fat and low-hydration), or else the cheese will generally char much more as well as turn an ugly brownish/red color.
I need to experiment more but I'm thinking most likely it's high-fat and low-hydration cheese causing that effect. The low hydration would make the cheese quite dry and prone to burning but the fat might melt and create a fatty, greasy layer preventing the cheese from burning quickly except for the bubbly parts at the top of the cheese bubble to burn.
Apparently, Chuck E Cheese switched from using pre-shredded cheese (typically drier) to fresher cheese they shred themselves on the fly with a machine in recent years. That might be what's causing the difference in texture and taste.
I also want to try to recreate pizzas like this. In Japan, the most popular type of pizza they have at pizzerias is the Neapolitan kind with very fresh, wet mozzarella. I enjoy that type but it's like "wine food" to me. The kind of pizza that makes me most nostalgic is more like "beer food" or, in the case of being a little kid, "Coca Cola food". NY-style pizza is what I've been trying to master with the domestic oven but I'd be happy if I could recreate something like a Chuck E Cheese pizza as well.
Fish with yogurt rice. My mum used to feed me during the weekends. It was horrible, though the fish was seasoned and cooked well. I’d throw a fit, she’d get mad and I’d get grounded lol.. it was a big cycle
I also remember eating scrambled eggs with ketchup.
My mom also used to make some weird type of pasta with lots of masala and seasonings.. it was far from delicious
My mother also used to make me sick and tired of her cooking. In her case, she'd make something like a massive amount of tuna casserole and we'd just end up eating nothing but tuna casserole for 3-4 days in a row. :-D Then after we finally got through that, she'd make like a giant pot roast and we'd have pot roast sandwiches for lunch and pot roast for dinner 3-4 days in a row.
Hmmm…. This is a tough one.
I’d probably have to say Broccoli cheddar soup. My mom used to make it all the time and she made a delicious recipe, and it’s actually my favorite soup.
It’s funny though. I am lactose intolerant and my body hates when I eat it… But I love it so much that I just say “fk it” and eat it anyway.
Lactose intolerance is so common here in Japan. My wife has a mild case of it as well but she seems to be able to tolerate cheese and yogurt and ice cream better than straight milk.
Ugh, she’s lucky! Anything dairy just upsets my stomach immediately. I have to take those lactose pills or use dairy free options if I want it, but it’s not the same lol.
I also love the broccoli cheddar soup but it's something I didn't really love so much until older. I was reading some interesting articles on Mongolians long ago. Apparently, over 90% of Mongolians appear to test as lacking in lactaste persistence, but their culture revolves around dairy (dairy products from horses, goats, cows, etc). It's a weird thing. But a conjecture is that they develop gut flora from auxiliary parts of their diet which help them to digest lactase even though they lack the enzymes.
A funny thing I discovered upon returning to Japan is that my Japanese friends thought the idea of combining broccoli with cheese was gross! This is coming from people eating raw fish and the like. So I cooked the broccoli and cheese for them and it became an instant favorite among them. It's one of my favorite things to bring now to Japanese home parties is broccoli and cheese made in the oven.
Oh wow!!! Interesting to know.
Broccoli and cheese, I can definitely see why that sounds odd to different cultures. It sounds so American lol. However, the flavors definitely meld together well, especially in a soup form… Its a good way to get veggies in your diet lol.
Another favorite of mine is roasted broccoli in the oven, but before baked, it’s covered in oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese. Yum!
That sounds awesome! I don't know why most Japanese new to this find it strange. I think it's because here in Japan, the idea is to present vegetables on their own with minimal other things. So broccoli is usually steamed to the point of staying very crunchy, maybe only lightly seasoned, and the idea is like, "Voila! This is ze broccoli! So beautiful on its own!" But I want to put cheddar cheese on it now. :-D I spent a lot of time in the states.
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I have a funny story. My mom would tell me to eat healthy so she'd make me fish sticks with spinach. Greens disgusted me like whatever.
I only ate the fish sticks and ditched the spinach behind the sofa so I pretended that I ate them... when I hung out with my friends and came back home, she was super upset and found it out. 🤣
I kinda somewhat the opposite thing where I wasn't too picky of an eater, but sometimes my parents would get something I loved and keep it in the fridge, like a large tin of salmon roe (like the cheaper, orange kind of caviar from salmon). Then while they were sleeping at night, I'd gobble up half of it and return it to the fridge hoping they wouldn't notice. The next day, they would be all upset saying, "Who ate the salmon roe?"
* I kinda [did] somewhat the opposite thing [...]
What a coincidence 😂
Popsicles. In summer my grandma always had Popsicles, but I don't remember getting them any other times really. Even now I don't really get them. They aren't generally that popular a snack. But when I do happen to have one it reminds me a lot of when I was a kid at her house.
I was the weirdest kid not liking ice cream so much but I preferred popsicles to like vanilla or chocolate ice cream. It probably sounds so weird to people outside of Asia but green melon was a very popular ice cream flavor for popsicles, like so,:
Sometimes they put vanilla inside. Also a big one here was melon soda ice cream floats, like so:
... it was sort of like the root beer ice cream float popular in the US, but we used melon soda.
Ooh that sounds nice. I've never had green melon before.
I recommend it if you ever come to Japan! Green or blue melon soda and popsicles. There's also a green melon variation of Fanta here on top of the grape and orange and so forth. It might be an acquired taste though; I'm not sure! I take it for granted from childhood.
But I also remember popsicles. My fondest memory is getting brain freeze on popsicles at the zoo.
Turkey stuffing. The entire Thanksgiving dinner was made from scratch, but my job was the stuffing. Toasting three types of bread then shredding it up, celery diced, white onion diced, and the fresh sage handpicked filled the whole house!
Turkey stuffing was oddly one of the few things I really disliked as a kid. I got to try some Thanksgiving dinners in the US with my American side of the family, and my American family would keep saying, "Try the stuffing! Have some more!" and I really didn't like it. :-D It might have just been theirs; they made the kind that's mostly breaded. I much preferred to combine the turkey with gravy.
Yet I have some nostalgia for Turkey stuffing as well as Thanksgiving dinners in general (we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Japan) and like stuffing a lot more now! The one you made sounds a lot better than the ones I tried.
One Thanksgiving food I became absolutely addicted to when I first tried was deviled eggs. I think I was around 5 or so when I first tried but ate like 20 of them!
Stuffing can be so disgusting if not made fresh and absolutely perfect. I will rarely eat it at a restaurant
deviled eggs remind me of the Marine Corp birthday. In the mess hall they serve steak and lobster to all and freshly made deviled eggs!
I loved beef ravioli, it was a treat whenever I had it for dinner, next would be scalloped potatoes with ham, homemade not from a mix or store bought. I always loved mac & cheese with spam sandwiches (yum). Then there was my mom's meatloaf that was always a favorite and finally her Golumpkis, never got tired of them.
Chef Boyardee's beef ravioli was a staple food for me in the US during university! I might have consumed like a thousand of those.
I never got to try a really good kind -- only this instant microwave kind.
I used to eat sandwiches made out of this stuff when I was a little kid. I have not had it in years but I recently found out it still is produced.
The ingredients actually sound really good to me! It sounds like mayo (mustard + eggs + oil) with relish and some additional things, or even veering towards ranch dressing but with a twist to it and some veggies mixed in.
PB&J sandwiches, the 2-$3.00 ice cream from the ice cream truck that mom said we can't get, Kool-Aid juice pouches, Kool-Aid water bottle packet with a pickle, Chester's hot fries, peach cobbler and certain popsicles, including the Huges barrel juices.
When I was a kid I used to eat marinated tangerine peels which is used as herbal medicine in China and I ate a Chinese jello that does not require refrigeration and I also had shrimp flavoured chips and white rabbit brands of candy; they upgraded their price after entering the American market.
Root beer floats.
I was in the single digits when my mother took to me to an A&W restaurant for my first root beer float. I remember the Barbie doll sized mug. It was glass, heavy, and appeared full size in my tiny hands. The only reason I remember the actual size of that mug is because I was allowed to keep it as a souvenir and I cherished it for many years.
The end 😂
Sorry, I ran out of time.
Pizza and fries. whenever I have a pizza that has that thick doughy crust Im always reminded of my younger days going to my local pizza joints after school to purchase their afternoon kids special pepperoni pizza and enjoying it with friends. We would even dance to some of the music that would play on the radio or have funny banter with the shop owners. I think that's one of the only times I felt the pure joy of community as well. Ah, nostalgia.
McDonald’s. I’ve still got all the toys I got in the happy meals as a child. But I don’t eat it as an adult anymore; as of last month I’ve been 2 years without eating McDonald’s
I still love McDonald's dollar menu. My friends and family think I'm so weird but I think $1 McDonald's cheeseburger tastes amazing provided it costs $1. If it was like $3, I think it would taste horrible with artificial-tasting cheese, bad buns, and frozen patties. But at $1, it tastes amazing! :-D
Fudge. My parents used to make the world most terrible fudge. What kills me is how long they spent to make it. I swear any fudge I've had in my life since was far far better than the fudge they used to make. 🤣
Fudge is one of the few desserts besides brownies and cheesecake that I enjoy (never had much of a sweet tooth, but I love the chewier textures of the former two).
My mother made -- at least from my childhood perspective -- the worst and most convoluted spaghetti with meat sauce ever! I could never tell her though since she was so proud of that recipe and called it a "family heirloom"... my mother's side of the family were hillbillies of Irish descent, so maybe it was a recipe designed for drunk people. :-D
In particular, she used loads of carrots sliced into the teeniest cubes in that recipe as well as heavy seasoning with rosemary, thyme, and sage. So instead of having a nice meaty flavor together with onions and garlic and tomato like a really nice meat sauce, it tasted mostly of the sweet notes of the carrots and herbs with the crunchy texture of the carrots.
I used to secretly apologize to my friends who came over when she made it all proud of her recipe while they gave me funny looks as they tried it. :-D
Crepes. I eat them when I miss my mum. Fresh lemon and sugar. We used to always have them Sunday mornings.
They are very popular here in Japan but Japanese tend to make them in a very extravagant way, like so:
@highlyvolatile Wonderful!
crepes though they are called a different name in my country, now that i can i actually make them myself regularly whenever friends visit.
They are very popular here in Japan. There are crepes stores and vendors all over the place like so:
Ah those are pretty fancy the ones i make are bland compared to it
I'd say pizza and chicken nuggets. I used to eat a lot of those when I was a kid.
I used to eat McDonald's and Burger King's chicken nuggets. I also used to have pizza from the pizza place that's a block or two from my apartment and the pizza at my elementary schools. I didn't really like that pizza because cafeteria pizza isn't that great in my opinion. Pizza is still one of my favorite foods and I still have cravings for it. I had some yesterday.
Those are actually the same as mine. In my case, Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets are huge since I visited the first shopping mall in the US on summer vacation when I was 5. Then there was a lady handing out samples of Chick-Fil-A nuggets and she gave me one and I tried it and was like, "Woooooowww! That is amazing! I WANT MORREEEE!" So my parents got me an 8-pack of the nuggets and I was super happy.
Then later in that same shopping mall, I tried my first huge slice of pepperoni pizza along with Dr. Pepper. That was also amazing. It was like sensory overload for a kid.
Super Crunch. The green one. It tastes like gasoline. I'm talking about that smell when you refill your car tank at a gas station.
Is the way it tastes like gasoline appealing to you? :-D I wonder because I had a love of Domino's pizza as a kid and some people describe it like cheese and tomato sauce on cardboard, and oddly that's not at all unappetizing to me as a description!
I haven't tasted gasoline before but somehow i can compare its smell when you eat it. Or lighter fluid
A certain pizza shop. I drove an hour and 15 mins each way once a month to enjoy it
Pizza might be my #1 as well. I loved the NY-style the very best.
Those really small puffy little star cookies that babies eat
Love this stuff
I never tried like that before. That looks like something I'd like! I might be a baby still in some ways. :-D
Macaroni and cheese with hot dogs. I was left on my own a lot and that was the only thing I knew how to make. Just the smell is enough sometimes to remind me how I’m not as worth loving as booze, pills and random guys from a bar.
That's quite a powerful memory. I got left alone a lot as well but with lots of microwave dinners like Hungry-Man dinners.
Gravy over bread.
Corn on the cob covered in butter and salt.
Rice with milk and a little sugar and cinnamon sprinkled over it.
Wow, sweetened rice with cinnamon is a totally new concept to me! Mind-blown! I have to try now. That said, we have sweetened rice cake (mochi) here which is squished. Maybe not so different. What type of rice is used for that?
No idea what kind of rice.
Whenever we had dinner, if there was rice left over that's what we used for breakfast. So the rice wasn't seasoned at all.
Just a bowl full with warm enough milk to warm up the rice (this was before microwave ovens) and just a sprinkle of cinnamon and a little sugar.
I tried to look up and if it's Mexican-style, apparently most common is long-grained with just the slightest hint of the germ left. I tend to like long-grained much better. Japanese white rice has become kind of boring to me. It's very sticky with the germ completely removed.
... and very short-grained here.
Steak and potatoes I was raised on a farm no fast food around picked are own veggies and raised are own beef
Envious! I had mostly rice and fish growing up, but I much prefer steak and potatoes! And fresh-picked veggies and fruits are the best I've ever tried.
Hamburger or tuna helper, Mac n cheese, bologna, spam and homemade birthday cakes.
I'm still struggling to acquire a taste for hamburger and tuna helpers and especially spam. Did you combine these things with something else?
Cheessteaks from South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania OMG SOOOOOO GOOD LOL
I love Philly cheesesteaks! I've been trying to make those at home here in Japan with provolone cheese, but they never come out as good as some I tried in the US.
My grandma is Native American and used to make us this really good soup I hated it when I was little because it had squash in it but we were poor and that’s all we could afford it’s a happy memory for me now
The food that reminds me of my childhood the most is definitely the cinnamon cookies my grandmother made. Even the smell of it takes me back to those years.
Roast beef & smashed potato's smothered in gravy with homemade biscuits.
maggi (insant noodles)
used to eat them a lot when i was in pre-school, good times :')
The huge smiley faced pancakes ihop use to seeve lol
Bacon pizza, burritos, and pancakes
I don't think I've ever tried pizza with bacon on it. Pepperoni tends to be my favorite but bacon sounds really good as well.
Like so? Looks awesome to me:
pizza chicken nuggets mac n cheese
Pizza and chicken nuggets might be one of my top ones at least as far as Western food. I also loved Mac and Cheese but oddly I don't like it nearly as much as a kid. It tastes a bit one-dimensional to me, but I got epic nostalgia associated with it anyway that makes me happy regardless.
Chocolate milk. Pb and j sandwiches
That's very hardcore American style to me! My lunch box mostly consisted of onigiri (rice balls) back then with some filling inside like tuna+mayo or dried salmon:
... I generally like sandwiches a lot better!
Mashed potato with butter and cheese.
I got a weird home variation that puts mayo in place of butter along with garlic but still cheese. It doesn't sound very good with mayo in place of butter but I like it better! But I love mashed potatoes in general.
Pizza
Pizza might be my number one but my first time trying pizza was an epic disappointment in Tokyo Disney Land. It was Hawaiian pizza with the pineapple and as a kid, that balance of sweet and savory seemed disgusting to me. But then I tried American pepperoni pizza not long after on a vacation to the US and that might have been the greatest thing I ever tried as a kid. I now like Hawaiian pizza as well but as a kid, I thought it awful.
Lol yeah. I totally get it it's so delicious
Gummy's, lunchables and chocolate bars.
Did you ever try the Coca-Cola-flavored Haribo Gummies like this?
They were my favorites of the candies.
One interesting thing I discovered in hindsight with gummies because I had very bizarre tastes as a kid favoring something like beef jerky over ice cream is that gummies have gelatin (animal byproduct) in them which provides them lots of protein. I think I might have loved the protein whether it was sweet or savory. Same with some of my favorite chocolate bars like Baby Ruth and Reeses. They had a higher protein content than usual.
Pasta and choc cake!
What sort of pasta was your fave?
Rigatoni and meatballs! I've since expanded options and flavors.
Meaty ones! I love that. My thing in uni was Chef Boyardee's beef ravioli!
that's a staple of college kids!:) quick and easy and tastes good.
Pancakes do <3
I never acquired a taste for those or French Toast! It seems to be a common source of nostalgia for many though. My wife loves them with maple syrup, blueberries, bananas.
... strawberries, big chunk of creamy butter melting on top.
I just put white or brown sugar on mine
These tasted so good we didn't even put syrup on all of them.
2 eggs.
1/2 cup of half &half.
A dash of vanilla extract.
A dash of cinnamon.
A dash of nutmeg.
Thoroughly whip.
Three slices of sourdough bread. Put the bread on the plate and pour the eggs/cream over all.
Let them soak until all the mix is completely absorbed.
Cook over low/medium heat.
I put honey over the first and ate the rest plain,
@MCheetah I never knew the difference either! It's the first time for me. I would have thought flapjacks were pancakes. I knew the difference between crepes, pancakes, and french toast, but flapjacks are new to me as a separate category.
ketchup
Drinking ketchup straight?
lmfao, no…
I just added ketchup to literally every dish I ate…
I got that going on with yellow mustard and spicy sauces. But I did used to -- well I still do sometimes -- drink mayo straight outta the bottle. Like I'll wake up in the middle of the night like, "What? I ate too much lean protein and no fats." Then I drink some mayonnaise and I'm good.
whaaat? hahaha
well I’m not judging… I have many food habits people would be shocked by lol
I'm a bit weird there. I got a George Foreman grill in uni and all I ate was grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, grilled beef, grilled pork, and I think I started to get some deficiencies because I got strong cravings to just start eating spoonfuls of mayo. Do you put ketchup on eggs, like omelets? I never got used to the combo.
that’s understandable… grilled meat is yummy! hahaha
yes! I love it😆
I’m not a big fan of eggs so it makes it taste better for me
Sloppy joes lol
I never acquired a taste for those for some reason! I think it's because my parents didn't make it so much. I like the overall vibe and feel though of it. Like the image is more appealing to me.
Lol my brothers are there same way, they never liked it either.
I think I would like it more now. I like the whole kind of barbecue idea a lot more these days. I always loved coleslaw though -- maybe a common accompaniment to Sloppy joes.
BEANS ON TOAST...
I love beans on toast! I didn't get to try it until I was an adult but it's one of my favorite things to quickly whip up now. I love Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce in general. Can eat that stuff cold out of the can.
@IsoUser That sounds awesome although much of the appeal of beans on toast for me is how quick it is to make! A few mins and it's ready! It's something I wish I knew about when I was a university student since I would have probably favored that all the time if so.
Its, chapati.
I have to try Chapati! I like Roti now as something a bit easier to make than Naan, but I've yet to try the full range of breads available across the world.
Lollipop 🍭😍
I immediately got this song in my head for my nostalgia side:
https://youtu.be/3rYoRaxgOE0
Peanut Butter
I didn't come to like peanut butter very much until I went to the US but in Japan, they use the creamy and ultra-smooth kind. I much prefer the chunky kind.
Streuselkuchen
I don't think I've ever tried it before! I've never had much of a sweet tooth but I should try.
If I may ask, have you ever tried Kangaroo meat? I'm fascinated by the idea of trying it.
I love venison as well elk. Lean meats are some of my favorites. I think I have a different taste from those who favor the most tender cuts of meat. I actually like it a bit leaner.
That sounds perfect! We eat horse here in Japan which might seem strange to some people. But the meat is very lean.
Goanna and emu are things that never occurred to me to try! That sounds awesome. I'm taking notes if I get to take a trip to Australia.
Tangerines.
Chorti
South American food? It is first time I've heard of it!
Kurdish
I really have to try more Kurdish foods! It is a second response here suggesting those. What does Chorti contain ingredients-wise?
Woah kurdish haha
Chorti Eastern Kurdish food i guess it has lettuce so vegans
Keledosh
I have to expand my Middle Eastern cuisine. I don't think I've ever tried it let alone Kashk. But the recipe sounds very good to me!
I was recipe this food my ex account secret garden blood or Kurdistan
I remember SecretGardenBlood account!
PB & J sandwiches
Papa johns pizza
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