[Food] What was your favourite school dinner?

[Sussexscots]

Tough, stringy meat. Pieces of unidentifiable fish in a bilious green oil. Puddings with skins like an orange.

That's what I told my Mum so she'd let me come home for lunch.

 

[Brighthelmstone]

Sausage Roll & Chips. with so few pieces of meat it might count as vegetarian and enough ketchup to make it all float!

 

[Blue3]

I can think of several personal examples where school are so diffrent now, I was at work and received a call from the school to say my child had had an injury in the playground and a ambulance had been called, could I attend school, so off I went driving ten miles to arrive just as the ambulance crew were fitting a neck brace and loading child into the ambulance I followed to hospital were child has X-ray nurses doctors in attendance only to find the child was only winded and had absolutely no injuries.
Later I thought the whole episode through and in took the time and expertise of 9 individuals let's say an hour each so 9 hours worth of work plus X-ray ambulance and my leaving work. I then thought how this would have been dealt with when I was a child when the school nurse would have been summoned she would invarrubly be a nurse of many years experiance who was retired from the NHS and was now filling for a few hours at the local school, she would know soon if this child was really injured and a dab of magic water usually did the trick and everyone would get back to work.

Another time I attended a parents evening where a very trendily dressed teacher not much more than a child herself started telling me how my child was doing poorly this term I pointed out this term also happened to be her first term and that from my perspective she might be the one performing poorly so we talked and I set her several goals in relation to my child and made a series of regular meetings to review the progress we never had any further problems, when I was at school teachers were subject specific and not multi subject as they are now they dressed acted appropriately and expected students to do the same.

Finally school once mirrored life in that there are winners and losers whereas school life today is more about taking part I think this installs unrealistic life expectations for children, when I was at school we had carrier advisers not teachers but people outside of education in the work place these individuals advice could be harsh if truthful, many a child was told you don't have the academic ability so you need to be thinking about factory work

 

[NooBHA]

Art always like the bars that were basically fruity flapjack. asides watching the sugar content of some they're pretty good.

Mint/orange clubs, wagon wheels and those silver green mint foil wrapped ones have never been on our or his radar!.

one of his class mates had jam sandwiches . . .every day!

I am not a fan - The odd one is OK - I have tried a lot of them and none too keen. - I know they are healthy (ish)

I remember being sat opposite a woman on a train and she opened up a clear bag of what looked to me just like a bag of bird seed and she scoffed the lot. A massive bag of what was just seeds. I half expected a budgie to come flying out of her ears.

I know I am joking and I do advocate good healthy for for kids. Especially early on in years when their pallet is still adjusting to tastes but a nice balance is good. A lot of mental health issues within kids is down to body image so keeping weight down in part helps with that as well when they reach their teen years

 

[atfc village]

Butterscotch tart and Custard back in the 70s . Most of the dinners were awful at middle school . Secondary school had more choice and got better.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Sounds like you dipped out at your school, my experience was the exact opposite, the school dinners I had at my Infants/Junior school between 1958 to 1964 were fantastic. When I look at what kids are offered these days it makes me realise how good they really were. Mum was an excellent cook and having lived through the War was so good at conjuring up great food with next to nothing, but I never told her I used to eat food at school which I would flatly refuse to eat at home.
We used to get mashed swede but don't ever remember getting turnips or parsnips and we only ever got beetroot cold and with a salad.
Here are some of the things I remember,

Roast dinners (with either Beef, Pork, Lamb, Ham, chicken)
Lancashire Hotpot
Cheese Pie
Steak Pie
Fish & Chips (chips were a treat, we didn't get them often)
Liver & Bacon
Beef Stew with dumplings
Fish Fingers
Cold meat salad in the summer
Steak & Kidney pudding
Toad in the hole
Vegetables included, Roast/boiled/mashed potatoes (chips were a treat), cabbage, peas, carrots, swede, sprouts, cauliflower, tinned tomatoes

Chocolate sponge pudding with Chocolate custard
Treacle sponge pudding with custard
Apple pie
Semolina with Jam
Rice pudding with prunes or Apricots
Tapioca with jam or prunes
Tinned peaches with custard
Coconut & Jam sponge with pink custard
Spotted dick with (you guessed it, custard)

As you can see, custard featured heavily but the puddings were great.
It's making me hungry listing all this!


Senior school wasn't quite as good but still not bad.

I don't know what's more impressive, the variety of the menu or the fact that you remember it all!

 

[zefarelly]

Sausage Roll & Chips. with so few pieces of meat it might count as vegetarian and enough ketchup to make it all float!

I reckon those greggs veggie/vegan sausage rolls are just New old stock 70's school/football ones.

 

[A mex eyecan]

Burger, chips and beans followed by jam tart.

The rest was mediocre at best. The worst was spam fritters.

in the last year, it was meat pie followed by any old tart we could get.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

I hated all of it. But, if I didn't have them, it was cheese sandwiches every day. Hated school, hated everything about it. Stay and finish your dinner, you'll no be leaving the table until every wee morsel is gone....stupid jock bitch. I would regularly throw up the force fed mashed swede and potato. Don't forget to pray...why? Pray some one else would eat it?
I could write a list of draconian practices that were still happening into the mid seventies. I could argue that now the schools have gone the other way and kids are molly coddled.
Meh, bloody schools

 

[Music City Gull]

I’m still. unable to talk about the whole experience

You were lucky you didn’t have to eat American cafeteria food. This square pizza day was the day very few kids brought food from home. It’s funny how awful it looks now looking back, lol

 

[portlock seagull]

Brain’s ******s...so tasty they’re...Hmmm, Brains ******s.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

when I was at school we had carrier advisers not teachers but people outside of education in the work place these individuals advice could be harsh if truthful, many a child was told you don't have the academic ability so you need to be thinking about factory work

and you’ve never forgiven them for the insult...

 

[Juan Albion]

No, I went to the one in Tonbridge that isn't named after the town.

Bloody Judd. Hated them.

At MY Kent grammar school, I could have sworn the gypsy fart had some degree of coffee in it. Hated it, anyway.

For me, I'd say marble pudding, along with that nice hot white sauce.

 

[Trufflehound]

Bloody Judd. Hated them.

Should have had our (1970s) gypsy tart. That would have won you over.

 

[m@goo]

Don't Google Gypsy Tart...

 

[Barrow Boy]

Either we went to the same junior school (St Mary Magdalen in Upper North Street) or they got almost the same school dinners. But one omission from your list is cornflake tart - the best pudding we got. Loved the cheese pie.

We were a few towns apart, I went to Buckingham Road Shoreham.

 

[Barrow Boy]

I don't know what's more impressive, the variety of the menu or the fact that you remember it all!

The school was Buckingham Road Shoreham, and going there was the happiest time of my school life and the lovely dinners were a part of those memories. Once I had typed my reply out, I looked at it and thought I bet nobody will believe me, but that was how I remembered it. Pity they didn't do a GCE in 'School Dinners I have Known', I would have made my mum proud.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

5 Park Drive and a penny book of matches.

 

[zefarelly]

The school was Buckingham Road Shoreham, and going there was the happiest time of my school life and the lovely dinners were a part of those memories. Once I had typed my reply out, I looked at it and thought I bet nobody will believe me, but that was how I remembered it. Pity they didn't do a GCE in 'School Dinners I have Known', I would have made my mum proud.

I went to Buckingham middle school and completely agree with this. Happiest fun school ever, my form teacher was an Albion fan ( Miss Gates from Steyning) in my first year, the dinners where great, in fact I can remember all my teachers names from there, and Geoff Taylor the headmaster was good too ( even if we did get bollockings from time to time . . . . last time I saw him I was about 15-16 and he still remembered me. went to Steyning grammar after that, good school, good food, but not such good memories.

 

[ozzygull]

Elm Grove school dinners in the 70's early 80's were good from what I remember. I Loved the roast dinners and hotpots, but the puddings were the best. As well as the usual stodgy puddings and custard, they did a big shortbread biscuit with strawberry yogurt poured over it. I went to Hove Park for senior years and they had a canteen so it was mainly chips and beans after that.