SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Just wondered what your thoughts were on School dinners?A couple of things I particularly liked were Roast potatoes and does anyone remember the taste of the Salad cream (if that's what it was)I remember it being a little runny,but it had a slightly hot taste to itand I used to love it on mashed potatoes,by the way are there any ex Dinner ladies who might know how this Salad cream was made?Remember Applecrumble,Gingerbread & whitewash.I can fair taste it ummh!Detested Parsnips/Turnip

Puds were great, spotted dick, jam roly poly etc etc

Luncheon meat fritters! swimming in grease and the luncheon meat was a very bright pink euk!!Billberry pie with blobs of pretend cream on each portion was lovely and we all came out of dinners with purple teeth.

i loved the semoline with red sauce, the sauce was de-lish!!!!!. hated tapioca, hated it with a passion we used to call it frog spawn.i also remember having baked alaska, my friend said to me a bird just pooped on your dinner- well it did look like it so put me of for life!!!! still think of it now. we used to have a big cookie with fresh orange juice too    

Pink custard! Usually served over coconut sponge (sponge pudding with red jam on top, sprinkled with dried coconut) or spotted dick (snigger!)

Various upside down cakes with custard. Pretending to be a Catholic so that I didn't have to eat the disgusting mince on Friday(Catholics weren't allowed to eat meat on Fridays in those days) Getting bread instead of potatoes when (for some reason) there was a shortage of potatoes. We got our dinners from a remote kitchen so the dinner ladies who served it didn't always know what was coming - Christmas, snowing outside, salad followed by jelly and custard on red hot plates!

Liked:Porcupine Meatballs - meatballs padded out with rice so they looked spikyFish and chips on Fridays (Roman Catholic!)The kids in the infant school calling me "Miss" and asking for "flowers", meaning mustard and cress, when I was a lunch monitor at age 9 in the junior school!Being able to go out to Ainsley's for a pie and the Eldon for a pint (not officially) once we reached the sixth-form - ha ha!!Disliked:Pink custardBlancmangeFrog spawn (mentioned earlier in this thread)Parsnips. I had a dreadful experience in junior school - I served myself what I thought was a big portion of chips, only for them to turn out to be parsnips. Put me off forever!Watery mashed potatoes which spread out on the plate."Gala pie" (who were they kidding?!) - pork pie stuffed with hard-boiled egg coloured green round the edges of the egg white as it hadn't been cooled properly.    

Lilysmum wrote: Luncheon meat fritters! swimming in grease and the luncheon meat was a very bright pink euk!!Billberry pie with blobs of pretend cream on each portion was lovely and we all came out of dinners with purple teeth. The luncheon meat fritters still put my teeth on edge when I think of them, I went to Crossgates girl school and our dinners I think came from Temple Newsam ,I hated the prunes and custard.

Sausages cooked in half an inch of water, so the top bit was burnt and underneath they were still pink with their skins hanging off like used johnnies - nice.Individual pizzas cooked in an oven so hot, that the cheese topping burnt before it had a chance to melt. When you put your knife and fork in them they shattered like a plate!Fish fingers with bits of blue card under the breadcrumbs.Lemon meringue pie squares left out the night before, so the meringue part evaporated leaving a toxic yellow lino floor tile!Watered down baked beans with a pound of margarine slowly melting on the top - disgusting!Got to go now - feel sick!!!    

These dinners sound very good to dinners in 1943 But I can,t remember what we had, but I often was chastised for not eating them. (Get out the fiddle)