School dinners: what was the worst thing you got served?
When we asked Twitter this question, the responses came as thick as school custard. Here's a selection of our favourites.
@foodjournalist secondary school, mid 80s, mushroom soup with slimy corn flour lumps also grim.
— Catherine Phipps (@catlilycooks) September 5, 2013
@foodjournalist Cauliflower cheese. Put me off it for about twenty years.
— Martin Hewitt (@handlewithcare) September 5, 2013
@foodjournalist Ravioli. Didn't realise it didn't have to come out of a tin for years.
— MiMi (@meemalee) September 5, 2013
@foodjournalist semolina and prunes.
— Rachel McCormack (@R_McCormack) September 5, 2013
@foodjournalist lumpy and cold mash potato with sliced spam
— Samphire and Salsify (@SamphireSalsify) September 5, 2013
@foodjournalist used to hide uneaten food but was found out and forced to eat it. horrible dinner lady ugh
— Maria Brannigan (@GlutenFreeandGs) September 5, 2013
The 70s and 80s
School dinners, it seems, do not bring back happy memories for those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s. My worst memory was battered roe (that's cod's eggs, folks) – no child should be forced to eat that. At secondary school I remember a small portion of chips costing 10p, and how Gary (gah, can't remember his surname) would order sausage and a beaker of soup and then hide the sausage submerged in the soup so he'd get it for free. I also recall the day they said 'We're not serving chips' and we all went to the chippy, and the day there was a food fight... ahhh, good times.
2013
Next week my daughter will start primary school, and as part of the open day we were invited to try some of the food. The cook and dinner ladies were straight out of Central Casting, sporting some fine bingo wings and tabards. The food was pasta bake, and there was more fruit and vegetables available than I remember from my school days. As for the pudding, the first taste was like that bit in the film Ratatouille, where the bitter old critic is transported back to his childhood in one single mouthful.
It was sponge and custard. You'll no doubt note the lack of any other flavouring, just sponge, moistened by custard. And it tasted like the memory of a thousand school days.
So what are you school dinner memories? Tell us in the Comments box below.
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