h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hitchin reporting here.

Only the other day we were reminiscing about Vesta packet meals.

So on Sunday, whilst shopping in our local supermarket, we saw some.

Today, as an experiment in 70's sophistication we have had:-

Prawn cocktail
Vesta Chow Mein
Lemon Meringue pie

All washed down with a fine bottle of medium sweet Liebfraumilch.

We passed up on the 1/2 grapefruit with a cherry in the middle as a starter.

We passed on the cheesecake with generic red topping, Black Forrest Gateaux or Angel Delight for the sweet course.

And we missed out on Bulls Blood, Mateus Rose, Blue Nun, Concorde, Black Tower or Hirondelle. We are too common to even think of trying Piesporter or Niersteiner.

What did we miss?

And next week.....the 80's?

You missed out on Golden Nuggets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Nuggets

I bought some on holiday last month along with some butterscotch Angel Delight...both great stuff.

Bull's Blood is actually not a bad red wine. I'm quite sure someone will step in to educate me and tell me it is a terrible red, but believe me. I know what a terrible red is, and it's *nothing* like Bull's Blood.

I don't think it would have the reputation it has if its name started with Chateau.

You missed out Le Piat D'or.

And it probably doesn't really go with chow mein, but how about a side dish of Smash?

RF

harveys bristol cream and whatneys red barrel, dont forget a party6

harveys bristol cream and watneys red barrel, dont forget a party6

It's obvious the classic 70's starter. The Prawn Cocktail.

I've always associated Le Piat D'or with the 80s - along with a Golf (to get you there) and some Nescafé Gold Blend with After 8s after dinner

The sophisticated 70s dinner party piece was, surely: crown roast of lamb followed by lemon soufflé (or was that just chez Sho?)

I as a child in the 70s, so I'm thinking spiders, milk bottles and 50c mixtures. I think those still exist though.


What about fondues!!! Choc or cheese?

Except for the 50c mixture, which I guess now would only have one lolly in it

Also it was a Party 7 not 6

http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_britain/keg_bitter/watneys_red_barrel.html#party_seven

Avocados sliced in half and served *in avocado shaped glass dishes*

Pineapple cubes and chunks of cheddar on cocktail sticks, preferably stuck into half a grapefruit covered in tin-foil

A swirl of Primula from a tube and half a stuffed olive served on a Ritz cracker

Tuc biscuits

Vol au vents

Corn on the cob, boiled whole with mini-corn-in-the-cob forks to stop you getting buttery

Chicken inna basket

Scampi innna basket

You had avocado in the 70s? It was well into the 80s until I first tasted one (when the new right deregulated the country and let people import things. I think they lifted the ban on margarine then too). Never looked back

*I* didn't. My Ma loathed cooking and didn't really like food. We ate a lot of Angel Delight though.

It's the glass dishes which were really 1970s:

http://www.glass-roots.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/2903?opendocument&part=3

http://static.preloved.co.uk/uploads/userphotos/10/0621/2073132-529m.jpg

Awesome, aren't they?

My sister doesn't like cooking or food. She always thought that getting all the necessary nutrients in a pill would be a good thing

That does seem very 70s Ben. Very Margo Leadbetter.

Mrs Zen: <>

Every buffet I've ever been to, right up to present day, has had cheese & pineapple on sticks. They're the first thing to go on my plate, and also the thing I'm most likely to nibble on absent-mindedly if I stand too close to the table later on

Mrs Zen: <> I had some of these last weekend - no-where near as good since they cut back on the salt.

Deb

Deb, I'm very partial to green olives stuffed with pimentos and stabbed onto a cube of cheddar...

No taste, me.

I got married in the 70s and still have some of the stuff that was fashionable then. The worst is one I inherited from my mother-in-law - a stainless steel server which could ONLY be used for stuffed eggs!