Remember that “things-I-don’t-like-that-I’m supposed-to-like” post that I wrote a few weeks ago?
Well, since I wrote that I have been even more fascinated with what people don’t eat and why they don’t eat it. I realised lately that a good many people have sensory issues when it comes to food.
This weekend I spoke to an old friend. I was telling him about my favourite “sinful” breakfast (peanut butter and apricot jam on warm white toast) and then he proceeded to tell me that he doesn’t eat ANY jam. Because it reminds him of living in abject poverty as a child.
Apparently that was all they ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner sometimes (they had it on government-issued brown bread) and he’s obviously formed an association between poverty and jam.
Now I personally don’t think that jam is “poor-peoples food”. Goodness me, jam has become very posh (and super expensive) with all those fancy marmalades and so on. But I can understand why my friend (based on his particular context) would make that association.
Growing up I always thought that we were VERY poor. I think it’s because (like a typical teenager) I wanted Nikes and Levi jeans and my Mother kept saying that she didn’t have money for things like that. I remember rolling my eyes a lot and I remember her ignoring my requests to NOT have my life ruined by my lack of Nikes and Levi jeans!
Now that I’m older and I have my own home and family, I can see that we DEFINITELY were not what one would consider to be poor. We weren’t super wealthy either – my parents were just extremely smart with their money and I think that they were completely debt-free by the time I reached high school. Our needs were adequately met, there was money for all of us to study after school and they took us on two (sometimes even three) holidays every single year. We always had medical aid and they were constantly working on improving the value of our house in the suburbs. I grew up on the Cape Flats but I honestly couldn’t see or hear gangsters or gunshots or police sirens from where I stayed.
I don’t actually know what I consider to be “poor peoples food” because food nowadays is VERY VERY expensive. Also, I think it depends on your context. About 18 months ago I watched a programme on fishing permits. Some struggling fishermen from the West Coast were interviewed and they ALL complained that they were so sick and tired of eating crayfish ALL THE TIME. Now, in my world, crayfish is a very expensive delicacy. In their worlds, it obviously isn’t!
I asked my DH what he considered to be “poor people food”.
He told me that he considered things like fish heads to be poor peoples food – I had no idea that people actually made food from fish heads but many of the poorer folk on the Cape Flats make “snoek head curry” and “snoek head soup” and “snoek head stew”. Whenever I buy fish at the market then the fishmonger always asks if I want the heads. I always wondered why they asked that – now I know.
My DH can’t stand it if I make food where there is no meat/chicken – because in his world when he was growing up, there often wasn’t much meat and they used to have to go without it. I always wondered why he refused to entertain my thoughts of going vegan or doing meat-free Monday. Now I know.
I actually have a post in drafts about how I HATE food wastage which I’ll finish up and publish next week. Seriously though, every single day when I look at the levels of poverty that surround me then I realise how SUPER WEALTHY I am.
But, over to you.
Do you have any bad food memories from your childhood? Is there any food type that you have formed a negative association with because of anything that happened when you were younger?
Do you think that there is such a thing as “poor peoples food?”
Chicken feet and head! I was shocked the first time my MIL said it was poor people’s food. I used to beg my mum to give me chicken feet as a child (don’t ask why, I liked it because I don’t know why)
My hubby also has to have meat, chicken or fish as well. Even when I make minced meat he would ask where the meat/fish is and said we can keep the minced meat for when we are old and grey with no teeth
To your question, oats!!! I refuse to touch it, taste it or even look at it, reminds me of my baby sister’s puke. I was 5 when my sis was born and till this day I refuse to eat oats
haha…Cat also has a thing with oats!
Here and in the U.K at the moment ( due to the recession) cheap cuts of meat are very much back in vogue and even showing up in fancy restaurants. I personally don’t associate poverty to any food group, though i love being able to make a good cheap meal. I have made fish head soup, it is soo lovely.
What i don’t understand is why lamb is so expensive here when the sheep probably out number the people!???
My husband is a bit like yours – likes his protein! Though we have talked him into meat-free Mondays.
I think ‘convenience’ food is really the only food i would consider to be ‘poor’. That is not based on the price though, that is based on the nutritional content of most of it.
Will you mail me your fish head soup recipe please? Lamb is expensive here too and yes, I LOVE being able to make a good, cheap meal.
Tinned fish like sardines – we never ate them growing up – my mom only bought them for our gardener. So if I have to say something was a poor persons food then it would be that.
The other day one of my kids said baked beans are for poor people :-/ I have no idea where they get that from because we often have baked bean in a meal!!!!
LOL…your kids would think that we are poor too! WE do loads of baked beans and I LOVE tinned fish. Sardines are my FAVOURITE. I prefer buying that to tuna because it goes a lot further – and actually tuna is getting so expensive!
I really need to write that post about the degrees of coloured
let me think and chat to my colleague at work and ill be back 
Hey it was good to talk to you last night!
Write it! I also have a “being coloured in Cape Town” post in my drafts – must finish it up and try to publish it next week. LOVED talking to you too! We should do it more often. xx
Hey Joolsy. Long time….
I also think along these veins sometimes… What would I consider poor food? Mmm… stews, I suppose. With the cheaper cuts of meat that need to be stewed for hours, and then all that’s left is bone… Growing up, I also wanted a new Barbie and as I grew older, Levi’s. We never went hungry, but we always ate simply. Rice and Stew. And on Fridays, we’d have chops and fresh white bread. Mom also used to make her own patties and meatballs; we ALWAYS had a stash of mince in the deep freeze, as it was so versatile.
xo
I also don’t eat oats…I can’t even watch someone else eat it. It looks like a giant bowl of steaming snot to me – yuck! My dad tried his level best to get us to eat it. One Saturday morning he made oats and both my brother and I refused to have any. He siad we have to eat three bites and if we still didn’t like it we could stop. So we choked it down, what can you do? My brother pushed his plate away and shortly after my dad said, “See, it’s actually nice” he vomited over the entire kitchen counter. I’m a sympathetic vomiter so I went straight after. We left a trail all the way to the bathroom and my dad spent the rest of the morning cleaning up those three bites.
That was the last time oats was served in our house.
I’m also not particularly mad about apricot jam. My mom put it on my school sandwiches for 7 years straight, and I just can’t eat it on a sandwich after that. On scones or toast i don’t mind it at all, but never on a sandwich again.
I don’t associate any particular kind of food with being poor. Eating lamb these days i do consider quite rich though – holy crap lamb has become expensive!
OMH! My DH is also a sympathetic puker. Drives me NUTS! Seems like a lot of people have issues with oats. My mother also used to put apricot jam on our sandwiches and I only recently started eating it again. After 20 years!
You were brave, 3 bites!!! I have not being brave enough to put half a bite in my mouth and I am over 30 years old
This is such an interesting post! I guess I’d have to say that I think of meatloaf as “poor” food. I remember watching a TV program one time – a sitcom – where the mom was talking about putting anything and everything into this “loaf”, basically cleaning out the pantry. I don’t remember ever liking meatloaf, but that definitely turned me off for good. I know people put cornflakes it in sometimes, for example…ICK!!!
My husband ends to pout if I make a vegetarian dish. He grew up in Eastern Europe, and I know they didn’t have many means. I wonder if that’s part of his issue, that it reminds him of not having the means to have meat?
Interesting subject. I don’t really have a direct association with poor people’s food although growing up we ate simply comparably to our neighbors. My mom was a divorced mom with 3 kids and she was amazing at stretching a packet of mince. We never ate out with my mom – ever. My dad took us to Spur for Brown Cows (coke mixed with milk) as a treat occasionally. I remember yogurt was a huge treat in our house and we only had it on payday.
The only thing I battle to eat is liver. My father once made liver with onions and I (unbeknown to my folks) was sick with hepatitis and he forced me to eat it. Not a good thing for someone with hepatitis to eat liver full of iron but hey. I will always try something first and then decide if I will or won’t eat it but I will never not try it. Growing up we considered fish “poor people’s food”. This day and age tho I don’t think you can call any food “poor people’s” food cos food no matter what it is is getting so darn expensive!
I grew up in a solidly middle class family – not wealthy and certainly not frivolous with money. We very seldom ate out and Kentucky was a huge treat, as was sodas. Dessert only happened (still does actually) on Sundays. But get this, when I was about 6 or 7 I remember hearing my dad say to my mom one Sunday “Leg of lamb again? Let’s have some chicken for a change.” That was the early ’70′s and lamb was cheap! Chicken was more expensive.
I had some poor friends in high school and they ate a lot of bread. They had their own sheep, of which they used EVERYTHING. Me, I love a good tripe stew, but don’t present me with a sheep’s head!