Food Favourites & Food habits.

Hello, The "Festive season" almost upon us, what are our favourite foods, food habits & memories. I'll start off with a question. Why have soup at the start of a meal? Or, for the funny ones amongst us. "Two soups".

I'm not a politician (for the record, I don't think much of them - whatever the party - as they have proven to be the enemy in many regards, especially with the PRS) but will give a politician's answer. I'd like to answer that questions in two ways. First, I don't think food is the key issue here. At this annual event, which is an important religious festival for many people, it would be very short-sighted of us if we were to focus primarily on food. Indeed, I refer you to the late, great Jeffrey Bernard's Lowlife (paraphrased here) article in the Spectator one festive season in the 1990s, where he started by stating "I've tried avoiding [a certain annual event] every year, but the [illegitimate offspring] won't go away. It's always a miserable time for me, what with youngsters getting drunk and leaving the contents of their stomachs all over the pavements of Fitzrovia..." And when it comes to soup, there has been a marked decrease in the consumption of soup, in real terms, around the winter solstice, since we came into power. Soup consumption under the previous government was an absolute disgrace. That is why we have taken the measures we took in last week's budget. And I think if we're ever going to get soup consumption down to an acceptable level, allowing for seasonal adjustments, in line with the recommendations of my pink paper, then the whole nation has to tighten its belts. I think those figures speak for themselves. Second, on a personal level, I don't really have favourite foods. I used to, decades ago. Food was something to get fired up about. Especially exciting foreign foods like Indian, Chinese or Italian. Nowadays, I only eat when my body tells me I need food. After all, food is merely fuel - just like taking the car to the garage to fill up with petrol. I'm not fussy as long as the food is ok. But there are certain foods I will not eat. Ordinary fish in batter is ok, but seafood - yuk. Prawns, shrimps, whelks etc. To quote an American tourist I overheard once, surveying a pan of frying chicken livers, "why would anyone want to eat that ****?". And oysters - I did try them once, I admit. I had nine of the things, But only five of them worked. I was brought up to eat meat - after all, when I was little, I didn't know here it came from! But I instantly knew there was something wrong with liver or kidneys. We inherit an awful lot of data and inbuilt responses through our DNA. I'm sure that if people knew what function the kidneys, and especially the liver, perform in the bodies of animals (that includes humans, who are just another species of animal on the planet, and whose prefrontal cortexes have fortunately [unfortunately?] evolved to be larger than in any other animal), they would eschew those organs at mealtimes.

Is it on the trolley? After I asked the question 'isn't chicken nicer than turkey?' We stopped having it many years ago. We never used to have a starter but 3 years ago the pigs in blankets were cooked too early and I suggested we eat them there and then. It quickly became a tradition.

I'm loving this, Please keep it coming. Not just the soups! I might have cheese & biscuits later. Jacobs fibre crackers.

Helen, Defintely a 'go'er with Christmas dinner

We've long had them with the main meal but they are just the thing to stave off a riot while the smells are ramping up but the food isn't ready. For those years, a long time ago, when the meal wasn't ready until about 3pm, the pigs in blankets would have been even better as a starter.

PIBs are a relative newcomer to our Christmas table. The concept of a small sausage being wrapped with a rasher of streaky bacon is probably an old tradition for some but it wasn't until the latter part of the 20th century that supermarkets got in on the act and inevitably put their own stamp on them by adding more and more unnecessary flavours to try sexing them up. Make your own, Jeez it's unbelievably simple.

We always had PIBs to accompany the capon right from the first Christmases I can remember, starting in early 50's but I never heard them called PIBs until you could buy them in supermarkets. I was surprised to find (after forum brekkie) F. E. Ellis, butcher, from whom the capon would be ordered is still at the corner of Shakespeare Street and Walsgrave Road. I asked my mother why she used F. E. Ellis when there were nearer butchers to Wyken. She said it was repayment for what they provided 'under-the-counter' during the war! Perhaps her 40+ years of loyalty is one reason why they are still around, run by the 4th generation of brothers. 1950's Christmas dinner would start with soup, the only major dinner where a starter was provided, served on the rarely used living room table. All the vegetables would have been grown in our garden. I would forgo the brussel sprouts. Christmas pudding, mincepies and an iced, decorated Christmas cake, all home made, were served at a late teatime. Sadly my keto diet has eliminated all things containing sugar .