The 1960’s, food trends.

Who could  forget the arrival, in the 60’s, of French Onion Dip?

I certainly can’t. It seemed quite a weird thing to me and my undiscovered pallet.

Who would have thought, cream mixed with a packet of dry French Onion Soup, could taste so good.

I was raised in the country so my knowledge of anything remotely different to meat and 3 veg was quite limited. Almost retarded I would say.

As well as the abovementioned dip, there were many other delicacies to be found. 

Chicken A La King, very French sounding to me, even though I had never known a French person, it still sounded French.

To my way of thinking, chicken was done in the oven, whole chook, stuffed and roasted. Simple.

Not chicken a la king though. It was cut into pieces, onions, carrots and peas added and then served swimming in a white sauce.

I had only had white sauce on corned meat so the thought of chicken swimming in it made me a little apprehensive to try it. I eventually gave it a go and it became a favourite dish of mine. Still is.

Another French sounding dish was Fondue. 

Fondue parties were the thing to have. All very swish sounding. If you did not buy a fondue set, life was just not worth living. I do not think it very healthy though, numerous people dip their food into a smouldering pot of white cheese sauce. Double dipping at times, ughh.

I loved the melted chocolate fondue. I would take my own little bowl and put some chocolate in it so I avoided the double dipped messy main pot.

Asparagus rolled in slices of white buttered bread was a popular appetizer. Tinned asparagus, not fresh. I never took to tinned asparagus, also avoided the popular shrimp cocktails of that era.

 Celery stuffed with cream cheese or peanut butter was always a hit, as where cherry tomatoes. I had only ever seen large tomatoes.

Beef Bourguignon, a fancy name for a beef  stew cooked in a dish in the oven, was quite tasty. Another french dish. Casserole was a new word added to my vocabulary.

Desserts of fruit set in gelatine were a big hit. Any kind of fruit, set in any flavour jelly. My favourite was green jelly with pears and topped with cream.yum.

A new type of cake emerged as well. A chocolate fudge cake cooked in a bundt pan. This was a round pan with a hole in the middle. This particular cake won the Pilsbury baking competition in the 1960’s. Not sure what year, but it was called a Tunnel Fudge Cake.

Very fancy indeed.

Yes, the 60’s certainly opened my eyes to a gourmet range of foods.

Each decade  thereafter only got better.