Help Solve Great Culinary Mysteries!

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I've never been able to stomach canned ravioli or those horrid Spaghetti Os.

It grossed me out so much when I was a kid that I still don't like ravioli, even well made ones, to this day.

You're unusual, then. I have no idea why most kids seem to love that stuff. Is it the weird-tasting sauce, the strange meat paste inside, or the mushy pasta that they love best? Or, is it the symphony of "this is bad for you, so it must be good" that makes it so appealing?

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Spam! I rather like it sometimes.

This is something that we're not supposed to like, but I do. I like it enough to make it into a sort of gyro meat. But, just like sausage, I don't want to know how it's made.

 

[buckytom]

This is the American cheese that I mentioned:

 

[oddduck]

I like spaghettios but not the ones with the meat just the Os, it a comfort food i crave when i am feeling under the weather. There is always a can in the cupboard and two in the hurricane kit. I eat them room temp.

My sis when we were kids liked american cheese so it was in the house but i preferred chedder. And i can honestly say i have no idea what spam tastes like, mom never used it in anything no matter how low our budget was. Now i did taste a Vienna sausage once as dad loved the things...notice i said once...what horrid little things.

 

[oddduck]

This is the American cheese that I mentioned:

View attachment 20941

Oh thats way too fancy...where is the plastic wrapper.

 

[Morning Glory]

I've never been able to stomach canned ravioli or those horrid Spaghetti Os.

It grossed me out so much when I was a kid that I still don't like ravioli, even well made ones, to this day.

We still have them here, I had them as a kid and didn't even know real pasta existed! I didn't hate them - we had them on toast, would you believe. I think kids like the fact they are sweet and slip down easily. Plus the shape, I suppose.

 

[epicuric]

OK, time for confession here - we still have those in our house! During a culinary experiment into retro 70's food a couple of years ago we bought a can. My wife actually liked the stuff (childhood memories I think), so when I have something she doesn't like for breakfast (poached egg, smoked mackerel etc.) she has spaghetti hoops on toast. The dogs like them too.

 

[buckytom]

You're unusual, then. I have no idea why most kids seem to love that stuff. Is it the weird-tasting sauce, the strange meat paste inside, or the mushy pasta that they love best? Or, is it the symphony of "this is bad for you, so it must be good" that makes it so appealing?

I think it was mostly the sauce. Like bad ketchup.

 

[Karen W]

Spam! I rather like it sometimes. As for American cheese I suppose its OK on a burger if it is the same as the type we get here. But the cheese @buckytom mentions sounds different.
One thing which is strange in the uk is tinned ravioli and tinned spaghetti. very soggy and nothing like real pasta. I know @Yorky buys the ravioli.

I'm sure you're not the only one who likes spam, or they wouldn't make it. I really don't like the cheese slices wrapped individually in Plastic. It's a taste and texture thing. I guess it's all a matter of personal taste.

 

[buckytom]

I wonder if Spam has changed much over the years? Kind of like I remember relishing Twinkies when I was a kid, I had one recently and it was disgusting. The cake was rubbery and the cream left a weird coating on my tongue, like it was more chemical than dairy.

The same thing happened the last time I had Spam. I used to love fried Spam on pumpernickel or rye, or even in place of bacon in a BLT on white.

But the last time I hap Spam it was pretty nasty; very greasy tasting and not very spicy.

 

[oddduck]

I wonder if Spam has changed much over the years? Kind of like I remember relishing Twinkies when I was a kid, I had one recently and it was disgusting. The cake was rubbery and the cream left a weird coating on my tongue, like it was more chemical than dairy.

That sounds like how twinkies have always been. The cream has never been dairy but whipped sugary oils.

 

[epicuric]

British Army ration packs used to contain a spam derivitive - bacon roll, I think it was called. It came in a round tin, like a half tin of baked beans. It was denser and saltier than normal spam, but fried up a treat.

 

[Morning Glory]

British Army ration packs used to contain a spam derivitive - bacon roll, I think it was called. It came in a round tin, like a half tin of baked beans. It was denser and saltier than normal spam, but fried up a treat.

You tried it?

 

[epicuric]

You tried it?

Burnt it frequently in a mess tin. Still tasted good. Relatively speaking.

 

[Morning Glory]

Burnt it frequently in a mess tin. Still tasted good. Relatively speaking.

You were in the army? I'd never have imagined that...