One Upmanship.

Vesta Chow Mein - The height of sophistication. x

Yes I had forgotten Vesta. They used to make curries. My mum's neighbour used to make Vesta curry every Friday night and bring some in for us to enjoy. The rice was placed in a ring and the curry placed carefully inside.

I liked the bit where you fried the crispy noodles and crisped up and popped! Simple pleasures for simple mind! x

Chow mein is a bit of a memory jogger - I haven't seen it on a menu for years, but there was a time when it was my automatic choice at any Chinese restaurant...

The Vesta Curry was... unspeakable..

Oh yes Vesta curries! Whenever a certain friend asked us round for a meal she would serve up a Fray Bentos pie from a tin! I remember Matteus Rose, we made a lamp from an empty bottle and DH would take Party 7 tins of beer along to parties.

What wonderful Friday night treats we had.

Once the baby was in bed we'd settle down to a very sophisticated evening of a Vesta curry and a bottle of 'Rosie's Mattress' in front of our favourite telly programme at the time - The Mod Squad.

Pudding after the Sunday roast was often a lemon meringue pie which came in kit form - a box containing various packets.

Yes there was a gelatine capsule ,not unlike a cod liver oil capsule which had to be carefully dissolved or someone would get a mouth full of synthetic lemon flavour.

I think you can still buy the kit, annsixty - not sure if it is exactly the same
(it's so easy to squeeze a few lemons, add cornflour and egg yolks! Why did we ever use the packet mix?)

I remember those packs! And nicking the capsule to see what it tasted like....we had a very bland 'lemon' meringue and I felt sick for hours! Never confessed either
Friday night treat was homemade pizza and a bottle of cheap red plonk. You can still get Frey Bentos S&K pies in tins, I actually liked them, but it's years since I bought one.

My DH hated those pies! Soggy pastry. Every time we see one in a shop, he says 'remember those? yuk' I may get one to see if they have improved.

Frey Bentos steak and kidney pies.
You've taken me right back to my childhood. They were a huge treat. My mother used to make extra gravy, and one pie fed a family of five! With mash and veg of course. I haven't tasted one for years!

I doubt whether one Fray Bentos pie would feed five these days, they've probably shrunk in size, certainly the filling has!

You can get several varieties these days - chicken and mushroom, mince and onion, steak and ale as well as steak and kidney. They must still be popular.

I'm going to get one at the weekend just to annoy DH!

I've just got to ask,were those the ones where you levered the top of the tin off and then cooked the pie in the bottom part of the tin?

That's right annsixty, the tins were verging on being at dangerous as corned beef tins- and Frey Bentos made both!

We ate a lot less in those days though didn't we? The plates were smaller and meat and two veg was just that.

Tea and coffee was served in a cup and sandwiches contained just one filling - usually cheese or ham.

Our fridge was small and fitted under the worktop and we didn't have a freezer until five years after we were married.

We didn't feel we were going without though.

Yes merlot I can't believe now that a lb of steak made a stew for 4 and a lb of mince made a cottage pie for 4. I think the weights have been " altered"

Students used to have spag bog parties with the aforementioned Mateus rosé. What was the green one in a similar bottle, something Verde?

Vinho Verde. It was slightly fizzy, as I remember, and rather moreish!

That's the one!
I used to like it, but funnily now I only tend to dring red (champagne and prosecco excepted)

My experience as a young wife was not nearly so grand as some of you on here.

We'd have friends round for something like home made meatballs in tomato sauce with spaghetti, which we ate on our knees because we didn't have a dining room/table.

A couple of acquaintances did invite us to a fondue party once but it transpired that they were trying to recruit us as Amway agents - we declined.

Now, we occasionally have friends round for lunch or an evening meal but I wouldn't describe them as "dinner parties".

Does a take away curry with Kate (cleaner) and the great Gary (gardner) count?

Our first home made curries were with beef mince and Madras curry powder. They always turned out a bit green looking but a garnish of sliced banana and dessicated coconut made them more appetising.

You could buy chapatis but I don't think anyone had heard of Naan bread.

My DH loves the FB tinned steak pies and every few months I buy one and he gets it all to himself !! He also loves Angel Delight....

We certainly weren't posh either Eloethan, we did have so-called 'dinner parties' but more as an excuse to have a meal with friends rather than in the grandest sense.
The only posh 'do' I ever went to was a dinner party on board a ship that my first boyfriend (a Radio Operator in the Navy) invited me to.
All dressed up I was shaking and so nervous that I couldn't even hold a glass of wine
All I remember is being utterly terrified!