How times have changed

marionh my mum used to buy Vest chow mein for my dad when I was about 7 ish I used to yearn after it and eventually when grown up could buy it myself.
I bought a packet a few weeks ago (yes it is still available) but it was nothing like it used to be it was so sweet! I have bought it when dh was here as he used to like it on top of chips but the recipe must have changed now.

The prawn curry was my favourite mmnnn yummy ?

I had a rather unhealthy craving for Vesta prawn and beef curries during one of my pregnancies.

I always kept a couple of packets of Vesta in the cupboard.
Very handy when DH was working shifts.

If I remember rightly it was "chopped and shaped beef" which really doesn't sound so appetising!

I loved the Chow Mein with crispy noodles but it was all rather synthetic.

yes thats right it used to be little squares of beef but is now sort if little minced beef maybe I shall try it again, ha ha the crispy noodles if you wernt quick enough to get them out the fryer they went brown very very fast lol

im sure the packaging has never changed...oh myy best not read the ingredients lol

I used to love the chow mien. When I ate a ‘proper’ chow mien I was deeply disappointed !

We had a beach hut in Boscombe every summer. My Mum bought Vests paella and cooked it over the one gas ring. We absolutely loved it.

Yes me too Greyduster . Those crispy noodles were yummy

Also disgusting as it seems now I used to eat the bits of dried up meat from the packet !

Happy memories of camping trips as a teenager,big gang of us and all the Vestas went into one pan as we only had small stoves,cant remember the taste just the laughs.

Those meals always seemed so " high class ", especially the prawn one with about 3 prawns in it hahahaha. A treat indeed.

I think they did a beef risotto and that was always my favourite. I can still conjure up the taste.

Prawn cocktail followed by steak and chips with a dessert of Black Forest gateau. I could eat it all now with a bottle of Blue Nun ?. Well maybe not the Blue Nun or the wine in a sort of netting or was it straw, yuk ?

Oh wow! I remember how sophisticated I felt as a student in the sixties when I made up my first packet of Chow Mein. I had never tried Chinese food before and I thought it waswonderful! I loved the way the noodles puffed up when you put them in the hot oil, but, I agree, you did have to fish them out pretty sharpish before they went black!

Yes Tangerine the beef risotto was my favourite too! Stirring it round the pan, simmering a while for the rice to cook and absorb the water. I can still remember what it tasted like as well. Weird when you think about it!

In the late 1980s we rented a house in France from a french architect and his English wife. Heaven only knows how the subject of vesta meals came but when I said that I had some emergency Vesta paella (!) with me they begged to come for dinner. We had a great night but I can’t quite come to terms with having taken packets of Vesta to France in cas3 I couldn’t get food! ?

We always had a few packs when we went on holiday camping or caravanning.

Strangely enough this thread has more comments on Facebook and Twitter than on here. You may like to look on Facebook marionh where you have 36 comments, even more ‘likes’ and several shares. 3 replies on Twitter.

We used to love Vesta curries. I can remember carefully arranging the rice in a ring on each plate and spooning the curry into the middle, because from the picture on the packet I genuinely thought this was what you were supposed to do ???

I loved the curry!

Oh Yes!!!! Loved how the crispy noodles curled up in the frying pan.
Tastewise, my favourite was the buttery tasting Paella.
How exotic we thought we were.