Seasons by the Sea: Childhood Favorites
Is there a food or food product that you remember from your childhood with great fondness? Have you ever revisited that food in the hopes that the taste satisfaction would match your memory of it? Did it?
It is a scientific fact that our taste memory is our strongest, stronger than sight, sound, and smell.
A friend recently reminded me of Durkee Famous Sauce and insisted we find it so we could make ham salad. We found it, we made the salad, he was swooning in an ecstasy of nostalgic flavors, I found it ghastly. His taste memory was satisfied, but all I could taste was bad egg yolks and vinegar.
I put this question to my gazillion friends on Facebook, because nothing gets people’s enthusiasm going more than a nostalgic food memory. For those with a Pennsylvania connection, Tastykake products came up a lot, like Butterscotch Crumpets and jellyrolls. For those who had remembered these fondly, they just didn’t taste as good anymore. Same for Entenmann’s baked goods. A lot of people miss Sara Lee banana cake and golden fudge cake. One friend in the D.C. area recently drove all over southern Maryland looking for Ring Dings, Ding Dongs, and Devil Dogs so he could share this childhood favorite with his daughter.
Some of these items (most seem to be in the junk food category) have been reformulated into a “healthier” version, less trans fats, less partially hydrogenated oils, less sugar. Let’s face it, if you were ever a Twinkies fan, you would agree they are not the same.
Some companies just change the name. Since we now know that sugar is the devil’s scouring powder, that word has been removed from the names of numerous cereals where it once was considered a selling point. Sugar Crisp is now Golden, Sugar Chex are now Honey Nut, Sugar Pops are Corn, Sugar Frosted Flakes are now just Frosted, Sugar Smacks are Honey, and Sugar Rice Krinkles are, well, actually extinct. But don’t let the names fool you, some of these cereals are still as much as 56 percent sugar!
Spam is a block of foodstuff that just won’t die. Even the Hormel website begins with “the Spam family of products is all around us.” At the end of their “brand overview,” they say “the Spam family of products are great for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” It’s not the bad grammar that bothers me so much as what appears to be a veiled hint to survivalists filling their bunkers with the distinctive square blue cans.
Spam contains six ingredients: pork, salt, water, sugar, potato starch, and sodium nitrate. The potato starch is to keep the gelatin nicely coagulated, the sodium nitrate preserves color. Some people think the name is an acronym or a shortened version of “spiced ham,” but it contains neither ham nor spices. It was named at a Hormel New Year’s Eve party. Some drunken fellow just blurted out the word “spam,” and it stuck.
I grew up eating Spam. My father had developed a fondness for it during World War II, so my mother would serve it occasionally, all gussied up with pineapple rings stuck with cloves, and a cherry in the middle. The last time I tasted Spam I had to marvel over the fact that this was a frequent centerpiece at our family meals. And yet it remains hugely popular in Hawaii, especially in the Japanese and Korean communities. It is used in sushi as “musubu,” wrapped in nori on seasoned rice.
For a while the famous Animal restaurant in Los Angeles was serving “Spam and foie gras loco moco,” traditionally a rice bowl topped with egg, hamburger, and gravy. This Spam dish has been described as being an “emblem of the restaurant’s giddy, sophisticated stoner sensibility.”
A lot of friends brought up Lucky Stars cereal, which no longer tastes so “magically delicious.” Some remember liverwurst sandwiches as being a favorite comfort food, but it just doesn’t taste the same. I am guilty of the occasional liverwurst craving, on rye bread with mustard and red onion, but when I read the fat content I take two bites and throw the rest away. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Campbell’s cream of celery soup, black and white cookies, Wonder Bread rolled into dough balls, ketchup sandwiches, Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks — eww. Domestic chocolate candies such as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were cited as tasting more waxy than chocolatey nowadays.
So have our tastes changed, or become more discerning with age? Or have the actual products changed? It’s probably a combination of both. For those of us who grew up with no seat belts in cars, doctors smoking in their offices, and our parents innocently serving us these newfangled convenience foods, it’s a wonder we are still alive.
The craving for nostalgic foods remains. Why else would the revered chef and author David Chang of Momofuko fame come up with the hugely successful “cereal milk”? Yes, it is milk that tastes like what’s left in your bowl after eating all the sugary cereal. A restaurant called Park Avenue changes menus every season, and one of its most popular autumn recipes is a broccoli dish swimming in a heavy cream, garlic, and cheese sauce, topped with Cheetos. And it is delicious!
Most people who answered my query found that their childhood favorite food just didn’t taste the same and they had no desire to try it again. This is a good thing. We have all become more health-conscious, we read labels, and we have access to better and more varied foods. But for those who don’t mind being led down the primrose path, just a little ways, here are some naughty recipes you might want to try every now and then. And for the record, marshmallow Rice Krispy treats still taste the same to me. I will occasionally buy one at a gas station before a long drive, and I savor every, chewy, sugary bite.
Click for recipes