Taste of the past

THE hippest ingredient right now, according to Britain’s best cookery writer Nigel Slater, is culinary nostalgia. His book Toast — the Story of a Boy’s Hunger is in its 11th edition and has been in the bestseller list for over a year.

The food of my childhood and teenage years many of which have long since vanished evokes more vivid memories than photos ever could. Was I still in rompers when Granpoppy used to make me "googie" or egg in a cup? As far as I can recall, it was a very soft boiled egg turned into a cup, chopped and mixed with white breadcrumbs, a little butter, pepper and salt. Before bed there was always a glass of fresh milk and Goldgrain or Marietta biscuits. Early visits to Bride Freeman's shop yielded "penny bars", liquorice flavoured blackjack and a tooth-jerking sailor's chew.

There were also bulls' eyes and gobstoppers and Mrs Bergin's sixpenny ice-cream wafers. Before electricity arrived in our village of Cullohill, my Aunt Florence would cycle the six miles from Johnstown with a block of vanilla wrapped in wet newspaper in her basket.