Taste of the past
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.
We children waited, noses pressed up against the gate, wild with excitement when she appeared over the hill on her little black bicycle. Fry's Cream bars and Walnut Whips were holiday treats when I went for the messages with my relatives in Co Tipperary, and my great Uncle John often bought me a little 3d bar of chocolate when I rode to the creamery on the pony and cart to deliver the churns of milk to Castleiney Creamery.
My mother regularly made scones and whipped-up sponges and flans filled with jelly and tinned fruit cocktail, but I secretly longed for shop cakes: Swiss roll by Gateaux or my favourite, a tipsy cake with a lurid pink icing.
A kidney omelette or a mixed grill and Windsor soup at the Clarence Hotel in Dublin was another great favourite on a rare trips to Dublin. Then there was an occasional pheasant or a pink trout from our local hunter Eoin O'Neill.
At boarding school one of my abiding memories was a disgusting sandwich spread we got for supper once a week. I have happier memories of date sandwiches, and Gentleman's Relish and Marmite that we kept in our tuck boxes with Ryvita or Ritz crackers, and a bright orange cheese spread (Jip?).
Clarnico Murrays Iced Caramels were another occasional treat and do you remember Lemon's Pure Sweets in those long cardboard boxes? I had an early flirtation with Instant Whip and blancmange. And was there something called Dream Topping? Birds Custard I still love; the flavour was an integral part of many childhood bowls of stewed apple or rhubarb.
But it's best to let happy memories be just that one's taste changes.
