Friday, July 30, 2010

Fizzies, Meatloaf and Neccos

I write historical fiction. Since I am old enough to be historical, I keep finding that Fizzies, meatloaf and Neccos show up in my work (I'm on my third book set in the 30s/40s).

Clearly I need some new foods! Generally meatloaf shows up because I never liked it as a kid. Other foods I disliked growing up: creamed tuna on toast, those canned tamales and lasagne (the noodles were too thick).

Foods I loved did indeed include Fizzies and Neccos (especially the brown ones), but I also adored red hots (sometimes called Cinnamon Imperials) and fried chicken and my grandma's cucumbers and onions in vinegar (I drank the vinegar). Even though I thought I hated spinach, I ate the stuff that came fresh out of Grandpa M's garden because he called it Swiss Chard. (Some of it was chard; some spinach).

Help me out here -- what are some "good" Depression-era yucky foods? How about tasty treats?

9 comments:

  1. I drank the vinegar, too!

    It was a Southern thing, I think.

    My Granny pickled lots of stuff....beets, eggs. (blech)

    Chipped beef gravy over biscuits is something my Dad would talk about like it was made of heaven...wehn I finally got to try it as a kid, I gagged.

    Shelley

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  2. Kirby, what region are you writing about? Socioeconomic status? My mom spent her early years in an orphanage of sorts--mother died, father lost his fortune in the stock market crash. She would know about the yucky foods.

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  3. generally, my stories are set in the Pacific Northwest but I'm open to all yucky foods, no matter the region!

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  4. Here's a great food resource by decade: http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1930s

    I tend to think of homemade doughnuts, canned peaches, and things like onion sandwiches as yum. What about chipped beef, liverwurst, or veal soup (ew!) as grody foods?

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  5. Erin -- veal soup? Really? Even typing the words makes me queasy.

    No idea about the foodtimeline site -- that's fabulous information! Thanks ever so.

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  6. Oh, another good resource for Pacific Northwest 1930s might be Beverly Cleary's two awesome memoirs, A Girl From Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.

    Depending on the character's heritage, she could find German foods really nasty. Lots of pickled and moussed things to turn a kid's stomach!

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  7. I grew up in the midwest, along with my family. I remember Spam. Not sure that really constitutes "good food," but it was prevalent.

    I do also remember red dots. Those were a favorite. Peanut butter and butter sandwiches. I remember having those for the first time at my grandma's. Of course it was made on white bread. I figure it was an inexpensive food that gave some protein. I have to admit that I still have it from time to time and it brings back memories.

    Good luck on this adventure.

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  8. Debbie -- did you ever have a sugar sandwich? Butter/margarine on white bread, sprinkled with white sugar. Oh so good!

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  9. OK, Kirby, I'll bet the cucumbers & onions in vinegar were fresh not pickled right? And your grandmother was Swedish? I loved those things and gran said it was a Swedish thing. And the sugar sandwiches were just like lefse and butter and sugar...sounds like a real Scandinavian background.
    I hated lutefisk, hash, liver and onions, and anything leftover over and unrecognizable. I also had major trauma when I found out we were eating Milly for Sunday dinner. Milly was my grandmother's very old chicken who quit laying eggs and the rooster would have nothing to do with her. I finally realized the the 'chicken' we ate was NOT just some mystery meat with the same name but actually a 'chicken' I knew – with a name!
    My favorite food was my mother's lemon pie...not too sweet. (my mouth is watering..yumm)

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