Common stuff(food or products) you never ate growing up.

[jiminbogart]

As I have stated before, my mother was a crazy German lady so there were a lot of things I never ate until I was an adult. Most everything in my house was made from scratch.

I never had cornbread at home. Only in school. School cornbread sucked.
I never ate chicken livers until I was an adult except for once at a friend's house when I was about 12. Loved them.
I never ate Hamburger Helper until I had a roommate that cooked it.
I never had spaghetti sauce out of a jar until I was in my 20's and my girlfriend's sister cooked it.
I never had boxed mac & cheese until sometime in my 20's.
I ate Spam once at a friend's house when I was about 7 years old. Never ate it again until once when I was in my 30's.
Never had a Vienna sausage until I started deer hunting in my early 20's.
Never had a biscuit from scratch(all either canned or Bisquick) until my 20's.
Never had homemade creamed corn or fried chicken at my house. Luckily my neighbor cooked that type of stuff every night so I ate at their house.

To this day I've never eaten fried okra, pig's feet, quail eggs, pickled eggs, any type of greens, fried green tomatoes, sardines and a bunch of other stuff that doesn't come to mind.

What is strange about all the common products like Hamburger Helper is that I started working full time at Food Giant when I was 16, stocking groceries on the night shift, and I would see the Spam, boxed Mac & cheese, Vienna sausages and such flying off the shelves. Still never ate it.

 

[specialk]

so sorry to hear about your childhood and things you missed out of....bless yo' heart.....

 

[specialk]

i never eat a grit or a boiled pnut till i moved to GA.....

 

[The Original Rooster]

Jim, your post reminds me that I've lived a good life as far as food goes.

However, growing up we never or very rarely ate:
1. Hamburger or tuna helper. Mother made casseroles just like'em though.
2. Chinese food. There weren't but a couple of places in Albany back then but I learned to love Asian food from my friend 4 doors down whose mother was Korean and could cook just about anything.
3. Pizza was always homemade and was only made about once a year. There weren't any delivery pizza places until the mid 80's. Until then, you had to go to Gargano's to pick some up from Picnic Pizza in the Mall.

During my high school years when both my parents were working, one thing we ate all the time because it was quick and easy to fix was fried cube steak and french fries. I got so sick of them that I finally just refused and left the house without eating and would either walk and later drive down the road to get something else to eat instead.

 

[mrs. hornet22]

Never had a store bought pizza(we made out own) until I was grown and moved out. Everything I mean everything we had at home was home made. Never had boxed mac n cheese or hamburger helper and I don't care to try it now.

 

[35 Whelen]

Never had mayonnaise when growing up, only Miracle Whip.

 

[pop pop jones]

i never eat a grit or a boiled pnut till i moved to GA.....

To this day (67years) into my life, I've never eaten a grit myself.

 

[pop pop jones]

Never had mayonnaise when growing up, only Miracle Whip.

Bless your heart

 

[Hunter922]

Never had mayonnaise when growing up, only Miracle Whip.

Bless your poor heart... I'm sorry that stuff is not good...?

 

[Fletch_W]

Breakfast sausage.

The only breakfast meats ever cooked growing up were eggs and/or bacon. Never had breakfast sausage in the house.

And going to mcdonalds occassionally my dad would get a sausage biscuit for himself, while i'd get something else. That was my only exposure to breakfast sausage were those random mcdonalds biscuits that dad would eat.

I eat it often enough today, and do enjoy it, but definitely never ate it growing up. I was probably well into my 20's by the time I ever started eating breakfast sausage.

 

[Fletch_W]

Hash Browns-

Never once had them growing up. I was 16 with a drivers license and the waffle house became a teen hangout so that was my first exposure to hash browns. I love them now.

 

[hawkeye123]

Pizza was home made until I got nearly outa high school, before I had pizza hut or dominos

 

[hawkeye123]

To this day (67years) into my life, I've never eaten a grit myself.

I have ate grits probably an average of once a week for 50 + years, don't understand this? Not a native Georgian??? Had shrimp n grits last night

 

[pop pop jones]

Looking back I didn't have it so bad. My parents didn't do the go out for meals thing till I moved out, then my mother got her first public job. Until I moved out, I had never eaten Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Cajun, Indian or any other thing that wasn't, poor southern good. We had eggs and grits,with biscuits for breakfast. I've eaten sandwiches, with just about everything but sandwich meat you can think of. Sweet mixed pickles, olives, pineapple, to name a few. Also had the southern staples, peanut butter, tomatoes, banana, even had a few with just mayonnaise or mustard.

I guess eating like that wasn't so bad, I still eat that way, mostly. It's also the reason, I went to work in a restaurant as soon as I could. I had my first, fried shrimp, veal, fried rice, crawfish, well, I'm done thinking back, to the delicious meals my mother cooked for us.

 

[pop pop jones]

I have ate grits probably an average of once a week for 50 + years, don't understand this? Not a native Georgian??? Had shrimp n grits last night

Lol, I said, I've never eaten (a) grit, as I believe goes for you also.

 

[jiminbogart]

We had Miracle Whip and mustard(yellow and brown) in our house.

Salami and ham got mustard. I about blew chunks the first time I was at a friend's house and got mayo on a ham sandwich.

Miracle Whip went in tuna salad and turkey sandwiches.

First time I ever ate grits was as an adult(late teens) in a Waffle House.

 

[mrs. hornet22]

The only time we got boxed cereal was when we were camping. Mama made oatmeal with raisins she had soaked the night before or cream of wheat or grits. She wanted something that "stuck to our ribs" before sending us to school.

 

[hawkeye123]

Looking back I didn't have it so bad. My parents didn't do the go out for meals thing till I moved out, then my mother got her first public job. Until I moved out, I had never eaten Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Cajun, Indian or any other thing that wasn't, poor southern good. We had eggs and grits,with biscuits for breakfast. I've eaten sandwiches, with just about everything but sandwich meat you can think of. Sweet mixed pickles, olives, pineapple, to name a few. Also had the southern staples, peanut butter, tomatoes, banana, even had a few with just mayonnaise or mustard.

I guess eating like that wasn't so bad, I still eat that way, mostly. It's also the reason, I went to work in a restaurant as soon as I could. I had my first, fried shrimp, veal, fried rice, crawfish, well, I'm done thinking back, to the delicious meals my mother cooked for us.

This was exactly the way I was raised, except for my grandmother who lived on a 900 acre farm in Wilkes co Ga could cook Chinese & Eyetalian or Mexican as good as someone from there, my grandfather just didn't much like anything but Southern food, so she cooked for us when we visited, and we were so poor sometimes just got a grit instead of several grits!

 

[Cmp1]

Never had mayonnaise when growing up, only Miracle Whip.

Love mayo and Miricle Whip,,,,Miricle whip in egg salad, with sweet pickles,,,,can only get Hellmans here,,,,

 

[bilgerat]

I went through a green phase. I refused to eat any thing green when I was a kid. I grew out of it in My teens and will eat a lot of green veggys now but I still will not eat green peas or guacamole. NOW WAY!!!!