Is there any food that triggers a memory for you?

[caitlinsmom]

I was making loaded nachos for lunch today and a memory hit me.

 

I remember sitting on the couch with my dad when I was about six. He was laying full lenghth on the couch and I was sitting on his feet. He had a huge pan of nachos sitting on his stomach and we were sharing. :) I remember we were watching tv and a music video by Bon Jovi (Dead or Alive) and I started squealing that Bon Jovi was on tv. Then my dad played the air guitar and I sang all the words.

 

:D Bonding over Bon Jovi and nachos.

 

Anyone else have this sort of thing happen to them?

[mrsrevmeg]

Every time I make divinity I think about my grandmother. She used to beat divinity by hand. (I don't know how she it, my I've worn out a mixer or two making it) My uncle and I would be at the table, waiting to pounce on the bowl and spoon, so we could lick the warm sticky parts. Sometimes we'd fight over who got the leftover pecans. When she got sick to a certain point, she would have to get us to take turns beating it for her. The first time I ever tried to make it by myself I was making it specifically for her. I knew not to make it when it was raining, because of the humidity in the air. What I did not think about is that if you have a vaporizer going in your house it also affects the humidity. (The first worn out mixer) She told me to bake a cake and use the divinity as frosting. She was like that, could make something wonderful out of a disaster.

[Denisemomof4]

eating REAL GOOD caramel corn returns me to Sausalito, CA, one of my favorite places in the world. I remember getting REAL GOOD caramel corn there. It's hard to find the good stuff in NH.

[dhudson]

All the time. Certain foods I avoid because of bad memories and certain foods trigger thoughts of being on the counter while my Grandmother cooked and baked.

[Pajama Mama]

Bacon and eggs. Cooked bacon chopped up and put into scrambled eggs. We have bacon and eggs a couple times a month. Each time it reminds me of my Pop(grandfather). He didn't do anything special but those were the best bacon and eggs ever. I'm actually tearing up right now thinking about him. He was more like a father than grandfather. I miss him.

[Pajama Mama]

Bad memory--anything with peaches. My cousins and I made fuzzy navels with peach schapps and orange drink(not orange juice) I was sick for days but couldn't tell mom why. I was 12. I still want to wretch when I taste anything peach.

[kalanamak]

A good, ripe peach.

 

Summer of '63, I'd had a stomach bug and barfed on my dress just as we were being seated at a nice restaurant in Spain. My mother sat in the car with me as I dozed in my slip and undies. The boys had a good meal, we drove back to the hotel, and I was put to bed.

 

Late (actually about 10, and the street still full of people), I woke my Papa and told him I was starved. He went out and got me one perfect Spanish peach. I remember sitting in the circle of light the bedside lamp made, him in the bathroom getting back into his PJs, my mother asleep just outside the circle of light, and the rest of the dark room draped with various sleeping brothers.

 

All alone, I ate that peach. It was the most wonderful thing I'd ever tasted, and Hopper couldn't have done justice to that soft light, and that 4 year old in a little strap tee shirt and undies greedily devouring that peach.

[Jane in NC]

eating REAL GOOD caramel corn returns me to Sausalito, CA, one of my favorite places in the world. I remember getting REAL GOOD caramel corn there. It's hard to find the good stuff in NH.

 

May I suggest making it? Memories of my Dad's carmel corn can be found in every bite of this homemade treat...

 

Jane

 

P.S. Dad's recipe is similar to this.

[Elizabeth Conley]

Dates - every time I smell or taste dates I remember my paternal grandmother's cooking. Then there are the really old family recipes. I have to roll up my sleeves and bake them myself, but they're guaranteed to take me back to the best of my childhood.

 

My maternal grandmother pickled black olives every fall. Boy, they were amazing. The other taste treat is baked fresh water fish, such as pike. Then there's the flavor of wild may pops, muscadine grapes or thimble berries. You can't have such pleasures just anywhere, any time. Now I know to savor!

Edited October 24, 2009 by Elizabeth Conley

[Guest janainaz]

Orange sherbet ice cream reminds me of when I was 5 and my family took our priest out for ice cream. I really thought he was WAS God and could not believe he liked the same ice cream as me. I couldn't stop staring at him.

 

Top Ramen brings back bad memories and every time my son asks for it at the grocery store I have to force myself to say no calmly. :001_huh:

[Remudamom]

Fried (creamed) corn makes me think of my grandmother. And my grandfather always made me waffles.

[Jenny in Atl]

Lobster=Cape Cod

 

:crying:

[BridgeTea]

Oh, lots of great stories on here. I love it!

 

First, my only bad food memory: hominy. We won't go there.

Some lovely memories are triggered by:

 

Grape-nuts: My dad wasn't in the kitchen much, but decided in the last year of his life he wanted to master making homemade grape-nuts cereal. So much fun to check in on him cranking away at the doughy stuff in an old-fashioned food grinder, then insisting we all keep tasting each batch until he got it just right. Some batches were tooth breakers!

 

Popcorn made on the stove in a real pan: Dad again, grinning from ear to ear.

 

Homemade caramels and pecan logs: Beloved in-laws making gifts for friends at Christmastime, and letting this new bride help.

 

Oh, goodness, lots more but that's enough!

[peachskittles]

Frosted Flakes remind me of my grandfather...He always bought himself a box and everyone was under strict orders not to eat it...I always managed to plead a bowl out of him...We'd sit on the couch, eating our Frosted Flakes, watching the Three Stooges...*sigh* I miss my grandpa...

[Jumping In Puddles]

Dates - every time I smell or taste dates I remember my paternal grandmother's cooking. Then there are the really old family recipes. I have to roll up my sleeves and bake them myself, but they're guaranteed to take me back to the best of my childhood.

 

My maternal grandmother pickled black olives every fall. Boy, they were amazing. The other taste treat is baked fresh water fish, such as pike. Then there's the flavor of wild may pops, muscadine grapes or thimble berries. You can't have such pleasures just anywhere, any time. Now I know to savor!

 

Where did your grandmother live?

 

Tomato sauce, homemade Italian Bread, fried chicken and zeppoles remind me of my grandmother.

[rwjx2khsmj]

So, so many. In my family, food often equals love.

 

My Grammy said I love you with baked beans and potato salad in her refrigerator everytime I came to visit. She also made incredible apple dumplings. Syrupy cinnamon apples, flakey crust, a scoop of ice cream...

 

My Grampy said I love you with pancakes and sliced strawberries. Fresh during the spring. Frozen, but from his garden, in the winter. And home made ice cream. I remember helping with the salt and ice.

 

My Grandma made the most amazing chocolate cake. My children still choose it for their birthday cake. And her no-bake cookies were perfection. I've never been able to get those exactly right. Grandma also took me grocery shopping when I came to visit and bought me whatever cereal I wanted and whatever fruit or vegetable that looked interesting. My introduction to so many foods were thanks to Grandma. She also had NO patience with packaging. Her cereal boxes were always ripped and opened upside down.

[LauraGB]

My associations are primarily with smell, but there is one food one.

 

When I was young, my family always, not matter how many fights they had during the week, gathered in its entirety at my (paternal) granparents house for the football game (The Packers Game). Grandma, who didn't have a lot of $ always served saltine crackers and cheddar cheese, and deviled eggs. Everyone was happy, we ate everything, the guys yelled (but not at each other ;)). When she ran out of cheese, she used...processed cheese. She would fold them into quarters and lay them on the tray. We ate all that, too. To this day, when I hear the commentators from the other room, I want to eat saltines and cheddar cheese; I even have the occasional pull for the processed stuff if the weather is sufficiently overcast.

[Sahamamama]

There were these peanut-shaped marshmallow type things (!) that we ate in our babysitters backyard under the huge oak tree when we were about 3, 4, 5 years old. I have no idea what these candies (?) really were, but the smell & taste have stayed with me. Every time I smell something that reminds me of this treat, I flash back to being under that tree in the summer time. It's a nice memory... I just have never been able to locate what those things were that we ate! (Hmmmm, I suppose I should ask the babysitter, while she's still alive....) :auto:

[LauraGB]

There were these peanut-shaped marshmallow type things (!) that we ate in our babysitters backyard under the huge oak tree when we were about 3, 4, 5 years old. I have no idea what these candies (?) really were, but the smell & taste have stayed with me. Every time I smell something that reminds me of this treat, I flash back to being under that tree in the summer time. It's a nice memory... I just have never been able to locate what those things were that we ate! (Hmmmm, I suppose I should ask the babysitter, while she's still alive....) :auto:

Were they orange? Elephant..something or another..?

[BridgeTea]

There were these peanut-shaped marshmallow type things (!) that we ate in our babysitters backyard under the huge oak tree when we were about 3, 4, 5 years old. I have no idea what these candies (?) really were, but the smell & taste have stayed with me. Every time I smell something that reminds me of this treat, I flash back to being under that tree in the summer time. It's a nice memory... I just have never been able to locate what those things were that we ate! (Hmmmm, I suppose I should ask the babysitter, while she's still alive....) :auto:

 

If they were orange, those were circus peanuts. I think they were a Brach's product. Weird candy. They seemed sweeter than a candy possibly could be.

Edited October 24, 2009 by BridgeTea

[caitlinsmom]

My grandpa always used to eat bologna and butter sandwiches. Sometimes he would add a Kraft cheese slice but most times not. I used to eat half a sandwich with him and roll it up instead of fold it. When ever I see bologna in the store I think of him. LOL never tempted to buy it but I still get a smile.

 

My grandma used to make me toast everytime I stayed at her house. She had this wheat bread that was in a yellow and brown bag that she would toast to perfection and then she would smear a thick layer of margerine on it. By the time I ate it the margerine was all soaked into the bread. Oh it was so yummy! I have craved it for years. I wont buy margerine but once I did cave and picked some up in hopes of replicating that toast. My pathetic attempt didnt come close.

[christielee7278]

Dh and I can't eat honeydew together without comparing it to the BEST honeydew EVER that we had in Mexico. :001_smile:

[dirty ethel rackham]

Not long ago, I smelled the combination of peanut butter on toast against a backdrop of freshly brewed coffee. I am not a coffee drinker and don't particularly like the smell. But, somehow that combination brought me back to Sunday mornings and my dad. He would have that on Sunday mornings. My dad has been gone for 11 years and that smell always brings his memory back.

[SonshineLearner]

Orange Tic Tacs, orange candies that are softish with the sugar on them, strawberry pop-tarts with no frosting on them.. these are a few of my favorite thngs. :-) It has absolutely nothing to do with how good they are... and everything to do with my Grandma. She would always bring them to us when she visited. (sugar...yay!!)

 

I remember my step gma letting me get a soda out of their soda machine (glass bottles) and she brought those orange peanut candies, too ... I think that someone else was talking about...

 

And of course, the homemade wheat bread that my mom grinds the berries... and bakes the bread... and we all eat the first loaf with lots of butter and maybe some honey:-)

 

Carrie

[Sahamamama]

Were they orange? Elephant..something or another..?

 

Yes, they were a sort of peachy color. Soft. And VERY sweet. :tongue_smilie:But as a kid who grew up on Kool-Aid (remember that?) and cotton candy and snow cones and fudgecicles and the occasional carrot stick :lol:, this seemed perfectly acceptable.

[Sahamamama]

Not long ago, I smelled the combination of peanut butter on toast against a backdrop of freshly brewed coffee. I am not a coffee drinker and don't particularly like the smell. But, somehow that combination brought me back to Sunday mornings and my dad. He would have that on Sunday mornings. My dad has been gone for 11 years and that smell always brings his memory back.

 

You are making me cry! :grouphug:

[Sahamamama]

If they were orange, those were circus peanuts. I think they were a Brach's product. Weird candy. They seemed sweeter than a candy possibly could be.

 

:iagree:I have to look those up, thanks for the lead....;)

 

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack. Yup, those were circus peanuts. Can you believe it, there's a Wiki page about these things?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_Peanuts

 

Okay, I'm back again, and may I suggest you go read the list of ingredients in these things. Gag. me. with. a. spoon. Totally.

 

Wow, sugar, corn syrup, gelatin (made from pork skin), soy protein (vegetables, yeah!), food coloring, and artificial flavoring. We ate TONS of these things, sitting under the babysitter's tree. Which would explain why I am this way today.

Edited October 24, 2009 by Sahamamama
Did you read the ingredients? Gag me.

[BridgeTea]

.

[RoughCollie]

When I was 9, we went to visit my Mom's family in East Germany (1965). It was a dangerous trip and the Red Cross was on alert at the border, waiting for us to return because everyone was afraid my mother would get arrested (she had escaped from East Germany) and they would have to take my sister and I back to our Dad in Ramstein. While we were in Leipzig, we were not allowed to talk when we were out in public because everyone was so afraid we'd say something verboten.

 

Thick black bread spread with butter, served with hot cocoa, reminds me of my Oma. That's what she gave my sister and I to stave off hunger pains before breakfast. She was a storybook grandmother type. I still see her standing in front of the black iron stove, making the cocoa.

 

Cakes made with marmalade between the layers remind me of my Opa, who was a baker. Those cakes were breakfast: he had made several of them, all different kinds. He was Oma's third husband -- her first two died in WW2.

 

For dinner one day we had spaghetti. Oma served strawberries for dessert. I thought it was the strangest thing, to serve spaghetti and strawberries at the same meal. It turned out the strawberries were very hard to come by, and it was a special treat. I still think strawberries & spaghetti are a strange menu combination, for no reason at all.

 

My great-grandmother had dinner with us on strawberry day. She was very old, tiny, skinny, and wrinkled. Music was playing and she suddenly grabbed my hands and twirled around with me. I was terrified of her because she made me dance and she was a complete stranger. Mind you, my German family does not speak English, and my sister and I do not speak German, so I felt accosted.

Edited October 24, 2009 by RoughCollie

[stripe]

Many things I ate before vomiting. Fried tofu. Cauliflower cheese. Vegetable wellington. UGH!

[Harriet Vane]

Kolacky cookies (pronounced Koe-lotch-key). My great-grandmother used to make them. They are a Polish tart kinda cookie--a low-sugar dough with a little jam or cheese filling. My grandmother's recipe makes about 200 tiny cookies, just two bites big (one bite for dh!). She used to bring oodles and oodles of them to every holiday party,and we would eat and eat and eat.

[Tap]

Circus Peanuts, Orange Slices (gummy with sugar coating candy), Brach's mix with butterscotch, toffee, and the neopolitan candies. These all remind me of my dad, who always kept a stash in his truck. We didn't get candy growing up, but if you went with dad to the store or to the dump, you would get to pick from his little stash. My dad was born in 1925, and he was 47 when I was born. He used to sing me old melodrama songs. Bill Goggins Goat, 3 little fishies, etc. Every once in a while, when I see the Brachs Mix at grocery stores, I flash back to driving miles and miles, singing songs and eating candy. Miss U dad.

 

 

 

Fresh peaches remind me of canning peaches with my mom when I was little. It is one of the few truly happy memories I have with her. I can mentally look around the kitchen in this memory, it is so ingrained. Pepsi cola in glass bottles on the counter, canning supplies, bowls of peaches and a big box fan in the window. Cold cut sandwiches (she didn't cook on canning days), and potato chips that came in a box with two bags inside. I remember how the kitchen is decorated (large wooden spoon/fork on the wall), a wall shelf with misc coffee cups, and a little plaque. I remember being very little, maybe 4-5 and sitting on the table with a tiny knife peeling peaches, being very very careful and wondering how my mom could peel 6 or 7 in the time it took to for me to do one.

 

Tuna sandwiches, Doritos, Oreos and Pepsi in glass bottles was a great Saturday lunch with my sister. She is 6 years older and would spend her babysitting money on buying us the supplies for this lunch several times each summer.

 

Little smokies, cheese whiz, and jam danishes remind me of remodeling houses. My parents remodeled and sold 17 houses as I was growing up. That is where we spent all of our free time. These were common snacks that my mom always had on hand. Funny considering that most of our food was homegrown, organic and very healthy. For some reason when we were at work....it all went out the window.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Strider,

My husband's Slovenian relatives have a very similar cookie that they call Rosky. We would always have that with potica at every family gathering.

[Denisemomof4]

Many things I ate before vomiting. Fried tofu. Cauliflower cheese. Vegetable wellington. UGH!

 

:iagree:

 

It was more than 20 years before I could eat Turkey Ala King. To this day, though, I modify the recipe. I STILL HATE COOKED PEAS!!!!! But I do like to run frozen organic peas under water and add them to salads. I also love ANY pea fresh from the garden!

[lynn]

Christmas sugar cookies do this for me. It was the only cookie mother made for time and money were a factor. Pretty much any german food brings me to my oma's dining table of which my eyes still swell up with tears with her memory. My all time favoite food triggered memory has got to be macintosh apples. Mann's Farm in Mass. specifically. Goodness they bring me right back to my childhood.

[LadyR]

The smell of vanilla extract. When I was a little girl I used to watch my mother bake. Whenever she opened the vanilla extract we would both sniff it from the bottle before she measured it out for the recipe. I loved the scent! My mom went into a nursing home when I was 9 because she had MS, so my time with her was very short, sadly. Sometimes the scent of vanilla extract triggers the memory of her making eggnog for me. Now when I bake I always sniff the vanilla extract and hold it out to my kids to do the same. It's tradition. :)

[HRAAB]

Good, old fashioned, homemade gravy. The night before my mom passed away, she cooked me dinner. She asked what I wanted, and I said 'some of your delicious gravy'. She made chicken fried steaks, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and coleslaw. Last meal I ever had with her. Actually, it's not a sad memory but rather a very precious memory. Anytime I have to make gravy, I channel my mom - hers was the best.

[kamom]

Pickled herring were a special treat that we had only at Christmas time, so they bring back childhood Christmas memories for me and how one year Dad and tried to make our own homemade ones:tongue_smilie:.

[Dawn in OH]

This isn't really a food, but, Juicy Fruit Gum. I can't even touch the stuff anymore and it's been over 18 years.

 

I was chewing Juicy Fruit gum in Biology class the day we dissected frogs. Now every time I chew a piece of Juicy Fruit gum I smell formaldehyde.

[GESTEP]

Mine was not quite as positive...

 

My mother had served orange juice with pulp with breakfast. my dad insisted that everyone should drink their orange juice first (proper etiquette or something:001_huh:). I tried to avoid it but he took the glass and the back of my head and tried to force it down. When all those pieces of pulp hit my mouth it would not go down so I spit it all over his pancakes. Last time he tried that. I still cringe at the sight of pulpy orange juice.

 

(this is my only bad memory of my dad)

[praisefor3]

Well...tonight as I sit a bit sad that my dear, dear aunt passed away in her sleep last night, I absolutely must mention that apple pie reminds me of her. She was known for making apple pie. However, truthfully, I think I make a better one than her now. But, nevertheless, I am content that the family recognition go to her as I cherished her so much and always will.

[creekmom]

Cooked cabbage- I hate the smell, but I had to boil some for a chemistry experiment. I had flashbacks of the nasty elemetary school cafeteria on hot dog day. :tongue_smilie::tongue_smilie::tongue_smilie:

[robsiew]

Not food per se, but when we first got our gas stove (had an electric all growing up and early marriage years) the smell of the gas reminded me of both of my grandmother's homes. I thought of the both of them every time I turned on the stove! (still do sometimes)