I went to school with mostly white kids in the suburbs. Every day they’d have a peanut butter/jelly sandwich on whole wheat, a fruit roll-up, a pudding, an apple and they’d buy their milk from the cafeteria. Almost all the kids who brought their lunch had the same thing. It was weird. No one wanted to be different. Mediocrity was considered normalcy in the kid world.
In the cafeteria, they served pizza, then pizza boat, then french bread pizza, occasionally hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggest or enchiladas. The second option was always “Wild” pizza, whatever that was. Basically it was pizza 4 out of 5 days. This was the 80/90s and my generation had terrible basic palates, compared to kids today.
Oh yeah can’t forget the calzones and the burger!!!
I think the burger was unintentionally confit in its own beef fat and the buns came in a separate package. Add some ketchup for a little sweetness and to cut thru the fat a little bit. Good lord!!!
Yep, I waited for Chalupa day. Loved the LAUSD lasagna as well, and my all-time favorite was turkey dinner for the holidays. Not a fan of school burgers, always gristle. Maybe this should go under FTC confessions, but since I was a “good student” I was picked to work in the cafeteria. I was thrilled…I got to leave the classroom early to help out and received free lunch for my labor. One of the other “good” students showed me her hand-washing trick: turn on the water faucet in the back so it sounds like you’re wash your hands, but you don’t actually wash your hands. I decided to ignore her advice
I do hope the kids in the LA area are not eating chalupas for lunch these days.
High school lunches for me consisted of Hot Pockets, Western Bacon Cheeseburgers, Cherry Pepsi, and SunChips. Still can’t believe I filled my growing body with that crap.
We never had it so fancifully molded as pictured here, but these cornstarch pudding mixes (vanilla, strawberry, chocolate) were something my mother made fairly often. These are barely sweet at all.
She poured the custard on a plate. I wouldn’t eat the chocolate, but the vanilla with some jam swirled in was one of my favorite things to eat.
At the risk of being accused of neccro-ing…palts (which I’m likely spelling wrong–Swedish potato dumplings stuffed with fried salt pork), real oatmeal with milk and salt, fried smelts, having your T-day turkey share the plate with lutfisk, sardines in oil or Kipper Snacks and saltines…mmmmm…
Kasha Varnishkes. (pronounced, at least in my house - kasha varni-kas. like carnitas.)
Toasted whole buckwheat, cooked in chicken broth and then tossed with sautéed onions, egg bow tie noodles and lots of pepper.
It was a special dinner treat that I didn’t know of anyone else eating, just jews.
Then I grew up, moved to LA, ended up having Japanese neighbors who loved buckwheat soba noodles. Gave them a bag of toasted buckwheat grains to play with and? They loved it!
I grew up with a lot of Jewish friends. Had kasha on many occasions. Very fun reactions from Jewish grandmas watching the chunky Asian kid go in for seconds of kasha.
I never much cared for kasha as a kid (tasted like sand to me), but I had some a couple of Sundays ago at Russ & Daughters Cafe in Manhattan. It was so much better than I remembered. Maybe my mother made it wrong.
Russ & Daughters may be doing the magical voodoo my dad did (before he had to watch his diet) - finishing it up with a dollop of schmaltz! Or, cooking the onions that go into the kasha with schmaltz…
I don’t have that at my house in LA, but if I toast the kasha in the pan first, then cook it in broth? Much more flavorful than just cooked in water and salt.
I kind of hope that’s not it, 'cause I don’t eat meat (on purpose). It’d be like when I commented on how good some fries were and was told they were made with lard. I’m going to continue to live my fiction and pretend it was Nyafat.
Just took a quick peek and their daytime menu is all dairy and fish. So, there’s a good chance that they just cooked it with a LOT of butter and seasoned it really really well.
I’ve never had it with a poached egg on top - how was that?
I decided to ignore her advice 
