Munching his way down memory lane
On
any given day, my boys are happy with chicken nuggets or burgers and
fries—even pizza—for their lunches. All healthy eating habits
aside, that stuff just gets boring.
Back in the day, my parents avoided fast food like the plague. The only
exceptions were occasional Broiler Burgers or James Coney Island hot dogs.
Of
course this all brings to mind childhood delicacies—not that any of it
was any healthier than a kiddie meal from a burger stand. But everybody
remembers, either fondly or with revulsion, something they ate so much of as a
kid, they could hardly stomach the sight of it as an adult—unless you're
like me and get cravings for them now and then.
Can
you think of the last time you saw a kid eating a pimento cheese sandwich? What
is a pimento anyway and how do you make it into cheese?
For
some reason my mom thought I loved that stuff—blach! Sometimes it was okay, but usually not.
Nothing put a damper on school lunchtime like finding one of those in my lunch
kit. Now egg-salad sandwiches were good. And then there was Underwood Deviled
Ham. Yeah, baby! Spread mustard on the bread and the deviled ham on top, trim
the crust, and voila! A feast fit for a king.
My
dad used to make a dip with potted meat. He added pickles and celery along with
diced onion. Oh man, we'd eat that stuff up with corn chips, crackers, or
whatever, even a half-sandwich when a whole one was too much.
Another
perennial favorite was...Vienna sausages. Eating them was a ritual fashion. After
pulling back the lid, I'd drain a can over the sink, and then shook the
sausages out as a clump onto a saucer. The gelatin had to be gently scraped
aside before meticulously slicing each link along a seam and into halves. The
halves were laid out in a crisscross pattern onto a slice of bread coated
lightly with mustard or mayonnaise. Invariably there was an extra link, so the
halves were stacked in the center atop others. Yumm. I still sometimes eat the
sausages by themselves, dipping them in a bit of mustard.
Perhaps
my favorite kid-sandwich of all time was with Buddig Corned Beef. I loved
tearing open a bag, peeling off the individual slices, and devouring each moist
tidbit until the bag was gone. And on sandwiches, the layered corned beef was
an astounding delight to make my mouth water.
You
still see Buddig meats at the supermarket, but rarely corned beef. What a
bummer.
Two
things churn my wife's stomach—okay, three. The first is Spam and
Hamburger Helper is the second. She tells tales of being forced to eat them as
a young girl during a very thrifty time for her family. Personally I like Spam,
lightly fried with an egg on top. In modest quantities, HH ain't too bad,
either. But that's me.
The
third is crunchy peanut butter and mayonnaise on toast. No doubt you scoff, but
it is food for the gods. The combo is pretty good on saltines, too. It was a
favorite late night snack until indigestion or heartburn began to wake me from
a good night's sleep.
Lest
we forget macaroni & cheese and cheese puffs. I also recall a lot of kids
emptying small bags of potato chips into their sandwiches, too.
Now
that I have a serious case of the munchies, I think I'll zap a couple of Oscar
Meyer weiners in the microwave—not the same as grilled or broiled in the
oven, but sliced into halves and splayed over bread with mustard...
Copyright 2006 by David Falloure
