Chinese, anyone?

[peterbirks]

I made myself a Vesta Chow Mein tonight. Before you faint in horror, I think that I should point out that I do this every so often not for mere gastronomic joy, but because Vesta Chow Meins and I have a history.

When I was 13 or 14, I often had to buy and cook my own supper, since there was, well, no-one else around when I got home from school. I used to go to the RACS on the corner of Handforth Road and purchase whatever versions of ready meals that they had in the 1960s -- which was, let's face it, not a lot. Anyway, one brand that did exist was Vesta, and I became addicted to Chow Mein in the same way that I had the same breakfast (Scrambled Eggs On Toast) every day for 10 years. Yes, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (of a kind) was with me even then.

I didn't go quite so far with Chow Mein, but I probably ate it once a week for a year or so. It was my first introduction to "non-English" food, and my first introduction to soy sauce, which I immediately fell in love with and have adored ever since. But the great joy of Vesta Chow Mein was its crispy noodles. Now, there was absolutely no equivalent to this in English food. Something which you put into hot fat and which blew up like bubbles within seconds. Wow! For the first time, cooking itself could be exciting.

I suspect that my conversion to seeing cooking as a potential joy rather than a chore was born with Vesta Chow Mein. And I still ike it, and I'm glad that it's still around. So there.

Comments

Re: Curry

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

I think that the curries were introduced subsequent to the Chinese and Italian attempts. I vaguely recall that they had sultanas in them or something equally amazing. Yes, I didn't try those curries more than once, mainly because, even then, I knew that this was not how curry should taste.

However, I only really got into curry from the time that I went to University.