The dangers of nostalgia food

[sawyl]

Very funny piece by Tim Hayward on the Guardian food blog on the dangers of returning to nostalgia food. Definitely not one to try and read in public:

The sardine and tomato paste still smells as unholy as it ever did. It could incubate in a Tupperware lunchbox through a morning of double Nuffield physics until it smelt like an abandoned fishing smack. Much like Marmite though, eating it was about sensation more than a flavour, a brutal mouth mugging which somehow fixed in my teenage mind as enjoyable.

Now it sits on the bread, the consistency of baby poop and - there's no other word for it - mings. A mouthful produces the faintest ghost of recollection but then so would the abandoned fishing smack. The ingredients list features mackerel in large proportions. I screw the lids back on and consign the lot to the bin. It's then that I notice that the lids of the jars still bear the same legend they did then, "reject if centre can be depressed" - which, under the circumstances now seems prophetic wisdom.

Although I'm not sure I approve of the disparaging of Camp Coffee — surely it's the only way to make a decent coffee cake...