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The thread about the glass jars of shrimp cocktail got me thinking about this - share your memories of whatever unusual or different foods you were exposed to when visiting a friend's home during your childhood.
Some of my earliest memories, when my immigrant parents bought their first home in suburban L.A.:
Vickie, a Mexican-American neighbor invited me over to her home to play, and she took pitted black olives and placed them on the tips of her five fingers, and then popped them off into her mouth one by one. This fascinated me, as I had never seen anyone 'play' with their foods and hadn't ever seen anyone eat whole olives. I had only ever seen them sliced on Straw Hat Pizzas, and I didn't like them as a kid.
Marnie, a Polish-American neighbor - she invited me to stay for lunch. We went into the kitchen to see what her mom was preparing. She had a single package of top ramen open on the counter and a small saucepan of water heating on the stove. Marnie began picking dry noodle chunks from the dried cake, and her mom slapped her hand for taking some. Did I mention her dad was home too? I had never seen anyone make soup from a little plastic bag, but I knew that there wouldn't be enough for a fourth mouth, so I politely backed out of the invitation and had lunch at home.
Eileen, an American (biracial) girl raised by a single parent who came to L.A. from New Orleans. Omg, beignets! I loved my sleepovers at this friend's place. She had an Atari console and tons of cartridges, and we always baked something yummy. Most often, we would make some lemon bars with sweetened condensed milk and maraschino cherries. Wish I had the recipe for those.
I've got plenty more but instead look forward to reading others' memories - thanks in advance for sharing yours!
I had lunch for the first time at my friend's house and her mom gave us Ramen. Not homemade ramen, but the Top Ramen type that costs like .25 cents. I absolutely loved it. I had never had ramen before in my life and I came home singing its praises. My mom was like okay add Top ramen to the grocery list from now on. 🤣
I still like it to this day, although I don't eat it as much as I did as a kid/teen/young adult.
Mostly, I had more varied stuff at my own home than at my friends' homes. I did have one friend in about third or fourth grade who always had a jar of sliced and marinated nopales in her fridge. Those were good.
Another friend's mom would always make pancakes when we'd stay over, and would take "orders" as to what kind of pancake we'd like. I always asked for cinnamon sugar pancakes, and I don't know what she did, but they were different than any other pancake I've had before or since. Sort of similar to Dutch baby pancakes, but not exactly that, either.
Not weird, but spinach. My mom didn't like it and never served it. The family was very poor, so spinach often took the place of meat on the plate. Leona fed me if I was there playing with her children.
One friend's mom introduced me to peanut butter french toast. Delicious! Another friend introduced me to Ragu, and I was in love as I'd only ever had my mom's homemade spaghetti sauce which had onions that I didn't like. LOL!
Most of my other friends were first generation immigrants, so I ate all kinds of stuff but couldn't tell you what most of it was. Kimchi, chaat, and panipuri are the ones I can think of right now.
A girlfriend who lived in the country, daughter of a dairy farmer. I loved to visit them. They had an old wood-burning stove in the kitchen and often there was a baby lamb or other creature being tended in a box between the stove and the wall. They had pet racoons. Oh, such fun!
They drank unpasteurized milk and my mother warned me not to drink it so that was always awkward when I visited but the mother always made something special when I was there. Usually it was Norwegian cookies - krumkake, rolled on a broomstick handle. Once in the winter she cooked us kids some taffy to pull. I remember we cooled it by pouring streams of it on new fallen snow.
Another friend always had Norwegian fruit soup at Christmas. It was a mixture of dried fruits thickened with tapioca. Very colorful.
In college I helped a Korean student with her notes and in exchange she shared authentic recipes with me that I still use and when we moved to a place in Nebraska where my DH started his college teaching career the faculty wives group represented multiple cultures and we spent time teaching each other how to make various dishes from other countries and cultures. Two I still use are apfelkuchen and Cuban arroz con pollo. An Indian friend served samosas and pakoras when we visited her home.
My son had a Tex-Mex friend whose mother used to make the kids menudo. He'd come to our house and stuff himself full of lasagna.
I can’t top any of those things, but when I went to my cousins house we had margarine instead of butter and I loved the taste of it.
When I stayed at my friend’s house if her parents were out, we made things like Appian Way Pizza from a box, or TV Dinners, neither of which we had at home.
I can't think of too many usual things I had at friends homes but 2 come to mid: my best friend who's grandma was from Finland would make Swedish pancakes for us. As we got older we would make them ourselves. When I have crepes I think of her. The other unusual dish I remember but not unusual today would be lettuce wedges. the girl who lived across the street from me in elementary school was first generation American. Her parents were from Germany. Her mom would make them for dinner. Of course not days they are not strange at all.
Because my dad loved to cook and was a gourmet cook friends were more inclined to have unusual things at our house.
Though my parents had money, I never had a steak until at a friend's house. Nor did I now what "medium-rare" was, as my mom overcooked everything, and all the meat was tough.
My Mexican friend always had a pot of pinto beans simmering on the stove, and corn tortillas wrapped in foil, that we'd assemble and run outside to play.
One friend's parents had abalone for dinner which was really amazing.
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