22 hours Ago
2. "When I was little, we got oranges in our stockings. When I was a teenager we got pomegranates, very fancy for us at the time.
" — SomebodyElseAsWell 4. "General Foods International Coffees in the rectangular tins, like Orange Cappuccino or Swiss Mocha. If you had those in your house, you were high-end.
Oh, and I thought Grey Poupon dijon mustard was for rich people in Bentleys." — Few-Boysenberry-7826 6. "Toblerone.
I grew up in the '80s and only got one when someone I knew traveled by airplane, so they must have been very fancy and exotic. Now you can get one anywhere." — johnstonb 8.
"In 1976, I had hummus and falafel for the first time. This Syrian guy taught me to make hummus. My Yankee parents were so skeptical, but it became a staple, and I ate falafel every chance I got.
" — Grouchy-Fix485 10. "Craft beer. Correct that; good beer is what I meant to say.
When I was young in the Southern US, it was Bud, Miller, or PBR. That was it. Literally.
" — Routine_Mine_3019 12. "Shrimp and really any seafood. I buy bags of frozen shrimp as a regular thing now.
We have a shrimp dish once or twice a month. I remember shrimp was a once-a-year maybe thing and only at a restaurant." — MotherofJackals 14.
"Cashews. They used to be really expensive. I remember my grandmother bought a pound every year for Christmas from Fannie May and paid something like $20 around 1970.
That was when the nuts were hand stripped from the fruits in India before automation." — Oldbean98 16. "I remember when a Mexican restaurant opened in our town in the early '70s, maybe? That was exotic!" — rexeditrex 18.
"Blackberries. I used to have to pick them wild when I was a kid for a few weeks in the spring. My understanding is they weren’t really made into a viable crop until the USDA came up with a hybrid variety in the 1990s.
Now you can get nice fine ones in the store whenever you want." — kumquatrodeo 20. "Grew up in rural Ireland in the '60s/'70s, and I remember having pasta for the first time.
It was the wild exotic food that my father got from friends who came home from Italy. I remember neighbors coming in to taste it." — AnySandwich4765 22.
"In a tiny town in northern British Columbia, Canada, around 1970, an uncle visited from Vancouver and introduced the family to pizza. It must’ve been from the local Safeway frozen foods section, but it seemed very exotic — ' hmmmm, what is this strange food peet-za? ' I recall my parents marveling and feeling very cosmopolitan." — jimmyjo_spocktoe 24.
"Back in the late '80s, my company would have frequent potluck lunches (sadly, these are rare nowadays). I had discovered Trader Joe's, and would drive 30 minutes to do my shopping there before they opened more locations. I brought blue corn tortilla chips to one of the potlucks, and everyone thought there was something wrong with them like they were moldy.
Now I think most folks don't bat an eye at multi-colored tortilla chips." — mad_soup 26. "I remember in the mid-'80s, seeing the first burrito place in NYC.
It was called California Burrito, on something like 3rd Avenue and 35th. Previous to this, a burrito was really a California thing. I had always looked forward to getting one in San Francisco on business trips as a special regional food.
Now they are so ubiquitous, I recently had one in Scott’s Bluff, Montana." — Tom__mm 28. "Tofu seemed exotic (to us, as non-Asians) when we first started having it in the 1970s.
" — RemonterLeTemps "Wow, I never heard of tofu until the early 1990s." — mjaymkay What's a food that seemed so special and rare back in the day that you can find just about anywhere now? Tell me all about it in the comments!.
