Gentlemen,

Don't talk to me about wartime fare.

During 1944-5 a meal at home, or school, was usually based on a tasteless mulch called 'pom' or powdered potato.

Anything resembling a cake contained powdered egg which was available in large tins and distributed by the MoF, but at least it bore a slight comparison with the real thing.

There was also a canned product, a block of meat of dubious origin held together with gut churning fat. You could slice it, chop it, grill it, fry it. But you needed commendable ingenuity to make a meal to remember. This was and still is called Spam.

Take it from me chaps. Bland wartime fare did not encourage overeating which I suppose went some way to creating the myth of the so called healthier diet.

There was consternation a few years back when Spam manufacturers threatend to cease production. There was a sizeable public outcry...great British tradition!...kept us going through the war!...we wouldn't be here now if... etc etc.
Strange how we can be so nostalgic about even the most repulsive things.

'Oh Daddy, Daddy,...do look! That's a German Flying Bomb on display! How marvellous!'
'Good Lord, you're right Timothy! I never thought I would see one of those again! Well, well, well...how the years roll back eh? The good old V1...they don't make 'em like that any more!'