28-03-2025
"My First Exposure To This Was As A Teen In The '80s": 21 Foods Gen X'ers And Boomers Didn't Have Access To Growing Up That Would Send Younger Folks Into A Spiral
It's wild to think that the foods we eat regularly in the US today weren't even a thing a couple of decades ago. Recently, someone asked older folks over on the r/AskOldPeople subreddit to share some of the foods that weren't commonly available in their youth that they love to eat now. Here are a few they mentioned that were hard to come by back in the day.
1. "Lettuce varieties other than iceberg."
— architeuthiswfng
"Fifty years ago, I didn't know lettuce meant anything but iceberg."
— newbie527
"Exposure to other types of lettuce generally required going out to a fancy restaurant."
— JustAnotherDay1977
2. "Hummus."
— hey_gmane
"Yes! My first exposure to hummus was as a teen in the '80s. I was at a festival and went to get some food from the vendor area. The young woman serving my sandwich asked if I wanted it with hummus. I thought she meant humus as if she would put dirt on my sandwich. Ever the adventurer, I said sure! It was so delicious to my 16-year-old palate."
— Radiant_Location_636
3. "Thai food!"
freckledfairy_ / Via
— FunnyAnchor123
"I'm from a rural area. I didn't have Thai food until I was about 17. I grew up upper-middle class, and my siblings, parents, and I were adventurous eaters.
Once, my mom tried it on a girls' trip to NYC about 10 years ago. She had to learn to make it at home so we could try it. There still isn't a Thai place within an hour of my parents' house."
— Ambitious_County_680
4. "Yogurt. We only had Dannon plain yogurt with fruit on the bottom and tons of sugar."
— Suitable-Lawyer-9397
"I remember seeing ads on TV for yogurt in the '60s. The commercial showed people skiing down snowy mountains and claimed it was refreshingly delicious. I begged my mother to purchase some, which she did. I tried it and immediately announced that it was the most vile, sour pudding that I ever tasted."
— WillontheHill77
5. "Apples have so much more variety now! It used to be Red Delicious, McIntosh, and the exotic Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples."
6. "Sushi, nigiri, and sashimi. If I told my 16-year-old self that I love raw fish and wasabi soy sauce, he would laugh in my face."
— spicyface
"Sushi was new (to us) in the '90s. We were at a fancy restaurant at that time, and someone ordered a roll as an appetizer. My buddy thought the wasabi was guacamole and ate the whole wad on a tortilla chip. Yowza! We still laugh about it."
— DSCN__034
7. "Birria. Where have you been all my life?"
ianjmcg / Via
— Relaxmf2022
"Authentic Mexican food in general."
— Dimmer_switchin
8. "My brother became a vegetarian in 1985, and there weren't a lot of options back then. Going out anywhere was a nightmare — even pasta places had meat in all their sauces. There are so many options now."
— Dull-Crew1428
"Oh my gosh. I've been a vegetarian my whole life. The availability of vegetarian options is a MASSIVE difference from my childhood. I went from a life of mostly eating french fries and side salads at a lot of restaurants to now having veggie burgers or something substantial, even in really rural areas."
— spider_hugs
9. "Believe it or not, when I was growing up in the '60s, pizza places didn't exist. I had it for the first time in college around 1974."
Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspap / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
— Cherry-Tomato-6200
"Our first Pizza Hut opened around 1974, and it was awesome to sit down with those red cups and eat real pizza made in a proper oven. All-you-could-eat salad and pizza for lunch was also new."
— Kingsolomanhere
10. "Olive oil. We used lard."
— reddragongems2012
"Mom kept a can of bacon grease under the sink. That was the lard substitute."
— ArdRi6
11. "Ruby red grapefruit. Grapefruits and grapefruit juice used to be yellow and tart as hell. Ruby reds started showing up (in my world) in the late '80s. Now I can't find yellow grapefruit anywhere! All grapefruit at our local grocery stores are ruby red (which is the better of the two, in my opinion)."
12. "Salmon. I grew up on the East Coast, and we had only East Coast fish in the stores: flounder, spot, whiting, croaker, etc. I went to the Seattle area in high school and got my first taste of salmon. I ate salmon steaks every night for dinner that trip, but it was several years before they were sold in any store at home."
— Tatworth
13. "Rotisserie chickens."
Balmerhippie / Via
14. "I'd say the flavored seltzer water market is pretty massive now. I don't remember anything beyond club soda and tonic water being around when I was younger."
— DamnGoodMarmalade
15. "Gluten-free options for snack/junk food."
lainey1503 / Via
16. "I grew up in the '50s and '60s, and there were no Mexican restaurants, let alone food like tortillas or avocados in grocery stores."
— Straight_Coconut_317
"I grew up in Southern California in the '60s and '70s. I don't remember the first time that I ate it because it was everywhere, but my cousins who visited from New Jersey sure did. On the flip side, I remember I first had Italian food (that wasn't pizza) when visiting them on the East Coast."
— General-Heart4787
17. "The variety of breads. Getting a fresh, hard roll or bagel was special."
NectarineOverPeach / Via
— Malterre
"I never even saw a bagel until college. I remember one of my first jobs had a small coffee shop next door. The morning break was a bagel with cream cheese and pineapple. It was a few more years before I tasted a pretzel."
— rusty0123
19. "Yukon gold potatoes. There was no such thing until 1980. Well, available to the public."
Philltron / Via
20. "Mangos. I was in my 20s before I tasted a mango. I still think they taste like paradise now at the age of 46."
— Adorable_Misfit
21. "Middle Eastern food. I love shawarma, kofta kebabs, hummus, and baklava. We have so many restaurants to choose from where I live — I don't think there were any when I was a kid."
