Anyone who lived and ate in the UK during the 80s!

lenore_x · May 13, 2011

I was born in 1985, and foolishly I'm writing a story set in 1984. :tongue

So, I need help! I have a young man from the UK (Belfast, to be more specific) who's just arrived in America, and I'm wondering about his reactions to a few edibles:

What American fast food restaurants were common across the pond in the 80s? Will he have eaten at McDonald's? A&W? Has he had a root beer float?

Has he ever drunk chocolate milk? (I'm actually confused as to whether this is common in the UK now, apparently it's known as a chocolate milkshake, which in the US means ice cream is involved...)

Peanut butter?

Any other gluttonous Americanisms that haven't crossed my mind?

Thanks in advance. This subforum is awesome. :Jump:

alleycat · May 13, 2011

Well, I can't help with your questions (I'm sure others will), but there's nothing foolish about writing about a different time period from the one you lived as long as you do a little research (which is what you're doing).

lenore_x · May 13, 2011

Haha, I know, I just always told myself I'd never write historical because it seemed so daunting... and it turns out that the 80s counts as historical, for all intents and purposes.

firedrake · May 13, 2011

Not sure if there was a McDonald's in Belfast. I was there around that time on vacation, but can't remember. There were on the mainland.
There would've been other burger joints, like Wimpys (dreadful) and probably Pizza Hut and Dominos.

Yes, there would've been peanut butter.

No A&Ws, and I don't think there was any root beer around, and definitely no root beer floats.

The Grift · May 13, 2011

Wiki tells me that the first McDonald's in Ireland opened in 1977. UK, 1974.

waylander · May 13, 2011

I remember Wendy's in London in the 80s, but Belfast - no data

agent.grey · May 13, 2011

Not sure about Northern Ireland in particular, but I grew up in Scotland about that time.

You character will definitely have hear of McDonalds, and probably eaten there. Not sure what A&W is, so that may answer that one.

Peanut butter was common in the UK at that time.

You could get root beer, but I don't think it was very common - my uncle used to drink it. Floats are presumably ice-cream floated in the drink, we used to have cola floats as kids.

Chocolate milk was available, you got/get a two of syrup that you mixed with milk. Not sure about pre-mixed but I would guess that was around too. Where I grew up a milkshake was flavoured milk. I never had an ice-cream milkshake until my first trip to McDonalds.

Hope any of this helps.

Torgo · May 13, 2011

firedrake said:
Not sure if there was a McDonald's in Belfast. I was there around that time on vacation, but can't remember. There were on the mainland.
There would've been other burger joints, like Wimpys (dreadful) and probably Pizza Hut and Dominos.

Oh my god Wimpy. They were the worst.

Kitti · May 13, 2011

Your MC might be familiar with peanut butter, but probably not peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The whole jelly/jam thing still persists until today.

Also, there's some weird regional things in the US that your MC definitely wouldn't have been exposed to, like peanut butter and karo, or grits.

firedrake · May 13, 2011

Torgo said:
Oh my god Wimpy. They were the worst.

Weren't they dire? My stomach protests at the memory.

I remember, when I moved from the U.S. to the UK in 1980, we lived in Cambridge. One of the more popular places to eat was a pizza place and I was so excited to find real pizza again. Sadly, it was dreadful...made from pie crust and scattered with cheddar cheese, not a shred of mozzarella in sight. Yet everyone thought that place was the bollocks.

Torgo · May 13, 2011

firedrake said:
Weren't they dire? My stomach protests at the memory.

I remember, when I moved from the U.S. to the UK in 1980, we lived in Cambridge. One of the more popular places to eat was a pizza place and I was so excited to find real pizza again. Sadly, it was dreadful...made from pie crust and scattered with cheddar cheese, not a shred of mozzarella in sight. Yet everyone thought that place was the bollocks.

Eventually though Pizza Express turned up and was pretty good. There was one awesome Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, "Peking Restaurant", IIRC.

pdr · May 13, 2011

If...

you want him to be able to react to differences then make him a trad UK citizen whose fast food would have been fish 'n' chips wrapped in newspaper.

He'd probably never have seen root beer and if he's Mr Average then he's a beer drinker (Guinness stout is very Irish) and would turn his nose up at kiddie food like milkshakes and fizzy drinks.

There are a lot of things which would strike him more as strange, basics like light switches and driving on the right.

firedrake · May 13, 2011

Torgo said:
Eventually though Pizza Express turned up and was pretty good. There was one awesome Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, "Peking Restaurant", IIRC.

I wept with joy the day they opened Pizza Hut.

I remember the Peking! it was good. There were some good restaurants, one of my favorites was a funky little Greek taverna that did great pizza.

Nugus · May 13, 2011

There definitely would have been McD's and Wimpy. I remember having a coca-cola float but not root beer. Harp lager would be popular in NI and Guinness. I would say that if he might have had Bushmills whiskey which is brewed in County Antrim.
Fish and chips would have been popular as well.

mirandashell · May 13, 2011

I'm a bit confused. Is he an American in Belfast, or vice versa?

lenore_x · May 13, 2011

Born and raised in Belfast, just arrived in America.

He is of course a Guinness lover although he's not legally old enough to purchase alcohol in either country.

Are there really no lightswitches in the UK? Haha, I never even thought about it! I'm not so much concerned with his reactions to America in general, since he's writing journal entries about various events. One of them involves eating, is all.

shaldna · May 14, 2011

lenore_x said:
What American fast food restaurants were common across the pond in the 80s? Will he have eaten at McDonald's?

Possibly. McDonalds has been in teh UK since the mid 70's and the first Irish branch opened in the late 70's, so he could well have eaten in one if he travelled to Dublin or mainland UK. We didn't get a McD;s in Belfast until 1991(the first in Northern Ireland). If he's a local lad who didn't travel much then there's a chance he's never had one.
http://www.mcspotlight.org/company/company_history.html

Wimpy was pretty big here when I was growing up. But there aren't so many of them now, and I don;t think there are any left in the North.

Supermacs has been around since the late 70's, but not so many of them in the north until lately, so he might not have been in one of them.

We had burger King a lot when I was a kid, but that might have been closer to the end of the 80's /early 90's

A&W?

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I don't know what that is.

Has he had a root beer float?

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Probably not. He would have had smokies, or icecream sodas - which are icecream added to lemonade.

Has he ever drunk chocolate milk? (I'm actually confused as to whether this is common in the UK now, apparently it's known as a chocolate milkshake, which in the US means ice cream is involved...)

Click to expand...

Chocolate milk. Yep. Now a days there is Yazoo, but it only came in during the late 80's. When we were kids my mum used to put drinking choclate powder into cold milk and we'd make chocolate milk that way.

Milkshakes are milk and icecream, and were available.

Peanut butter?

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Oh god yeah! But the only one you could get here was sun pat, and it came in smooth or crunchy. and it had a really annoying theme song.

Click to expand...

shaldna · May 14, 2011

lenore_x said:
He is of course a Guinness lover although he's not legally old enough to purchase alcohol in either country.

Guiness is a very aquired taste, and if he's underage then he's probably not old enough to have developed a liking for it. He would probably drink Harp if he likes larger, or Bass if he likes ale.

firedrake said:
There would've been other burger joints, like Wimpys (dreadful) and probably Pizza Hut and Dominos.

Dominos has only been in NI for about 6 or 7 years, and until fairly recently the only one was on the bottom of the Lisburn Road in belfast. Now they are everywhere.

There was Pizza Hut when we were small, but we never really went. They were huge for a while in the 90's, but most have closed now.

pdr said:
There are a lot of things which would strike him more as strange, basics like light switches and driving on the right.

Are there really no lightswitches in the UK? Haha, I never even thought about it!

Of course we had light switches, and they work the same as everyone elses thank you very much.

The only difference that might throw him is the chord pull that is used in bathrooms. The lightswitch is in the ceiling and there's a long chord that hangs down and you pull it to turn the light on and off, rather than a flip switch. So you don't get electrocuted if the steam from the bath gets into the electrics.

Also, the driving thing probably not such a big issue as he's probably too young to drive, if he's not old enough to drink, and when I was a kid hardly anyone could drive a car at that age. Most young lads had a motor bike and maybe were taught to drive by their dad. they wouldn't have been able to afford a car though.

lastlittlebird · May 14, 2011

pdr said:
There are a lot of things which would strike him more as strange, basics like light switches and driving on the right.

Heh, my father moved from the States to NZ around the early 80's and he said the light switches really annoyed him.

His first night there his hosts kept asking him if he wanted to have tea. He kept saying, no, no thank you... no....

Finally, around 9pm, he snapped:
No tea, but I'd really like to have some dinner!

lastlittlebird · May 14, 2011

shaldna said:
Of course we had light switches, and they work the same as everyone elses thank you very much.

The difference is that in the States pressing a switch up (pressing down the top part) turns it on.
Pressing it up here or in the UK usually turns it off.
It's surprising how strange that can feel the first few times.

waylander · May 14, 2011

He would notice that the TV is very different, lots more channels. American ads are very different to British ones and there are a lot more.

firedrake · May 14, 2011

He'd also be blown away by the supermarkets, the variety of stuff. For instance, when I returned to the UK in 1980, I was not impressed by the poor choice of salad dressing in the big Sainsburys near us. All there was was salad cream, French and thousand island. That was it. So, yeah, his first trip to a supermarket might be a bit interesting.

Shakesbear · May 14, 2011

What about the Golden Egg chain? They were all over the south - not too sure of the north.

Shaldna - I think Pizza Hut is still going strong! There are about 10 of them in a, roughly 20 mile radius from where I live.

lenore_x · May 14, 2011

shaldna said:
Guiness is a very aquired taste, and if he's underage then he's probably not old enough to have developed a liking for it. He would probably drink Harp if he likes larger, or Bass if he likes ale.

Hey now, I had Guinness for the first time when I was a teen, and I thought it was delicious!

(Weirdly, my tastes have sort of gone wimpier over the years, and now I prefer Harp... which is pretty hard to find here.)

I've decided to have a root beer float be his introduction to American sweets. He hasn't in fact been outside Northern Ireland before, so I guess he'll have his first McDonald's cheeseburger here, too.

Thank you very much for the responses, everyone. Rep points for all!

shaldna · May 15, 2011

Shakesbear said:
What about the Golden Egg chain? They were all over the south - not too sure of the north.

Shaldna - I think Pizza Hut is still going strong! There are about 10 of them in a, roughly 20 mile radius from where I live.

There are two that I know off that are still open. There's one in Bangor - about 10 miles outside of Belfast, and there's one in the Victoria Centre in the middle of Belfast. The rest have pretty much closed down around here.

Anyone who lived and ate in the UK during the 80s!

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