Nostalgic food memories at Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair
March 18, 2013
Posted in View from the table
One of the highlights of my weekend was a visit to Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair in Market Harborough. I’m a fan of Judy’s fairs, I first discovered them in Edinburgh, found some absolute treasure and attend them whenever there’s one close by.
The fairs bring some of the best vintage traders in the country together in one place so you can imagine the rummaging potential here. They’re friendly and as the name might suggest, affordable too. Think all eras from the 20s to the 80s - I still have a bit of a problem getting my head round stalls selling 80s clothes as vintage, because that makes me – well, vintage too.
Judy’s HQ put a call out for bloggers to attend the fair and I took up the gauntlet. We thought it would be good to talk to punters and traders about their retro or nostalgic food of choice. It was a lot of fun. Amber was my trusty assistant, chatting to folk, taking photographs and bagging herself a pair of Babycham deer earrings for her trouble. Collectively my friends and I came home with a 1940s apron and blouse, handbags from a few different eras, a dress, a 50s Italian landmarks silk scarf and some very beautiful baby clothes. it was a prize haul indeed.
Here are some of my finds and my choice retro food discoveries.
Mother and daughter team Amy and Karen run Hand Me Down vintage clothing and accessories. Their memories, like most people’s, were from their own mothers. Amy after no consideration at all recalled macaroni cheese which made her mum Karen smile and fondly remember her own mum’s shepherd’s pie. Comfort food extraordinaire.
Nostalgic food for shoppers Ian and Maria was all about puddings and sweets. We talked parma violets and pink shrimps but Maria went for Bazooka Joe. Do you remember that the wrappers opened up to reveal a tiny comic strip? Maria did and that you could collect tokens and send them away to claim free Bazooka gifts. Maria saved hers and sent away for a camera, her mum wouldn’t buy her a film for it though as she thought it would be a waste. She is definitely not over that blow. Ian’s food of choice was proper chocolate steam pudding that he would make with his mum. Wonder if she was a bit more generous with the camera film?
Shoppers Abby and Sophia, who had amazing hair by the way, styled at the event by Jess and Amy, had old fashioned choices for ones so young – bread and butter pudding for Abby, pictured on the left and good old banana custard for Sophia.
It was a very difficult choice but for the record I went for Seville orange and almond cake. Oh, what a good choice it was too. Pennie’s mother was a great cook, they never had shop bought or processed food so her memories are of beautiful meals, “NOT rice pudding – that was vile!” but instead delicate opaque jellies and chocolate blancmange. Pennie’s fix-all dish that works the same magic as Jewish chicken soup is Malaysian coconut and noodle soup laksa.
Unsurprisingly Ellie, pictured above, (Pennie “doesn’t do photographs” though I cannot imagine why because she’s gorgeous) recalls her favourite food as her mum’s cooking. I thought it might be some kind of special cake that brought back happy memories but it was savoury all the way; beef wellington was up there but the winner was beef stroganoff and dauphinoise potatoes – a homecoming meal when Ellie comes back home from university.
Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fairs serves 30 cities across the UK. There are events coming up in Edinburgh, Manchester and London. If you’re a lover of vintage and the unique; clothes, furniture, kitchenalia, homewares and accessories then you should definitely seek one out.
Rissoles yuck, chcolate blancmange – oh yes indeedy. What a great way to work your way around, asking people about their retro food faves. Love it.
Yeah, not good the old rissoles were they. It was so much fun and people just love talking about their best retro food, and I love listening!
sneaking a look at work….naughty. I have my gran’s egg slicer. I used to sneak into her larder (it was a proper food store larder, wonderful) and play it like a guitar – good eh. right, back to the job, katie x
LOVE it! They do twang don’t they?! x
Thank you Sarah for your very kind words and beautiful photographs!!!
Pennie x
You’re welcome Pennie, your cakes are amazing, and I love all your china too. Would you like me to send you the photographs? I have a sneaky one of you and Ellie!
x
Some of these pictures bring back memories like the mincer. I looked everywhere for an egg slicer recently, difficult to find these days xxx
Ahh well I know where you can get an egg slicer from…
x
The fair looks fab. I will make sure to go to one of the London ones in April. And love everyones food memories!!
It’s great Barnes and the ones in the city are AMAZE ! x