Grilled cheese, poached eggs and kitchen suppers...

 Just read an article about the language of meals and their  social history and meanings
kitchen suppers, francis maude and Rachel Cooke
It seems that even the word "meals" is "non-U"!

"Supper" seems to be one of those words that is  completely working class, posh or pseudo-posh depending on what you eat and what you call your other meals. Not sure how "supper clubs" and of course the most famous one - "The Last" Supper" - fit into this...







In Aberkenfig in the sixties and seventies to my knowledge and recollection,  the meal in the middle of the day was definitely "dinner" and those that toook it at school needed dinner money rather than lunch money. 

On weekdays we'd come home to "tea" which was another substantial meal taken quite early after school and work. This meant that one often got peckish after about nine and that was when the movable feast that was supper took place. All meals were taken at the kitchen table except supper which was eaten in the sitting room in front of the TV.

My younger sister and my father were rather fond of  grlled cheese. This was like cheese on toast without the toast - slices of cheese just grilled on an enamel plate. My father added HP sauce to his, but Irene ate it as it was.

my favourite supper dish was poached egg(s) on toast - preferably with a firm white and runny yolk. I'm still fond of a poached egg and will settle for a more set yolk that risk the dreaded runny white! I've experimented with various ways of helping the egg to set, but still prefer a freeformed egg cooked in a pan of water with a good slosh of vinegar in it and sometimes some salt as extra insurance against an over-floaty white. Somehow egg poachers are not the same... I like to spread the egg over my toast and sprinkle with an obscene amount of black pepper, then eschew cutlery and eat with my fingers.

Sundays were - and still seem to be - different as most people have a significant meal in the middle of the day - Sunday lunch or dinner. As a youngster I loved the idea of a "high tea" on Sunday evening with sandwiches and cake all served at the table and looking my idea of  a meal from books. Tinned fruit and icecream elevated this even further. Irene and I didn't like tinned fruit, but loved the syrup from the tinned pears and peaches that the rest of the family ate. This was before we had a freezer and the block of icecream would be purchased from the only shop in the village to be open on a Sunday and bought wrapped in newspaper and borne home in some excitement.

Of course, nobody fully understands and expounds the significance of tinned fruit as the late and great Dylan Thomas in "The Peaches"
See below for summary and response to the short story:
"The Peaches" in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog

I still love high tea/ party food/buffet type meal with basics of sandwiches and cakes with additions of sausage rolls, pasties, crisps, nuts etc.