Dinner in the bunker

Well, I never imagined tucking into a wartime menu for a night out in Alloa.

But “Dig in and Blitz”, to accompany an exhibition by artist Lys Hansen in the Makers Village Bistro and gallery turned out to be most acceptable.

And it was served up by two girls Susan and Kay, dressed in the outfit of dinner ladies from the 1940 and accompanied by popular songs from the same period.

We had beetroot and cheese salad for starters followed by
Woolton pie, a vegetarian dish invented by the chef at the Savoy hotel during the war on the order of the first Minister of Food Lord Woolton , was absolutely delicious.

For puddings we had a choice of rice pudding or chocolate tart.
While the rice pudding would have been an authentic wartime dish we opted for
chocolate tart.

When I told my 90-year-old friend of our meal she was quite scathing saying chocolate was unobtainable during the war.

One thing is certain. Those wartime dishes were a lot healthier than a lot of the food we eat today.

In fact one woman has adopted the wartime menu to loose weight and she blogs at 1940sexperiment


Apparently neither the pie nor the loaf were liked, but by the end of the War, the country was fitter and healthier than it ever had been.
As a whole the population was slimmer and healthier than it is today. People ate less fat, eggs, sugar and meat whilst eating many more vegetables.