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Living Up to Nostalgia

When I was a kid growing up in NYC, I used to love Entenmann’s donuts and coffee cake. They were a fixture in my family’s kitchen. Revisiting these baked goods as an adult, I was disappointed by their mediocrity. Entenmann’s was originally a small family business based in Brooklyn, and it’s possible they were truly better back then before being bought by a conglomerate. But maybe it’s a matter of maturing taste buds. What childhood foods do you have nostalgia for? And have they stood the test of time?

Painting by Terry Thompson

Discussion

8 comments for “Living Up to Nostalgia”

  1. Kristen says:

    Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. But now it’s just too sweet.

  2. Petra says:

    Tastykakes, especially Butterscotch Krimpets and Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes. I recently found them here in the Midwest, having not had them for literally decades. Not the same. They were VERY disappointing.

    • wendy says:

      Do you think they’re literally not the same, or that your tastes have changed?

      • Petra says:

        Both, I think. Back when I was eating them, I was a teen (and that was before the high fructose corn syrup era. And I’m sure that expanding nationally meant cutting costs on other ingredients. But my tastes have also changed (decades ago the phrase “too sweet for me” wasn’t in my vocabulary!) I appreciate richness more now and prefer things like very dark chocolate to milk chocolate.

        • wendy says:

          Who didn’t love Hostess Twinkees as a kid? I can’t imagine eating even of a sliver of that now.

  3. Navarre says:

    Simple food is sometimes the best thing in the world, like tomato sauce with oregano on spaghetti noodles or foraged morels cooked in butter and salt and eaten on toast made over a fire. A long fork, like an old fashioned meat server, was used to do the toasting. These things are best eaten when it’s raining outside and one is about to dive back into The Secret Gatden or The Hobbit.

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