Snacks I Wish I Had As a Kid
As I’ve noted in previous posts, my parents pretty much raised me in a hybrid culture, mixed with both “mainstream Canadian” and Hong Kong cultures. I didn’t bring so-called “stinky” lunches to school, though sandwich filling was often Chinese food like char siu or soy sauce roast chicken. PBJs were not packed (I don’t eat peanuts, anyway), not because my school was nut-free (nut-free schools didn’t exist in the 80s) but because that’s just how they did things. I also DID have some mainstream culture snacks like Oreos and Chips Ahoy! cookies (though I really did not like the latter. Crunchy chocolate chip cookies = BLECH…soft, chewy ones, ideally hot out of the oven, please!!!) as well as my grandmother’s favourite, Premium Plus crackers (I’ve since graduated to the minimally processed Stonewall Kitchen crackers), usually with butter. I don’t know why she didn’t give it to me with cheese or with some sort of nut butter spread. Maybe she didn’t know it was a “thing.” Though most of those snacks were more for a treat than always being available. Perhaps that’s how I trained myself not to crave things like chips and packaged baked goods.
A couple of things I DIDN’T have until I was an adult included nut butter on apple slices and good ol’ “ants on a log.” To be fair, raw vegetables aren’t really part of my parents’ heritage, but since they DID raise me hybrid, you’d think that they’d do it at least SOME of the time, right? Of course, it’s possible that they weren’t familiar with the snack at all. My parents, though likely MORE exposed to “mainstream” culture compared to other immigrant parents due having the language skills as well as working OUTSIDE of the Hong Kong immigrant community, also weren’t the main people who prepared meals at home. And since working a 9-5 office job is stressful, they might not have had the time to explain to my grandparents about these snacks. That is, if they even know about them.
Another thing I don’t remember having when I was very young were s’mores. I don’t think I even had them until I was a teenager. I’m not sure why we didn’t have them at our summer backyard barbecues - maybe it just didn’t cross my parents’ minds? They DID grill sweet potatoes (not sure what they ate them with), but it was considered something sweet? I just remember them being part of our cookouts, but I didn’t eat them. I thought it was kind of…weird, even as a three year old. Sweet potatoes/yams are part of a main in my house (one go-to is to bake/roast and then top it with shredded/ground chicken (or turkey) and frozen mixed vegetables in tomato sauce.
Did I have any Chinese snacks? I remember jelly candies once in a while and some kind of tangy disc thing which I had once in a while. And then there were cake slices from Hong Kong style bakeries which were less sweet than ones from Canadian ones. But that wasn’t an all-the-time thing. In general, snacks weren’t really a “thing” in my house. I don’t even think I knew what they were until I was in kindergarten. We just ate three meals a day, and if I ate anything in between, it wasn’t all that frequent (usually the aforementioned crackers or what I call “sewing kit cookies”) and there was never a name for it. Not in English nor in Cantonese. I remember my grandmother having things lying around, especially next to her bed (a bad, bad habit to have. I mean, crumbs, right?) and recall her grazing, but she didn’t really offer me anything. I didn’t ask, either. I just wasn’t…interested.
I can’t say that I was “deprived,” but I suppose it would have been nice to have had those and not have to wait until I was much older. And to be fair, I don’t think my husband nor I have given our son many “standard” packaged snacks we had growing up. Outside of in ice cream, my son has not had an Oreo, for example. I don’t even remember if I’ve given him any KIND of sandwich cookie! Am I depriving HIM? I’m not sure. He certainly doesn’t miss it.
Were there any snacks, things that might “typically” be offered to your peers that you wish you had growing up?