When I started working in Wellington in 1944 eating houses were rare. You could count them on one hand. Today the city is cluttered with them. Exotic foods are common place and whatever you fancy is available.

          In the forties the meals were largely soup, roast meat, and a pudding – usually with custard. There were three vegetables, and the boiled cabbage was horrible!

          Diet patterns have changed, many people now drink coffee and eat exotic fruits and enjoy Asian foods.

          Fast foods have become popular, but they are not necessarily very good for you.

          The food revolution started at the end of the 2nd World War when people come home from fighting in the Middle East, Italy, and Asia.

          After the war ended many people from Europe and Asia flocked to New Zealand bringing their exotic foods and many set up food stalls.

          Coffee became a common drink. It certainly was better than the liquid coffee and chicory we drank, and the tinned coffee and milk then available.

          During the war years fruits like bananas and pineapples were not available and when they did become available they were only seasonable. Today many fruits are now available throughout the year.

          Kiwifruit was brought back from China by a returning missionary. Initially it grew on the outskirts of a Chinese forest and was eaten by pregnant mothers and seemed to be good for them.

          For many years we called it Chinese Gooseberry. We bred it up, changed the name to Kiwifruit, and exported it back to China, and to many other countries.

          In the early years families bottled and baked. Greengrocers sold large boxes of fruit such as golden queen peaches, and pears suitable for cooking and bottling. Home baking was the mark of hospitality in those days.

          Some credit to our changing diet must be given to the Edmonds cookery book, first published in 1908. It was first published for selling baking powder, but it became one of our most popular cooking books and certainly had a place in our changing diet.

          A person that played a role and worthy of mention was Maud Basham, aka ‘Aunt Daisy’. She broadcasted a cooking and handy hints  programme on National radio each morning at 9 am with her opening line, “Goodmooorning everybody!”.

          How things have changed. Today it’s so much easier to take friends to your favourite restaurant, or to order a meal to be delivered from a takeaway. It’s easier, but more expensive. No wonder our cost of living has increased.

          It’s costlier, but more enjoyable.

Geoffrey Moss (mossassociates.co.nz)

“Our mind is a storehouse of information. Use it wisely, it only functions when open”.