Timeless Thoughts: School lunch orders

Timeless Thoughts

Timeless Thoughts is a monthly linkup hosted by Georgie and Tara, where bloggers write about something from their past – it could be an item, a place, an event – anything that evokes a trip down memory lane. Timeless Thoughts is held on the first Saturday of the month, and runs for two weeks.

Whew, it has been a busy past week, so I wasn’t able to post this on Saturday like I originally planned. It’s a good thing I wasn’t hosting! Head over to Tara’s blog to join the linkup for this month!

When I was younger (and still ate chicken, I guess), one of my favourite lunch orders was:

  • 1 chicken drumstick
  • 1 soup

Guess how much it cost me.

$2.20. For the lot.

$2.20! What a cheap lunch! I’d be lucky to get one sushi roll at a price of $2.20 these days. It was just so easy at school to order lunch for $5.

Then again, $5 was a lot back then.

About three years ago I wrote about how lunches were less than $5. Not long ago, someone at work made the comment that lunch orders were like putting money in a bag and then having it magically turn into lunch. Our brains aren’t like how they were as children, but there was just something so exciting about looking at a menu and ordering something and having it arrive in the glorious plastic lunch basket at the beginning of lunch. Pulling it out of the paper bag and everything.

Sometimes you knew what you were getting because you had gotten it before – safe move, really – other times you were keen to know what your lunch was like because you decided to try something new. Food wasn’t top quality, of course. And the time I graduated from high school, some ‘healthy’ options had been introduced into the school canteens, so I’m not completely aware of what it may be like now.

I doubt it’s chicken drumsticks, though.

It’s more expensive in comparison and really isn’t about the money, but a little part of me still has the same kind of giddiness inside when I look at a restaurant menu that lacks enough photography and I eagerly wait for my meal to arrive. 😍

Comments on this post

I honestly don’t remember what school lunches cost. I sometimes bought, but I think I mostly brought my lunch. But I’m sure it probably was cheaper then. Who knows how much it is now. Prices go up everywhere! Its crazy!

Haha, I never had that giddy feeling when having school lunch – which I did daily, Monday to Friday. This may be because I ate whatever was put on the menu for the week with no variation. My best friend loved Pizza day however…rectangular slices of cardboard covered in tomato sauce and cheese. Honestly? Prisoners eat better than school children – though I’ve heard that it’s improved since I’ve graduated.

I wish I remembered the costs of school lunches but I always had free lunches up until high school <3

So your school lunch was more like a restaurant where you ordered what you wanted and paid for it? For me school lunch was free (well, covered by tax money) so I never had to pay for anything, and we didn’t have a menu, there was always just the dish of the day. For the most part I remember the food as nice, it was just like home cooked.
Being able to order what you want must’ve been nice though :) I definitely wished for alternatives some days when they were serving something I didn’t like…

It wasn’t really a restaurant, it was like a little kiosk or stand. We didn’t get free food! I don’t think that happens anywhere in Australia. Where I work, we get free breakfast and lunch, and sometimes there is stuff on the menu I don’t like, so those are the days I head out for lunch. 😆

there’s just something about seeing and carrying paper bags filled with lunch. I didn’t get to experience that because in Indonesia, it doesn’t work like that. during my school days, people just carry tupperwares or stainless steel lunch boxes or use plastic bags instead of paper bags. I don’t know, I just like paper bags lol i’m weird like that. It used to be fun carrying lunchbox from home until I grew tired of it (because I had to carry a lot of books so it was a hassle) :P

I personally prefer restaurant menu without pictures. I prefer looking at menus with descriptive details of how the meal is, especially for dessert section. man, it can be really mouth watering to imagine just reading the details haha

That’s interesting that you like menus without pictures. I definitely have no problem with the ones with just words. I like to imagine the details as well, and sometimes they sound good just from the name. :D

I loved reading about your school food memories! It brought back a lot of memories for me as well; I’d totally forgotten how cheap things used to be. In our high school people would stand next to the vending machines and ask people passing if they had 10p because they were short…then they’d walk to the shop and buy super budget food there with the money haha.

Man. It was so exciting getting a lunch order. In my small town, two children were always nominated to pick it up from the local store. I actually got banned from doing it because I would decide to go for a walk or sometimes snack on the food… rebel child. xD

I don’t remember what my school lunches cost because we had this lunch tickets that our parents would buy and give to us. One ticket would give us a full tray of food that consisted of the main dish, veggie/fruit, side, dessert, and milk. Thinking back, I do miss the lunches I had in the cafeteria. Their spaghetti, sloppy joes, and tacos were not bad and I miss them XD

I also miss the lunches I had with my friends in junior high. We were still limited to eating on campus, so we’d meet in the cafeteria. In fact, we sat at the same table for the two years we were junior high. I’m remembering some good times I had back then!

Thanks for taking me back on that, Georgie!

Well, my school didn’t have a very big canteen so while I was in school, all I could buy was a vada pav or a samosa pav and that used to cost us Rs. 10 at the the most. So if we were to treat our friends in school for a birthday or something, it used to be called a vada pav party!