Are there any school lunches from your childhood that you remember as being very tasty?

My high school cafeteria had these taco wraps that were really good. Of course, this is a much later generation where the food quality is much better. I did actually mimic it. I bought the ingredients and made them for the week. They were good, but they weren’t the same.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup. They must have used stale bread or something, because I could never replicate the texture.

That’s what they always served at Grandparent’s Day lunch. I hope I always remember sitting at a little table eating grilled cheese and tomato soup with my big grandparents. Then we would count M&Ms by color and create a graph.

My school’s cafeteria made a very delicious soljanka.

Bangers n mash & jam roly poly.

I liked the salisbury steak a/k/a mystery meat, all my friends thought it was gross….lol

Butterscotch Tart. Never found the school recipe. Would love to make it.

I never bought lunch, either my parents would make my lunch, or later, I would make it myself, but I always enjoyed that cafeteria aroma that many people seem to loathe. It was like mashed potatoes and mushy peas and meatloaf and warm dinner rolls and melted butter all rolled into one. My brother occasionally bought lunch and he said he liked the fish sticks and tacos. I also have a fondness for cafeteria trays with those little separated indented areas to keep the spoonfuls of taters separate from the spaghetti. Like These. And don’t forget the pint sized milk cartons! I loved those!

Junior high had these great enchiladas.

Hot dogs with sauerkraut
Grilled cheese and french fries

And they had this weird cake that wasn’t too bad. When my friend was on a diet, she would ask me if she could smell it.

My best friend often talks about a dish that her school made that she loved. It was called tuna bunstead. Tuna fish with mayo on the toasted top half of a hamburger bun with cheese on top. I think it sounds foul, but she loved it.

One school I went to had wonderful homemade soups. I’ve always loved soup for lunch. Still do.

I fondly remember a cherry-vanilla custard dessert that we got only on Fridays. I loved it.

There was one tiny school in a tiny town that I used to sub in. Sometimes you’d walk in in the morning and the whole school would be filled with the aroma of home made cinnamon rolls. Yes, homemade. And they’d have homemade chili on those days too.

@Dutchess_III Oh – that reminds me of one baker we had at camp and Saturday mornings!

They had a deep dish pizza that I thought was really good at the time. I doubt I would feel the same way today.

Two things come to mind, cheese pie which I have never seen anywhere else before or since. It was delicious and caramel cake in custard was also entirely fabulous.

Taco Salad Tuesdays during my Jr./Sr. years in high school.

They cost a buck, you had to pay first thing in the morning, and only the number sold were created. You were given a ticket upon purchase to prove you had paid and when you presented it to the lunch lady you were handed the most glorious mess of lettuce, seasoned beef, beans, tomatoes, onions, and tortilla chips that the Good Lord has ever deemed this planet fit to receive.

Mini pizza’s in grade ten they were $1.00 each in grade 12 they were $3.00 and you had a limit of 5.
In grade 3 – 6 Hot dogs with steamy hot bun $.25 cents each.
Junior High McDonalds delivery was at lunch $2.50 per burger max 4 per person.

I just remembered this! I taught school in Georgia in 1986–87. Once every three weeks we had fried chicken. These women could seriously cook some chicken. Teachers only had to pay $1 for lunch and we got two pieces of chicken, double the veggies that the kids got, a heap of mashed potatoes and canned peaches. Oh lordy, that was the best fried chicken ever. <wipes drool from face>

I wish I liked seafood gumbo in those days. We had fresh seafood gumbo once a week.

@Kardamom I used to have those exact same trays when I was younger. Many memories.

When my mum worked in the school tuckshop, which only happened every couple of months, my brother and I got to have a bought lunch. I used to choose marmite and potato chip sandwiches, also cold apricot pie which did not have pastry on the top but rather mock whipped cream was piped around the edge of the pie. My brother and I loved it when mum’s name came up on the tuckshop work schedule.

Midvale School, Midvale, Idaho 1962–65 GREAT lunches at the school cafeteria but they made these rolls that were THE BEST! Some fresh butter would be nifty but just plain was OK, too. After lunch, when the kids would play in the gym during winter, the cooks would set out the extra rolls for whoever wanted them and they would VANISH! Have never had anything like ‘em since.

I’m with @KNOWITALL. Salisbury Steak FTW!!

Bleargh. The meal that stands out in my memory the most is frozen pizza that they didn’t manage to heat up all the way, so parts of it were still cold when you ate it.

When I lived in New York in the late 80s and early 90s, I lived in a primarily Jewish neighborhood. Even though I went to public school, it was simply easier for the schools to provide Kosher meals, because such a high percentage of the kids followed kosher diets.

All the food was good. I particularly liked stuffed shells day.

When I moved a away to Florida I had my first interaction with suck-ass school food – a cheeseburger wrapped in foil paper. When I opened it, a giant palmetto bug crawled out.

That was one of the days I cried hardest in homesickness.

Poor Seek. :(