American Reacts to British vs American School Lunch Food

In this video I react to American and British school lunches. When I was in school I couldn't stand the school lunch food. It was so disgusting that I generally took my food to school so I could avoid what they were serving. How about you? Did you like the food they served you at school or was it one of the worst food experiences you've ever had?
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[@pureholy]

I work in a school in the UK, lunch is only served on prison trays to the under 7s everyone else gets a china plate. The main course is on a 3 week rotating menu, it includes things like curry, roast chicken, sausages, fresh cooked pizza, stroganoff etc. there is also a vegetarian hot option, plus jacket/baked potatoes, plain pasta and tomato sauce. There is always a salad bar, which always includes cheddar cheese. There will be a changing hot or cold dessert plus always the option of yogurt or fresh fruit. You only get water to drink.

[@r.brooks5287]

Thank God, prison trays, that's all I kept thinking. Nice to know they're not expected to eat off them.

[@Justabitnosey]

Same when I was at school. My own children though went to a special needs school from 2-19. They had there's on the trays. They're meals were similar. But then there was cutbacks and the meals were done ta nearby secondary school and they weren't as good.

[@littlefreckles7004]

Dinner ladies are the best! X

[@alangood8190]

I'm British (English) and closer to seventy than sixty. On balance I have nothing but praise for the meals we received in primary and secondary school. The food was basic, wholesome and balanced in the interests of a healthy diet. It was also adequate in quantity and comparatively cheap. Yes, we might have complained at the time about being made to eat our greens but in retrospect the authorities and cooks knew what they were doing for giving us a good and healthy start in life.

[@mariehopkinson5581]

I'm a English woman of 50 and yes I agree with you about school meals that I had back then,but I have a 8 year old son and now the school meals have gone down hill. The meal itself is the size of a side plate,no gravy,salt, pepper, butter or anything else to flavour the food is allowed. The drink is water or nothing. Funny enough the pudding is more than twice the size of the dinner,but as I'm sure you know it's cheaper to make a sponge and custard with marvel than to make a balanced nutritional meal. This is how Britain is today.How are children ment to focus on learning when thay are hungry. Let's not forget that for a lot of children school meals are the only hot meal thay have that day

[@DJ-105]

secondary school lunch now is the tiniest tub of pasta and meat balls every day except Friday and that's what my hard working sister has to eat everyday

[@angelavara4097]

oh yes our meals were super delicious apart from the baked beans that we used as bullets because they were hard lol. custard and treacle pudding or jam roly poly with chocolate custard mmm so nice . i am nearly 66 and always think often about how our days were good really.

[@jennysmith8835]

You had a good school, our cabbage was cooking first thing and even though we were hungry as no snacks in those days, the food was massacred, no-one overweight though, just got by on odd bag of chips from Friar tucks and a meal at home,

[@sarahstrong7174]

It depended a lot on the cook you had. At one primary school I went to the meals were pretty much inedible. The potatoes were mostly black inside. I tried to eat them because I was hungry but they tasted so foul I could not. There was supposed to be meat in gravy but the supposed meat was either hard bits of bone & gristle which were impossible to eat or lumps of fat, which I tried to get down but they were often too big & hard to swallow, so that left pretty much just watery gravy. Then there was cabbage that had been boiled till it was transparent. It was pretty awful but I would eat most of it because I was so hungry. Then there were carrots which had been boiled till they were mushy but they were the best bit of the meal so I always ate that. Even worse when I got home my mother would give me hardly anything to eat claiming I had had a good meal at school, so then I would go to bed hungry. It was worst during the winter. I used to finish up my brothers left overs. The headmaster of that school was an alchoholic & there seemed to be something going on between him & the school cook. I wonder if some of the money supposed to fund our meals was going to support his habit.

[@beccatimps]

Evan Edinger did a comparison video on UK vs US school lunches which looked at all the options for a whole week it will give you a better idea of what is on offer.

[@chris747f]

That’s definitely 💯 a good idea!!! Here’s a link for that video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3LKhI2tj9x1ebc

[@simonlindsay87]

Definitely watch Evan's video it's really good

[@corringhamdepot4434]

Ribena is a blackcurrant drink. That used to be sold as a concentrate, but now comes as all sorts of soda style drinks. A squash is a "dilute to taste" drink. Sausages are a traditional UK dinner, sausages and mash should be served with onion gravy. When you bought your meat from your local family butcher, they would use all the trimmings to make sausages and all the blood to make black pudding.

[@davidmacgregor5193]

That drink looks more like Ribena's raspberry variant rather than their usual blackcurrant drink.

[@barrysherwood2120]

Black pudding is not very popular most people especially younger generations won't eat this As far as I know black pudding comes from Scotland also something else I don't like haggis comes from Scotland Maybe more popular in Scotland

[@crwydryny]

@@barrysherwood2120 everyone i know loves blackpuddin, like you can't have a fry up without it

[@sarajane5306]

A kid down my street was addicted to drinking ribeena and it rotted all his teeth. He had nothing but stumps by 10, worst kids teeth I've ever seen in my life.

[@theboardshorts]

@@sarajane5306.Did that boy brush his teeth properly though? I drank gallons of Ribena as a kid and never had any dental issues. I'm 40's now and still have never had a filling or any dental work. Maybe that's because my uncle was my dentist and we were more aware of tooth care possibly. Also, I think we only drank the sugar free version so maybe that's it.

[@janetpendlebury6808]

I grew up in the UK and went to school in London, school diners were nutritious and quite nice, we often went back for seconds. Sweet corn out of a tin was a very common veggie at tea time at home, but we did not put butter on them, although we did put a bit on corn on the cob. We used to get our school diners served on plates, not trays though. I now live in Australia, and they do not have school diners here, children take there own packed lunch to school, usually sandwiches, or a salad. Sausages are as popular here as in the UK. Not sure what the kid in the video usually eats but he seems not to have had any of that food before!

[@countesscable]

I had school dinners in the UK in the 70’s and it was proper, cooked on the premises, wholesome food and desserts. Roast dinners, vegetables, gravy, pies, sausage, Yorkshire puddings, salads, sauce, trimmings, steamed puddings and custard, cakes with pink custard, fruit crumbles, fresh fruit, plain milk and jugs of water.

[@dianef4227]

Then funding cuts happened. Then Jamie Oliver campaigned to go back to what we had rather than Turkey Twizzlers, which are tasteless btw

[@shmupperfromhell]

FYI the vid host isn't british ^^ -we very much do put butter on sweetcorn! -jelly/jello is not anything weird to us BTW bangers n mash is waaay better than you think! English sausages are their own thing (lincoln and cumberland to start you off)- combined with british style mash and gravy - i would dare you to not like it 🙂

[@shenayduffy4043]

What I said he's not English Welsh Scottish Irish he's from somewhere else so why he's saying we don't put butter on corn ..we so do

[@chelseasmith2189]

Omg yes the sweetcorn thing was annoying me so much 😂 who is that guy 😂

[@reysgotplans5005]

"It's made from a squash?!" 😂 so, "squash" in the UK is a common name for a cordial style drink that you dilute with water. You can get them in different concentrations and are usually sweet. Ribeana (Rye-Bean-a) is a type of squash or cordial drink that is very popular in the UK for kids and is blackcurrant flavour (although I think they also have strawberry) 😊

[@lucyblayney2208]

That cracked me up too 🤣🤣🤣

[@LadyAuld]

It’s Ribena, not ribeana

[@Imloeyrose]

When I was in primary school, back when I lived in Wales, I would sometimes have school lunches and the school lunches in that school were amazing. The cook was such a lovely lady and she made everything from fresh, she even put her recipes in our school recipe book that parents, teachers, staff and students could contribute towards which I still have. She would prep and cook from the morning until lunch time. I never had school food when I moved to England but I’ll always remember her food ❤

[@eggstien_plays9643]

Oh why u move to England

[@NostalgiaVivec]

i take it you went to a small school lmao.

[@Imloeyrose]

@@eggstien_plays9643 parents had a divorce lmao

[@Imloeyrose]

@@NostalgiaVivec yup! In my year group there was maybe 8 or 9 of us in total

[@crosseyedone7960]

Grew up in poverty stricken South Welsh valley's in early 60's. We always complained about the canteen lunches but we had all the good stuff. Peas, carrots, meat, gravy, milk and so on. Of course in the morning we had our teaspoon of cod liver oil.😁

[@fionagregory9147]

Valleys does not need an apostrophe as it is just plural.

[@johnp8131]

@@fionagregory9147 Maybe English is his second language?????

[@crosseyedone7960]

@@fionagregory9147 Thanks Fiona.

[@jacquilewis8203]

OMG the thought of cod liver oil 😫 😆 🤣 😂

[@lizg5574]

I am English and of an older generation. School dinners (so called because they were the main hot meal of the day) were good. It was normally a hot meal, meat or fish and vegetables. And a second course of dessert. In summer we would get salad at least twice a week, with cold meat and hot mash (it works!) They were balanced meals, cooked on site, served in a homely way. To drink, we had water. No juice, no milk, just water. School dinners were terrific. And they weren't served on those nasty trays back in my school days. This person is NOT English. His comments are not really valid. English people DO eat buttered corn. English kids DO eat jelly (jello). He is misleading you with his comments. Garden peas are commonly served as they are affordable year-round. Ribena is made from black currants.

[@Kari_B61ex]

I used to really enjoy school dinners - BUT my mum was one of the cooks, so it was like home cooked food for me. I especially loved the puddings/dessert, chocolate sponge and custard, jam roly-poly etc... delicious!

[@samjones6258]

The British deserts were always the best thing about school dinners!

[@orwellboy1958]

My mum was a school cook too, so I know exactly what you are saying but for me that was fifty years ago.

[@robbiemcneil34]

Golden syrup rollly poly and custard

[@thomasmumw8435]

I had free school meals (lunches) because my father was ill and unable to work, mum worked. It was always a cooked meal and served on one plate and the dessert ("afters") normally in a bowl all carried on a tray. We had cooks (dinner ladies) who made everything from scratch as if at home. Normally the sausages and mash would be together and the gravy(onion) poured over the top.

[@amandaathome9757]

8:20 I’ve worked in a British school & the catering staff make everything from scratch & their is usually about 3 options to choose from even the teachers enjoy the dinners & at Christmas you get a traditional Christmas dinner

[@dianef4227]

I hated the days when the fire alarm went off and it cut the gas to the kitchens because it messed up dinner. That was at schools I taught at.

[@NostalgiaVivec]

i think if they do or not depends on the size. i went to pretty big schools so there was no way the team of like 7 ladies could make food for THAT many people but i can 100% see it being possible in a school of a smaller size

[@juliecobbina2024]

As a school chef you are right . Wednesday roast dinner and fry day Friday. I can't ever remember making sausage and mash !!!

[@MostlyPennyCat]

What year was this? In the 90s it was burgers, pizza and chips. Every day, nothing else. It was nice, but NOT good for you

[@thepickledpixie9052]

I've worked in primary schools in Scotland for years, our meals are pretty good. Here's a sample of the menu, you can click to see weeks 2 and 3, it runs on rotation and completely changes each term. Fresh fruit & salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber & red onion) are available with every meal. Home made soup in winter. Water or plain milk to drink. www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/primary-menu

[@annejenkins7516]

Pronounced Rye-beena Ribena is a squash, a concentrated liquid that you dilute with water. Actually the British lunch looks amazing!

[@ianmontgomery7534]

yes it is blackcurrant which I don't think the USA has.

[@andrewheale4738]

Never used metal trays, always ceramic plates and used knife and fork together.

[@numptynoonoos]

Steve i have no idea where this guy comes from but he must be having a laugh. His accent doesnt sound english to me. You definately got some clickbait 😄

[@markrichardson3421]

According to the original his name is Raphael Gomes and he's just moved to the US. I don't think he's a UK native. Doesn't stop him comparing though I suppose.

[@stewedfishproductions7959]

Absolutely correct. This guy has put a video up for 'clicks and views' with NO life experience EVER (from either an English OR American school !!!). He isn't even British so WTH - Duh!!!

[@alastairmatheson3245]

At 70 years old I can definitely say that school meals in my day were on a par with what my Mum would produce. Everything was cooking from scratch by a dedicated team who were proud to feed us.

[@johnleonard9090]

One major difference, especially when I was at school in the dim distant past was the meals were on plates for the main and bowls for the dessert not those segmented trays.

[@NostalgiaVivec]

when i was in primary school (i left 11 years ago) we had everything on plastic separated trays

[@lox5962]

I loved my school meals except for liver and onions. All meals were cooked from scratch and we had great cooks. Always on plates, proper meals with veg and our deserts were generally great. We could go for seconds also if there was food left after everyone had been served. My favourite was chicken and mushroom pie and lemon meringue pie! All homemade, not packet or frozen.

[@chokolatelatte4764]

Rafael who you are watching here is not British, he is Portuguese but moved to London alone as a young adult. He wouldn't have experience of all British food.

[@cockneycharm3970]

I always put butter on sweetcorn, and other peeps that I know, and we're Brits. Edit: The custard in the British school dinner looks kind of anemic. Should look more yellow and not the colour of Mayo 😂 But it is a school meal, and not something that is made at home 😁

[@tonygreenfield7820]

Yes that's a bad looking custard. Didn't use enough custard powder or bought a cheap ready made one rather than a good quality product.

[@dib000]

@@tonygreenfield7820 it may be proper custard without custard powder and it's artificial colourings.

[@clementsphil]

Yes we do eat sweetcorn on it's own in the UK as well as on the cob - and with butter. I eat it a lot! It's served a lot with peas too as a side or mixed with chicken and mayo in a sandwich. We do have corn on pizzas sometimes and also cold in a salad - most commonly in restaurants which have a buffet salad.

[@Bexyboo88]

Yes, this ^

[@Jimmy_Jones]

Yeah. The guy in the video just appeared to hate the word fruit or vegetable. I imagine he just eats fast food based on what he said.

[@sylviamcgeary3587]

I love sweatcorn. In fact I have them growing in my garden. I live in Northampton England so it's possible. School dinners changed in the 90's becoming more processed food.

[@kaydavis2310]

YAY someone else who likes Pineapple on pizza lol! I'm from the UK and we cook sweet corn in butter too. Our Primary/infant school meals were okay, the school cooked on site in their own kitchen. My senior/comprehensive school used caterers and it was horrendous and too dry to eat. Our UK dinners NEVER looked like this!!!

[@enemde3025]

I'm sure that this guy is NOT British ! The British meals are nothing like what I would have in the 70s/80s at school. We would only put butter on corn on the cob. We never had ketchup in school meals. We would only get water to drink. Never had jelly ( jello) at school. We had proper plates, not those prison serving things ! "Sweet peas" are a flower ! We just call them peas.

[@annemariefleming]

I was schooled in a medium-size coastal/semi-rural area, and the school cooks sourced food locally, from fish to meat to veggies to the fruit in desserts, and the food was cooked fresh. My school was a good one. I loved the food. Ribena is pronounced Rye beena, concentrated blackcurrant juice which is diluted with either flat or fizzy water.

[@grahamgresty8383]

if possible check out Jamie Olivier's campaigne to improve school dinners. In the UK he made chicken nuggets showing the rew ingredients (which were the bits of chicken nobody wanted) and he also cooked chicken legs. The children chose the chicken legs and the manufacturer of the nuggets changed to using chicken breast only. He repeated this in the US and the children chose the nuggets much to Jamie's bewilderment!

[@vinnyganzano1930]

The American palate seems to be programmed to embrace garbage. Sorry America.

[@dragonwalker4644]

Jamie is STILL campaigning for school dinners and the need for Free School Meals for children of qualifying families ...

[@jeanroebuck4737]

I live in rawmarsh rotherham were Jamie started this after some parents took it into there own hands to feed the kids .

[@NostalgiaVivec]

Jamie is a bit too self righteous for my taste

[@bukiboo9756]

I only have positive memories of school dinners, but I guess it depends on the school. It's weird to see food separated out on a canteen tray when everything is served on plates like u would have at home in the UK. Talking to friends, it's usually the custard or the rice pudding that they remember being bad.

[@timglennon6814]

I’ve never seen a British school lunch served on a try like that. Our school meals in Junior School were served on proper plates.

[@karengray662]

I know in UK now there are many rules about school dinners, for example, not allowed to add salt & all puddings/desserts must contain fruit. Quite strict now on nutritional values. I had school dinners in the late 60’s early 70’s. Some meals were good, some were awful, like fish served with gravy 🤢 but the puddings were always delicious. One thing I think was very good, the oldest ones in primary school (10/11) would sit on a table with the youngest ones. We would pour drinks, help them cut food & use cutlery etc. not many bad memories

[@Shoomer1988]

That really isn't a typical school lunch. For a start it isn't served on a tray, and it's actually cooked - by an actual cook

[@MiriamWalcott]

You should find another comparison video for this. Don't know where this guy got his selections and if his friend made the US selection why didn't he say that he doesn't like oranges or ask if the jello was orange? Moving on. I loved school dinners. The food was cooked on site and there was always a good selection of meat, vegetables and pudding (dessert). I can't remember what we had to drink other than water. Trays were used to carry your plates to the table not yo eat off. I loved roast beef and Yorkshire pudding day, hated liver and onions day. BTW one of my fondest memories as a kid was my mum making jello and putting it in the snow on the windowsill to set.

[@Teyha8]

My grandchildren just love their primary school lunches and it’s severed on plates. The menus are very well worked out and they have so much praise for the cooks.

[@primalengland]

I’m in my late 60s and from England. I thought our school meals, especially as a younger kid, were great. Fresh veg and fruit. I’m still big on fresh veg and fruit. That’s why I still look 21. 😉

[@tinabento-filipe191]

The drink is Ribena, it's original flavour is Blackcurrant but other flavours are strawberry, blackcurrant & apple or peach. It is diluted with water. Normal meals in school are served on proper plates. They are often wholesome foods like Shepherd's Pie, curry, casseroles made from scratch. They do have things like burgers, chicken nuggets, fishfingers (fishsticks), pizza as well. The desserts can be apple pie, sponge puddings, tarts. We do have sweetcorn as a side in the UK. Usually butter is put on corn on the cob not sweetcorn from a can. This boy's accent tells me he is not British. The drinks served are usually determined whether it's Primary or Secondary school. Primary has water or milk. Secondary has more drinks choice.

[@tomd2917]

The Blackcurrant is not that common in the US as at one time it was banned - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackcurrant_production_in_the_United_States better explanation than I can give .

[@tomd2917]

Have to say I had not noted that before the binomial name of the Blackcurrant is Ribes nigrum, so must be where the name Ribena comes from ?

[@lindaross3051]

There are lots of rules in UK relating to nutrition and allergies. Most schools are nut free, so peanut butter is banned and some do not allow chocolate. Meals are usually prepared from scratch by the school cook and the kitchen staff.

[@NostalgiaVivec]

did stuff change in the like 10 years since i went to primary school? cos i remember seeing the frozen food truck pull up daily and it being obvious that most of the food atleast was sort of just heat up type things. it was like that 10 years before me too when my mother worked at my school

[@TheNZJester]

Ribena is a brand of blackcurrant-based drink that was also common here in New Zealand to give kids. The brand originally had a strong reputation as a healthy product for children, stemming from its distribution to children as a vitamin C supplement during World War II by the British government when oranges became hard to get due to the sinking of supply ships by German submarines. After the war it was marketed heavily to parents as the healthy drink for kids in a number of countries.

[@carolineskipper6976]

In the Uk we do eat corn as a side on its own.- although it's also usual to mix it with a green veg like peas, rather than completely on its own. Buttered corn is quite common here in the UK. Jelly (jello) is a common dessert here- particularly for kids. The UK lunch isn't normally served so comparmetalised. The mash and peas are more likely to be served in with the sausage and gravy rather than separate. Ribena (pronounced rye-beena) is a black currant squash. Squash in the UK is a fruit drink bought in concentrated form. To serve you dilute with about 6 parts water to one part squash. A few years ago there was a massive campaign spearheaded by the chef Jamie Oliver, to get rid of unhealthy school meals and return to more healthy options. There are now very strict nutritional rules governing school meal portions. A fruit 'crumble' is like a pie, but the pastry is not mixed with water and rolled into a sheet. Instead the flour butter and sugar are mixed and then sprinkled on top of the filling in a thick layer, which is then browned in the oven, and 'crumbles' as you eat it.

[@mariafletcher6603]

Hay Steve. a lot of people think that the apple pie was invented in USA. Nope.The humble Apple pie was invented in England in 1390. Sorry folks to burst your bubble. an old cockney gal

[@lottie2525]

Squash is a staple UK soft drink. It's a concentrate cordial that you dilute to taste with water. There are all sorts of flavours, orange, blackcurrant, apple, lemon, cherry, raspberry, etc. It's not just diluted fruit juice though, something different. Hard to explain. I know you don't have it in the US, which I was amazed by when I first found out.

[@vickytaylor9155]

Squash is similar to cool aid, but the powder comes in a bottle already mixed to a strong mixture. You then put a tiny amount in a glass and add more water to taste. It can be made from fruits like lemon, orange, blackcurrant, other berries like strawberry, raspberries etc.

[@BillCameronWC]

To clarify, what we in the UK call squash is NOT made from what in the US is a squash. Squash in the UK is a concentrated fruit drink with added sugar, made from various different fruits and sometimes other things such as barley, and is diluted with water to drink - orange, lemon are probably the two most common fruits used. Ribena is a concentrated sweetened blackcurrant cordial, again diluted with water to drink although it is now also sold pre-diluted ready to drink in individual serving cartons or in bottles. I understand blackcurrants are not at all common in the US (some kind of virus infection decades ago I think) but are a lovely berry fruit here in the UK. I went to school a long time ago in the mid-50s to early 70s, and in those days much of the food in schools I went to was made ‘from scratch’ by a team of school cooks and served on proper pottery/ceramic plates/bowls, not served on metal/plastic compartmented trays. You collected food from a counter and the portions were served on plates/bowls by the women (all the cooking staff were middle aged women in my experience) who had actually prepared the food that morning ready for lunch, and mostly was the kind of home-cooked food most of us had at home in those days, generally of a decent quality, but quite plain. I went to several different schools in different parts of the country (my father’s job meant we moved every 4-6 years) and all except the first primary school I went to in the mid-late 1950s provided quite nice, wholesome food I think - the first primary in the mid-50s was definitely not so good as they used powdered potato to make mashed potato and some of the other ingredients were not very palatable either, but I think this was partly because WWII post-war rationing had only ended about 4-5 years earlier and sone items were probably still in relatively short supply. Apart from that I quite enjoyed school lunches.

[@hayleysyril943]

I remember school lunches in the 70s/80s. We had boiled potatoes, boiled cabbage, minced beef and gravy. Sometimes it would be liver and bacon pie or boiled ham, mashed potatoes with carrots, peas or sweetcorn. Sausage and chips. Pudding was usually hot fruit crumble and custard, jelly or mousse/whip. Water to drink or sometimes plain milk.

[@annejenkins7516]

School dinners in 70's and 80's were much healthier, wholesome and tasty!

[@chrisellis3797]

Squash is just a fruit liquid concentrate we would dilute with water. I think you would maybe say squeezed, it does not contain the vegetable 'Squash'. It's deffo a lost in translation thing

[@makiwa]

I loved School Lunches, (in the UK) when I was back in school, albeit a long time ago now! But I really looked forward to them! It was just like a "Home-Cooked" Meal.

[@sheilahoward2444]

British sausages are very different to the US ones and are eaten differently. UK sausages have a filler in them called Rusk which gives them a different texture and taste. We eat them with mashed potatoes gravy and vegetables, with chips (french fries) end baked beans and/or fried eggs and/or mushy peas for dinner or lunch, and also for breakfast as part of The Full English. Btw, I loved my school dinners back in the 50s and 60s. PS Apple Crumble is the best.

[@numptynoonoos]

I havent seen a british school lunch like that. I was a dinner lady years ago. Drink is usually water.

[@Youssii]

A crumble is usually sweetened fresh fruit topped with butter rubbed into flour to a breadcrumb consistency with sugar and sometimes other things like a few oats or almond slices or some cinnamon. You put the fruit in the dish, cover it with the crumble and bake it.

[@gallowglass2630]

Jamie oliver a chef is largely responsible for the improvement in school lunches i believe.

[@lizzieburgess674]

School dinners were simply delicious, hearty, home-style fresh-cooked food before some date in the last quarter of the 20thC, when things deteriorated very badly indeed necessitating the later involvement of Jamie Oliver.

[@gallowglass2630]

@@lizzieburgess674 Saw a programme or two about it however in ireland meals aren't served at all in most schools ,its either packed lunches from home or from the Deli counter in a supermarket.When i was in secondary i went home for lunch back in the 80s.

[@zoeadams2635]

Jello (which we call jelly) is definitely a thing here! Especially as a desert at kids birthdays. Strawberry jelly made from one of the concentrated blocks that you break up into cubes, dissolve with boiling water, add cold water and set in the refrigerator, served with a scoop of soft serve vanilla ice cream 😋 Jelly is also a core ingredient of triffle (jelly with sponge fingers and fruit like pineapple set inside, topped with a layer of custard and squirty cream on top. And chocolate sprinkles! What you guys call jelly, we call jam.

[@numptynoonoos]

Ribena is either blackcurrent or stawberry, more flavours are coming out slowly. It used to be a drink you added water to. It was or maybe still is banned from some schools for its sugar content.

[@sharonsloan]

School dinner lady here. The menus includes chicken curry/tikka & rice, spaghetti Bolognese, roast day (meat, gravy, veg, roast potatoes and mash), chip (fries) day (chips and sausages/burger/fish fingers & beans/salad), bangers and mash, chicken nuggets, fish cakes, soups, pizza. There's a meat/fish, veg and rice/pasta/potatoes combination of some kind every day. Puddings can be things like muffins/cakes with custard, biscuits (cookies) and milkshake, ice cream and fruit, things like that. We use normal plates, although some schools use those plastic segmented plates. The drinks offered at primary school level is water or milk. Diluted juice would be for Christmas dinner.

[@mariafletcher6603]

We in Britain call it jelly not jello.

[@TheNZJester]

When I went to school here in New Zealand our School lunch you could buy was Chocolate or Strawberry flavored milk, pies, doughnuts, custard squares, fish and chips or hotdog on a stick with chips, or you could also buy sandwiches. But You where free to bring lunch from home. Doughnuts here are a fried dough ball with a slit cut in them and mock cream added with a tinny dollop of strawberry jam. A lot of Pies here are savory not sweet and small one person pies in a pastry crust. Pie flavors where mince (minced beef in a gravy), mince and cheese, steak, steak and cheese, bacon and egg (The egg yoke was not scrambled but left intact and peas, and sometimes corn was also mixed in with the bacon to the egg whites), or apple (Apple being one of the few sweet pies). Custard square was a slab of custard between bits of pastry. The custard was thick and solid like what you call jello and is called Jelly in UK English. Hotdog on a stick is similar to your corn-dog but the batter is made with flower and not cornflower. We called it a Tuck shop where we perched the food at school, Tuck being short for Tucker (Tucker is an Australian and New Zealand old-fashioned an informal word for food)

[@digidol52]

He has the weirdest accent, sort of mid-Atlantic/Scottish?

[@markrichardson3421]

Sounds European to me, maybe Spanish / German

[@markrichardson3421]

Just looked at the original video. His name is Raphael Gomes so I'm guessing a Spanish English accent.

[@johnp8131]

Someone says he's Portugese?

[@digidol52]

@@johnp8131 It's certainly an interesting voice, it seems different words have different accents, as if he grew up in several countries.

[@Cheapbeatlewhore]

steve, i need to say this , you are well above average intelligence for us to listen to, im glad that you are taking such an interest in the mundane things that most wouldnt think abt, and you ask the right questions and will take time and effort to reply etc , well done and keep up the good content!!

[@robcrossgrove7927]

I'm 58. I went to a variety of schools over the years. The food was always reasonable. Of course, there was the yucky stuff like frogspawn. Remember that? Tapioca. But we always ate our dinner off of proper plates. We were civilised. From about age 11 to 16, I went to boarding school, so we had 2 cooked meals a day, apart from the salad, which was pretty damn good. We used to have things like meat pie, (minced meat with a pastry topping), Roast chicken backs, Lamb or pork chops, fish in breadcrumbs, curried mince. At lunch time we had puddings like apple, (or rhubarb or gooseberry) crumble and custard, Jam roly-poly, treacle tart, proper rice pudding, and occasionally, we had Baked Alaska! And it was cooked to perfection.

[@isabellajones84]

In Scotland, a normal school meal is on a 4 weekly rotation and they have winter and summer menus. They have a choice of a sandwich, a hot meal as well as a vegetarian option and a dessert. In winter they would also get a choice of soup instead of a dessert. They would not be getting juice at all. They have a choice of water or milk. Hot meals would range from curry, fish and chips, pizza, pasta, roast dinner etc. Definitely not served on a dinner tray, but on a plate. Ribena is a blackcurrant diluting juice that you mix with water.

[@shroomie2678]

i went to school in Scotland and i had a lot of deserts and juice options and we never had soup, guess it just depends on where in Scotland you live

[@isabellajones84]

@@shroomie2678 my kids are currently in school. They are putting a lot more emphasis on healthy eating. Fruit and a salad bar is always open for snacking. We are in the Highlands 😊

[@saxon-mt5by]

@@isabellajones84 Developing a habit of snacking is hardly healthy eating, even if it is fruit and salad.

[@shroomie2678]

@@isabellajones84 honestly i'm glad there moving towards more healthy foods, i went to school in edinburgh

[@isabellajones84]

@@saxon-mt5by sure, snacking all day isn't healthy, so it's a good thing they only have a morning and afternoon snack. You also have to consider that some kids don't like any of the food on offer and the schools would still like to offer something healthy for the kids to eat. Offering fruit and salad is better than the alternative. The other thing to think about is that this school meal is the only healthy meal, if not the only meal some kids are getting that day. Perhaps my wording made you misunderstand? My apologies if it did.

[@Tractionengine_556]

He's not from the UK, he was born in Portugal, but has been living here for several years.

[@johnmcgeever485]

In the UK we have garden peas and petit pois commonly sold in supermarkets

[@NostalgiaVivec]

Im a younger english lad only 21. I went to school from 2004-2017 and started on school lunch in 2005. I remember in primary school (ages 4-11) it was always a main, potato, side and desert. they later introduced a salad bar with salad and cold pasta and cold rice. the mains were anything from a basic sandwich, chicken tender, fish fillet to things like a basic pie, tomato sauce and cheese topped sub bun slice, curry or flan. the potato stuff was always roast potatoes or mash with chips rarely being offered, sides were 2 options i think it was normally vege or other things like that, i only seem to remember mac and cheese, mixed peas and carrots or sweetcorn though for some reason, we were also offered gravy with every meal. The deserts where what i remember the most, an iced cake slice (with option of custard), angel delight, semolina, fruit, cheese and crackers and probably a couple others. for drinks on a friday we would get apple juice otherwise it was just water they did get rid of the apple juice option a few years into my school life though. my older siblings (who are in their 30s now) remember flavoured milk being a drink you could get and burgers and pizza slices offered as mains. i think when i started school the meals were 5 pounds a week then went up to 10 by the time i left. In secondary school (11 to 16) the options were more varied and id say of higher quality although i never really ate school lunch as i went to packed lunches for secondary (apart from year 10 which is 14-15 which ill get to in this) the school meals were pretty similar to primary school but there was hot paninis and a thing UK people my age will know, Pasta King, but like i say i ate packed lunch most of the time and when i didnt i just got a hot panini and a cookie. once you got to year 10 and 11 in my school though you were allowed to leave school grounds and head to the local shopping street to get lunch (it was mostly because the school had a lot of students so trimming the numbers was good for speed) the local shopping area had some fish and chips places, a dominos a pizza hut some other take away type places and to take advantage of the about 500 potential customers 5 days a week they would have INSANLY good deals on i remember the best was pizza hut has a one topping 10 inch pizza with wedges and a dip for 3 or 4 pounds. Like i mentioned for primary school you brought in a set amount of money each week for school meals in secondary you put money onto a school money account that was in your name (through your thumbprint) and would top it up from time to time but like i say i never really did that. there was also a similar thing for 6th form (16-18) but i didnt really eat lunch during 6th form and we were allowed to go outside and grab what we wanted from local shops and while my schools were in my town my 6th form was in the big city so you could go anywhere really but there was a pizza place and a Chinese place that was popular.

[@DruncanUK]

I don't know who this kid is but he seems to have had some pretty sheltered upbringing and knows very little about British food. Yes, we have butter on our sweetcorn. Delicious! (We also use it cold in salads to add a little sweetness and crunch). The British Government has strict standards for school meals, setting out the nutritional value for each meal, eg, there should be at least 3 different fruits and 3 different vegetables each week. It doesn't come down to the cheapest food possible like you say the US does.

[@geoffgr88]

He doesn't sound like he is from the UK he has an accent and keeps talking about Europe as if he lived there.

[@lynwratten9857]

I thought that too, he didn't know apple crumble or what fruit was in the Ribena and he said jello we call it jelly.

[@TheWebcrafter]

In this context, 'squash' is a term for fruit-flavoured drinks that need to be diluted with water before consumption. However, squash is usually associated with citrus fruits. i.e. orange squash, lemon squash.

[@waynefairclough3328]

ribenna is a brand name. its blackcurrent flavour. squash is a concentrate which you dilute with water

[@gordoncampbell3514]

The British drink "Squash" is very much like a cordial. It was invented because of rationing during WW2. Fruit was scarce. You didn't waste it by making fruit juice. So, to make it go further, you SQUASH the whole fruit, rind 'n' all then concentrate it and bottle. At home, add water to your preference. It caught on and is a very popular and cheap alternative to fruit juice.

[@claregale9011]

For some kids this is the only hot meal they will get if from lower income families , I was a dinner lady and they had a good variety , always veg , fruit every day . Always a pasta dish and pizza , but also descent hot dinners .

[@stevenbalekic5683]

The sausages over the nuggets hands down...nuggets are for fussy children. Ribena is blackcurrant syrup diluted with water...so it's a fruit drink and it's what many countries have as a flavour instead of grape.

[@jamesmccarthy2655]

I switched between periods of taking a packed-lunch to school and having ‘school dinners’ for lunch here in the U.K. I think overall I preferred the school lunch though, especially in secondary school; always had a hearty meal and a hot desert with custard, although there were other ‘fast food’ options a lot of my mates went for - chips, pizza, burgers, etc. I pretty much always went for the ‘main meal’ station and got a proper meal, normally a protein of some sort served with some form of potatoes and a couple of vegetable options. Deserts were always good, normally some kind of sponge or steamed pudding (not American’s version of pudding!) with custard 🤤 My school lunches were never served in a tray, always on proper tableware, and I’ve never heard of school lunches being served like that anywhere over here, even with kids in the family today. We had trays, but they were used to place your dinner plate and desert bowl on to carry to the table, not to eat slops straight off of!! Ribena is a brand name of a type of juice drink that is bought as a concentrate - these are commonly called ‘squashes’ or ‘cordials’. The drink is made by diluting a small amount of the squash with water; for Ribena, the instructions recommend that the concentrate is diluted 1 part (50ml) concentrate to 4 parts (200ml) water, but this is a guide and we generally dilute to taste. And while I love both, apple crumble is far superior to apple pie. If you ever get the chance to try, I’d recommend apple crumble served with hot custard 🤤🤤🤤🤤👌🏼

[@albrussell7184]

Does anyone remember the frog spawn dessert? I hated the texture. The salad was just lettuce leaves often still with a caterpillar or two so you had to check carefully. Mashed potatoes were really lumpy so now when I make my own, I mash them so fine there's no lumps even down to the molecular level. Gravy? you were lucky. Why am I thinking of this comment in a Yorkshire accent.

[@circus1701]

I had to smile when you asked "Don't you guys put butter on your sweet corn?" it would be better to have asked "Do ANY of you guys EVER eat sweetcorn?"

[@pinktweedy3325]

I love it both off the cob and on. What's not to like?

[@Willowsmum]

Ribena is blackcurrant concentrate which you dilute water to taste. At school (a VERY long time ago, when everyone stayed to lunch) we had meat (beef, lamb, pork, liver etc) always with gravy and potatoes either mashed or roasted and the obligatory greens! Either cabbage, sprouts, cauliflower, peas or green beans. You always knew what was coming (veg-wise) because they were put on first and boiled to death for hours! and stank the building out. That was gross, however it was a balanced meal, like it or not.pudding was blancmonge (milk jelly) or rice pudding, tapioca ( known as frog spawn) sometimes with a teaspoon of jam. Woe betide anyone who didn’t clear their plate, you sat there till you did! It sure as heck made you grateful for Mum’s home cooking.

[@sjbict]

Kids in UK schools also get food from other countries as well to cater for the ethnic mix of kids of the UK

[@dee2251]

We don’t generally eat a cooked meal for lunch. Adults would probably have a sandwich, but children in school get a cooked dinner because that ensures that children from poor families are eating a nutritious meal at least once a day. When I was little we were also given a small bottle of whole milk to drink to ensure we got our calcium.

[@12348367]

Brittish school lunches are far better than the one shown here. Food is also served on plates like a normal meal, not a tray.

[@eleanorjenkinson9595]

We put butter on corn on the cob but not on the separate kernels.

[@antonliverpool1]

Being 40 from England, I had this transition from homestyle cooked lunches and salads, with sponge deserts and custard…all this up until about 1994 and entering high school. Then, apart from a Sandwich bar, it became anything that could be heated up in an oven and wrapped: Burgers, Pies, Pasties, Samosas. Drinks went from water or orange juice until 1994 when there were Coca Cola vending machines, Milk, or flavored sparkling waters. Also had chocolate bar machines in the hallways. I understand that these drink / chocolate machines have since been removed for obvious reasons. I left school in 1999

[@stephenellis7668]

I wouldn’t have known what a pizza was when I was at school.

[@brendamiller5785]

In Canada, there was never food in the schools. There was no lunch room. They encouraged children to go home for lunch. I did until grade 10 when the high school was too far. Its well known children learn better when they've had a break away from the school building. A chance to have something warm on a cold day. And keeping milk cold was always an issue if you brought it from home. Some children had little thermos bottles. My little brothers played on the swings in our backyard, or in the snow, I would read, until it was time to walk back. We had an hour for lunch and it took about 10 minutes. Obviously you could always go back earlier if you wanted to play with your friends. For the children who had both parents working...maybe 50%, or days in the winter when it was really cold ...minus 12, or so..they brought lunch from home. I'd say most often it was pretty balanced. Nothing processed, or single serving, or fun sized, or whatever.. Sandwiches, homemade cookies, fruit....not many veg. The children ate at their desks. A few times a year - hot dog day!!. :) In my high school, the Foods Twelve classes were in charge of the cafeteria with their teachers....very healthy. Once in a while there would be French fries! The high schools didn't sell pop or chips or chocolate bars. (We hated that! lol) I'm not sure if elementary schools today provide lunch. I do know my great nephews take a lunch from home -in Calgary, Alberta

[@collywobbles1163]

Ribena is made from blackcurrants. A small berry, smaller than blue berries but a more concentrated taste. The major contributing farm that sells or did sell to GSK the manufacturer, was Sandringham Estates- the late Queens summer home

[@Dannie1ionAi]

couldnt believed how shocked u were when you found out about sweet corn on pizza😊its soooo good especially a BBQ chicken pizza with all the vegg. and butter!? on the sweet corn?! 😮 didnt know you could make a healthy ingredient such an unhealthy snack☺😁 this is so fun to watch thanyou xx

[@juliecobbina2024]

When I was a school cook , everything was cooked from scratch. Fried food only on Fridays.. very little sugar or salt ..we used olive oil to cook with too. Free range eggs etc. Salad bar several choices .

[@richardjohnson2026]

When I was at school, we had all our food on plates and in bowls. Never had it on a tray like that. We would have the bangers and mash together with the gravy and apple crumble (the pastry and breadcrumbs are broken up and sprinkled over top) the Ribena pronounced (R-eye bina) is a cordial that you dilute with water. It's made from berries but the main is Blackcurrant and apples. We had cooked food in our primary and junior 🏫 schools. Pies, roast chicken, hunters chicken etc. It was nice home cooked food. In secondary school it was fast food with burgers and nuggets!

[@vaudevillian7]

They still do, that’s an American thing that this guy replicated for both in this video

[@sarjfin]

I'm British and we had lovely school meals. They were cooked in the school kitchen. Nothing was processed.

[@stuartcollins82]

Raphael Gomes was born in Portugal, and later moved to London. Not sure how old he was when he did but he's likely not experienced school meals here, and probably sticks to a Portuguese/london diet (london is very multicultural and probably doesn't represent the diet of the rest of the UK). He now lives in the USA.

[@gilliannebrimfield-smith3778]

Hi it’s 11.59 pm here in the uk. My mum would always say school dinners were lovely…until she became a dinner lady lol. It was a home packed lunch after that. ( I was at school 50 years ago ) Keep up with the great content it’s great watching. Stay safe honey xxx

[@ianmontgomery7534]

your comments regarding sausages i found interesting. I eat them once week sometimes twice. When I was about 6 years old my mum used to serve mashed potato shaped like a ship with sausages cut to be the funnels and gravy as the water and friend ones floating on top. It was a bit of fun.

[@philiptodd6255]

We put butter on sweet corn in the U.K. and is also used as a side dish

[@jamespickersgill8416]

I don’t know who this irritating little boy is but it looks like he was never told “no” when he was even young.

[@elizabethfox8004]

The guy in this video appears to be an upper class private school boy. Ribena is a blackcurrant cordial (we call all drinks that are diluted with water, squash) the sausages looked like steammed sausage in gravy. Yes we eat corn as a side dish. When I went to school (1963 - 1974) we had great school lunches, all freshly made with fresh veg and good meat products. From Scotland.

[@EmilyCheetham]

The drink is Ribena. He pronounced it strangely due to his cold. It’s a blackcurrant quash. Squash is like a cordial. It’s a concentrated fruit juice you add water to to make a drink.

[@AnonEMoose-wj5ob]

Ribena is a blackcurrant cordial (aka squash), a fruit flavoured syrup that needs to be diluted with water to drink (can also be purchased already dilute in single serving cartons). Blackcurrant is a common flavour in the UK that is rare in the US. In the UK any sweet or soft drink that is black or dark purple in colour is usually blackcurrant as opposed to grape in the US.

[@jerrycapstick3654]

This video was probably the worst comparison that you could of watched, never had any of my school meals served on a tray like that, and I went to many schools. The young man doing the video is not British and is comparing meals that he knows very little about. My school meals were served on plates, with an option of hot or cold meals and drinks. Find another comparison for a true comparison.

[@vickytaylor9155]

I was at school in the 70’s and 80’s in the UK. We had things like minced beef pie with mashed potato and veggies, or curries with rice or even roast dinners. For dessert we would have some sort of crumble and custard, or jelly with ice cream. My favourite dessert was a chocolate sponge pudding with chocolate custard. To drink we would usually have water or a carton of fresh orange juice. Nowadays schools at least have salad bars too.

[@terranaxiomuk]

Those sausages with gravy will also have onion in as well. Loads of protein in there and then with the mash which will have more butter, more protein, and good carbs, then peas with iron in. I don't know what that drink is about. It should be regular milk. School dinners were always wholesome. That meal should be plated ajd served together, though. Definitely going to try sweetcorn with mash. Why haven't i tried that yet.

[@doobiedootwo3517]

Dont know the chicken dippers would contain more protein than the sausages. Peas are protein source too as well as the milk in the custard. What i would say is that the UK school meal will have a lot less sugar and a lot less fat than the USA meal.

[@jeanbailey4990]

In Australia we take our lunch to school. Sandwiches were all we took to school. By lunch time all the corners of the sandwiches rolled up at the corners as they dried out. Most sandwiches were filled with jam, vegemite or even just salt and pepper. However they are so much better today. Most students can take fruit, drinks and different fillings for sandwiches.

[@droof100]

Ribena is basically a syrup - concentrated blackcurrant juice. We call these concentrated juices 'squash', so we have orange squash, peach squash etc. Its an easy way to store a lot of juice in a bottle of concentrate, to which we simply add water. We do also get non-concentrated juices at supermarkets, just like in the US, if that's what you prefer. I'm not sure where this kid comes from, but he hasn't got a British accent. Sausages really are a European thing - I can't think of anywhere in Europe that doesn't have sausage as part of their diet. Yes, we eat sweetcorn with butter, but that's usually for corn still on the cobb. When its served as it was in this video, we don't butter the sweetcorn. What is 'sweet peas' in the US, we call 'garden peas', or sometimes by their French title 'petit pois'. Apple crumble is delicious, just a stewed apple with a crumbled, sweet, very short pastry mix, crumbled on top rather than moulded into a pie crust, so you're spot-on there.

[@bud1876]

I didnt mind our Scottish school dinners at all. When I was around 7 though I was in school in Plymouth , England ( dad was stationed there in the army ) and once I was served up mashed turnip... which I detest... so I didnt eat it. A teacher came up and told me to finish it... I refused numerous times... to the point where he started to lose his temper... which shook me up a bit. When I got home... my dad asked what's wrong.. so I told him. He says... ok... I'll be down at school for your lunch tomorrow. He came in... asked which teacher it was... called him over and offered him to eat the haggis that he brought in. Teacher refused.... then my dad whispered something in his ear.... teacher looked shocked 🤣. Was never given any grief after that 👍 Sorry.. went off topic.... I liked the UK dinner... not sure on the USA one. I like chicken... but usually those type of chicken nuggets are what we call .. rubber chicken... processed 👍

[@paulapapaconstantinou5998]

Important to note the young man doing the eating trial is living in the UK but not from the UK.