What did officers eat for lunch?
 

Some of my earliest proper memories are of my dad attaching collars to his RAF shirts after towelling condensation from the bedroom windows before heading off to work, leaving an aroma of grilled breakfast kippers in his wake. This may not actually have been all that regular, but to a 6 year-old in the early ’70s, it’s the apparent daily truth.

So if officers ate kippers for breakfast in 1970, what did they do for lunch? I don’t suppose they nipped out for a Pret, and I don’t recall a Gregg’s in Coningsby or even Tattershall during my teens, so what did they do for lunch in those days. And if it’s not impertinent, what do they do nowadays?

Same as they did for dinner.

Every now and then they tried food. And I don't think these days many people have tried impertinent for lunch...

Lunch in the 70s? Flying later, steak and chips aircrew feeder. Not flying later: pie and pint officer’s mess. Really!

Salute!

Well, for lunch, try "Joe's sloppy" as our Thai servers said in 60's and 70's. Or Cheeseburgers except when cheese was scarce, then it was " hambuger hab, cheebuger no hab".

Dinner at Korat Club was awesome, and one night each week we had "Mongolian BBQ" where a local would get what looked like manhole covers up to a thousand degrees and we could go around and provide the cook our collection of various meats and veggies for a quick. sizzling dinner.

Sorry if I regress to Yank eateries of a long time ago, and never really ate at a RAF mess.

Gums sends...

Usually lunch was something from the travelling Roach Coach (or Chew and Spew), such as a ham'n'salad sandwich or a rat coffin (meat pie). Very occasionally go to the mess for a Blunties' Lunch, 3-course meal, no booze though. The Blunties could drink if they wanted, as all they did was sit on their blunt backsides and think up ways to make a pilot's life more difficult.

I remember once being detached to RAE Farnborough about 1981/82. At dinner one weekday evening the mess steward asked me if I was staying for the weekend (I was) and if so, what would I like for my Sunday lunch. I aasked him what was on the menu and he replied that it was anything they had in the kitchen. So I went for the traditional Roast beef, yorkshire pudding etc. I seem to recall the chef also made an excellent rhubarb crumble with custard for dessert.

Happy days.

Timelord, spot on, but occasionally to the H&J to be well looked after by Lou.

I'd hate to think standards were slipping.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....576099010d.jpg

Absolutely, if you weren't flying the junior officers snooker club used to convene at 1100 in the Mess prior to a couple of pints and a pie at lunchtime then back to the crewroom for a game of Uckers! Career officers would make sure that the Flt Cdr had seen them in the Sqn with a file under their arm before the 1100 meeting ;-)

The cardboard box that held the in-flight meal. It was more nutritious than the contents.

Officers took luncheon, not lunch, while other ranks had dinner. After luncheon, a competent NCO took my lab for a walk while I played polo......

My 1st tour as a shift-working ATCO at Strubby, lunch in the Mess at Manby was not an option. The shift pattern in the GCA truck meant I had to go to work before lunch started, or return after lunch had finished. However, 2 meals a day is quite sufficient, and to this day I don't eat lunch. :cool:

Teufelsburg, Berlin - early 1980s. 26 SU shared top of a rubble mountain with the US military . Catering supplied by US Army - not renowned for Michelin-starred cuisine. One lunchtime, stood in queue at servery, wondering which delicacy should grace OB's lips. One item was colloquially known as "Sh*t on a Shingle", which was largely minced beef (?) on a hamburger bun. When my turn came, I asked whether I could have the beef, but not the bun. Locally employed Turkish man behind the counter says no. Menu item is beef on bun, so cannot have one without the other. Me - "But I don't want the bun, it will be wasted". Him - "No bun, no beef". Helpful american next in queue - "I'll have his bun". Him - "No way. Menu says beef on bun. You can't have 2 buns". End of conversation. Beef taken with bun, passed to american once we were out of sight of Him. Allied cooperation in action.
Once a year the RAF and Army chefs would take over the US catering facility on one day for lunch and produce the best of British cooking for both UK and US. Most popular day of the year - US military who were off-shift or even on local leave would flood the place to ear "proper".

One of my earliest memories was of RAF Thorney Island when we had our ULAS Summer Camp there in 1970. Normally we would have a packed lunch in the crewroom, but one one occasion a couple of us went to the Officers' Mess for a proper luncheon...

It was magnificent! A white coated chef carved ham off the bone with a sideboard groaning with all kinds of salad, new potatoes etc. Those who chose from the menu were served by mess stewards; the whole experience was very upmarket, but was probably at the end of traditional mess dining as Military Salary kicked in.

Roll forward 20 odd years and my lunch as a ULAS QFI was often 2 x small pork pies and a couple of tomatoes 'on the hoof' between trips.

Ah Beagle, I seem to remember @ St Athan as a UWAS cadet that lunch was a waitress affair and orders taken by them most meticulously.
I can remember going to Locking once and eating in the airmens mess, where the food was rather good.
I was on a trip out of Lossie on a detachment, the aircrew were supplied with 2 platters of lunchtime sandwiches, which were so delicious and apparently not the norm,
that the Nav wrote to the catering bod there to thank them.
Whatever lunch was @ St Athan it must have been good, as several of us snoozed in the ante room afterwards and occasionally missed transport back to the squadron.

Odihams airmans mess in the 70's was pretty poor, but somehow chucking them in a field kitchen in the back of beyond, the food was superb. I could never figure that.

One thing post RAF I couldn't face steak for years as in the RAF you could have it for breakfast, luncheon and dinner at Brize due to the 24 hour messing.. It was also mixed ranks messing, as night shifts would all eat in the airmans mess.

Even in the early 1970s at our wooden hutted Officers' Mess at White Waltham, food orders were taken by waitresses and served at the table. Haraka will doubtless recall one of these 'ladies' who, it is alleged, was wont to 'entertain' construction workers who were extending the M4 nearby...

The standard of food wasn't particularly good though. 'Beefbrugers' (sic) featured often but how much was actually beef was open to doubt. There was also the mysterious 'flying centipede' - chicken which had lots of gristly legs and wings, but no breast...

Probably a relation of the Ethiopian Chicken legs that used to frequent Odiham butty boxes in the 70's

Steak was one of the things we cadets would pilfer ( I am ashamed to say) from the OM kitchen for a late night nibble.
We used to chuck into the microwave,which were fairly new then, 5 mins and it was done.
Didn't taste that good, but did the job.
We once got caught by a RM Major and a couple of Naval Lieutenants, who were on a driving course ( yes driving. St Athan did a lot of service driving instruction).
We were let off providing we supplied them each with a steak, which we did.
It all ended soon after when a W/C Engineering was told there was no steak, again, for lunch.
The OM mess kitchen door was then locked permanently, so we broke in through the roof.
Only did that once, then they put a huge chain and padlock on the fridge!.