There was one of those amusing

posts by Lucy Coats about "comfort food" on my timeline this morning. She had just made a rather large fish pie. People were virtually queuing up to share in it.
I often wonder about what other people actually eat. I silently and, I hope, discreetly observe what is placed in other people's shopping trolleys. It can tell you a lot about the person, about their family, and more. As a would-be author I am interested in such things.
I know that eating habits vary from one area of the city to the other too. 
When Middle Cat first married she and her husband lived in an area which had Greek, Italian and Asian groceries - the small sort, still run as family affairs. Nearly forty years later most of them have gone but she used them. It wasn't just convenience. It was the way  they ate. Middle Cat was taught to cook by her mother-in-law - an excellent cook, Greek Cypriot style. 
My paternal grandmother taught me to cook. It was what would probably be called "good plain cooking". She was brought up on a farm. Nothing was wasted. There was nothing fancy about it. What we have eaten has changed over the years. My grandmother never used broccoli. I am certain she would have done if it had been there. It simply wasn't available. There are other things too - yoghurt for instance. I've added other things to the menu - some of them courtesy of Middle Cat's mother-in-law. 
We eat a lot of salad in summer. We eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. Fortunately the Senior Cat likes those things and, if I buy seasonal produce, we can afford them without thinking too hard about it. I don't buy things like out of season cherries imported at great expense from the other side of the world. (I don't even buy the local sort at $25.99 a kilo...yesterday's price in the supermarket.) 
I look at trolleys piled with white sliced bread - and it isn't always cheap - and meat and packets of pasta and sugary cereal.  I wonder how many children are being fed in the house of trolley pusher. 
I buy wholegrain bread - or, more usually, make our own. No, it isn't  a lot of work. I just put the ingredients in the bread machine and leave it be.
I think we eat well - fish, chicken, cheese and eggs in preference to red meat. Plenty of fruit and vegetables.
There is still half the fruit cake given to us at Christmas. There is ice-cream in the freezer...
Oh yes, we have our little food vices too.