@ossobuco,
My mum made us eat fried liver for a while. She tried to pretend that tripe was chicken. It was served in white sauce. Couldn't fool me! We happily ate crumbed brains until, in my case, I found out what it was!
Kippered herrings or smoked fish were an occasional weekend treat.
Like many kids of my era, we had a quarter acre block. We had nectarines (huge and juicy), so so peaches and oranges, wonderful grapes, soft shell almonds and plums , lemons and a delightful loquat tree.
We kids were nomadic in summer and autumn, following fruiting neighbourhood trees like flocks of birds.
We half grew up in a neighbour's olive grove with century old trees. The olives were sold to faintly threatening Italian families who put tarps on the ground and whipped the trees like convicts. They were faintly threatening because some of the men would attempt to be sexually inappropriate with us little girls.
Looking back at the food from that time I can't believe how hopelessly insular our food culture was. It was kept so for longer than necessary by many of the dads....they wouldn't tolerate any of those nasty oils or unknown herbs and spices! Meanwhile, mysterious shops full of strange things were springing up as migrants sold each other the food they were used to.
The region I live in has a strong local food culture, celebrated in farmers markets, little shops, restaurants big and small and huge wineries and export businesses.
We grow wine grapes, olives, nuts and fruit. There are local cheeses, free range chickens, eggs, turkeys, pigs, pheasants, quail, goats etc. I love locally made oils, cheeses, wines, olives, breads and seafood...some smoked.