Forgotten canteen food items from the 90s

Take a trip down memory lane as we look at the forgotten school canteen items from the 1990s.

Holly Gerrard

5 min read

April 18, 2024 - 4:22PM

potato smiles

You knew it was going to be a good day when Mum opened up her wallet in the morning and said “get something from the canteen today.”

You’d happily accept a couple of gold coins, shove them into your pockets and impatiently wait for lunch time to roll around (that is, if you hadn’t already caved and spent everything at morning tea, which happened pretty regularly if we’re being honest).

Take a trip down memory lane with the Taste Team as we reminisce about a time when you could both burn your tongue and chip your tooth on a lasagne that had a boiling hot exterior and frozen middle.

Australia’s most nostalgic canteen snacks

Growing up in the 90s in Australia meant you had an appreciation for the small things – Tamagotchis, Kinder Surprises, butterfly clips… the list goes on. So, it’s no wonder that some of the first things that pop into our heads when we think about the 90s are the snacks that you could buy for 10 cents a pop!

Sunnyboys

This pyramid-shaped ice block is practically synonymous with summer on the asphalt of Australian primary school playgrounds. If we had the funds, there would be a Sunnyboy in hand every day. Unfortunately, they were removed from the shelves in 2016, which just about broke our hearts. That was, until we found out that a Sunnyboy dupe arrived recently so we can (almost) taste the good old days.

sunnyboys-canteen-90s

Aussie Eucalyptus drops

As soon as these spherical, honey and eucalyptus drops were opened on the playground, dozens of your classmates’ hands would be shoved into your face demanding you share a sweet droplet.

Mamee Monster Noodle Snack

There’s something so addicting about a square of fried noodles that are lathered in chicken salt flavouring.

We love to draw inspiration from the past whenever we’re creating modern snacks, and what better way to do so than with the versatile noodles that are so entangled with our childhood.

If you were lining up in the canteen line and asking the canteen lady “what can I get for 10 cents?”, you may even have kids of your own now! Try these pie maker 2-minute noodle vegie frittatas recipe for a way to add a few vegies into your kids noodle snacks. You can steal some for yourself as well! 2-minute noodles also get a creamy chicken makeover with this almost instant creamy chicken and corn noodles recipe!

Zooper Doopers

If you didn’t have two little cuts in the corner of your mouth after eating a Zooper Dooper, you haven’t had the full icy-pole experience. Did anyone else drag a friend to the canteen to get two half ones?

Since the 90s, Zooper Doopers have expanded their product range, leaping out of the freezer and into the fridge with the launch of fairy floss and cola spider flavoured milks.

zooper-dooper-90s-canteen

Flavoured milk

The flavoured milk debate is a hot topic in our office, with Content and Social Producer Georgia referring to banana milk as “yummy”. I had to inform her our friendship couldn’t continue. Luckily, our other Content and Social Producer Isabella has better taste buds, stating: “I love a choccy milk!”

I couldn’t bring up flavoured milk without talking about Milo, which seems to be a unifying force across all Australians, even if some of us like banana milk. Just like 2-minute noodles, we are always experimenting with the iconic malt powder and turning our favourite milky childhood drink into adults only treats! Our favourite thing to make with Milo now is this four-ingredient Milo and Baileys ice-cream, which went viral on our TikTok page!

Potato Smiles

Potato Smiles were hot chips shaped like smiley faces. Looking back, they were honestly super creepy, especially when I think about how my friends loved to squeeze their tomato sauce packets onto the faces and turn morning tea into an edible crime scene.

McCain has brought them back (but mini) in the form of Emotibites. We’re yet to see them served at the school canteen, though!

Who could forget about those 90s canteen lunches?

Definitely not us. Especially not when I’m pretty sure I still have the burn scars on my tongue from all of the microwaved dishes. Let’s start with a couple of those:

Pizza pockets

There are a couple of pizza-inspired dishes on this list, but the pizza pocket is definitely the most iconic. For those who don’t know (*gasp*), a pizza pocket is a dough stuffed with meat and cheese – YUM! You had to be quick to the canteen line, though, as these piping hot pockets would sell out before you could say ‘Tamagotchi’.

These days, we make our pizza pockets in all the trendiest appliances – we have air fryer, jaffle maker AND pie maker versions.

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Lasagne

I’m not sure what is more memorable about a 90s canteen lasagne – the boiling bechamel sauce or the piping hot aluminium container it would come in. It seems like I spent a significant chunk of primary school with either a burned tongue or burned fingers. This classic dish was always frozen in the middle though. I had a friend who was once brave enough to ask our canteen lady to reheat her lasagne, but was quickly shut down. Canteen ladies do NOT take requests.

Even stranger than this burning hot and freezing cold food miracle is the lasagne pie that was served at the Queensland school our Recipes Editor and Food Writer Sonya attended. We already think it’s odd that Queensland calls canteens ‘tuckshops’, but we may have to draw the line at lasagne pie.

Beef pies and sausage rolls

It wouldn’t be a 90s canteen food list if it didn’t include meat pies and sausage rolls. The 90s were also the days when you didn’t have to pay an extra cost for a squeeze packet of tomato or barbecue sauce. I was a tomato sauce person all the way, but Isabella appreciates the “touch of sweetness from the bbq.”

If you miss this classic food, why not give making an Aussie meat pie or sausage rolls a go?

Twista Pasta Bolognese

If you were tired of dual-temperature lasagne, you got the spaghetti bolognese. This lunchtime classic was always boiling, but hey, at least it wasn’t frozen in the middle.

Sausage roll… in a roll?

One Facebook commenter said that her favourite canteen food was a sausage roll inside a bread roll and covered in sauce. They don’t do comfort canteen food like that anymore!

It seems we were once again craving sausage rolls in a roll in 2023, though. But our most popular version of it has gone all French and now it’s in a croissant!

Pizza Singles

Ahhhhh McCain, you’ve done it again! Well, you definitely did in the 90s with the Pizza Singles we all adored. If you didn’t want to burn yourself on a Pizza Rounda, this is what you got. Nowadays, we like to relive our pizza-filled pastas by making our own mini pizzas.

Missing the 90s now? Yeah, us too. If you’ve got some more space to reminisce, check out some of our favourite snacks we used to reach for after school after spending all our money at the canteen.

We’ve also got some great snacks that you AND the kids of today will adore. Say goodbye to confusing temperatures and hello to tasty treats.