Noodles were in a separate can and so were sprouts. I bought some sprouts a few years ago while going thru a period of making Pho at home. My little neighborhood grocery didn’t have them regularly in the produce section and I remembered La Choy and finally found them. Thought about getting the whole package for nostalgia, but didn’t. I loved the noodles, too. Probably still would. I can remember snacking on them out of the can in college.
I could add Chef Boyardee. We didn’t have an Italian restaurant either. My first experience of ravioli came out of a can. And my junior hi buddy got a job at a new grocery store for the summer and discovered the pizza kits. We started getting together at his house every-other weekend when his parents were out of town and made pizza. And those were great pizzas, too. I searched for the kits a few years ago and finally found them but didn’t pull the trigger on them, either.
We, or at least I, first experienced Tex-Mex when the Houston based chain Monterrey House came to town. That was '55-56-57, not sure which. Thursday nights became Tex-Mex nights, all take-out, never dine-in – we almost never went to restaurants except on vacation. My mother, white but not Midwestern, loved the night off from having to cook everything from scratch and she never cooked Tex-Mex until years later.