Strata Sphere

The recipe for Bullock’s cheese strata (Culinary SOS, May 11) brought back memories of food served in the cafeteria of Gates Street Elementary School in Lincoln Heights (northeast L.A.) during the early 1930s. It was a standard on the menu.

I served it to my family for many years as cheese souffle; however, in the first hardback of “Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book,” it is listed as cheese fondue.

Another regular entree on the school cafeteria menu was carrot-walnut loaf. And perhaps because many Italian families lived in Lincoln Heights, polenta (cornmeal mush with marinara sauce) was another old faithful. However, in my family, cornmeal mush with raisins was served as a hot cereal, or it was fried and topped with butter and maple syrup.

My only recollection of meat on the menu was the granules of hamburger in the brown gravy served over mashed potatoes.

A hot lunch, with milk, which was the only complete daily meal for many of us, cost 15 cents. The Great Depression was at its depth.

Ice cream in paper cups, available as a dessert, not a snack, cost 5 cents. And penny candy was sold only during the second half of the lunch hour.

The cafeteria staff was flexible, for another student requested [and got] caramel dumplings, providing the recipe. I had not heard of caramel dumplings since, neither have I tasted or heard of them since.

--CLEO ROGERS

Burbank