I'm reading 'an illustrated history of Jewish London" to find out what the Whitechapel Road was like when my Great-great Grandfather lived there with his son, a tobacconist, and one of his daughters, who married a Tailor from Russia whose nephew became a magician, "Rameses". It seems to have been rather too exciting- Marie Lloyd playing at the Music Hall two doors down the road, the Ripper murdering someone in the street behind the shop- my Great-great grandfather returned to re-join the rest of his family in Watford and his son ended up in a lunatic asylum. The sister stayed there, happily married to her Jewish tailor, who, my Great Grandmother told me, " was a very nice man, but suffered dreadfully from his stomach dear."

So, my question is, when you are feeling down, as the Jewish tailor with the bad stomach must have done and the tobacconist certainly did, what food can lift your mood and produce instant cheeriness, even just by thinking about it?

Dessicated coconut.aaaargh! The rest of my family love it. Bounty bars, coconut pyramids- my idea of food hell. Gooseberries- somehow, to me, they taste of pigs. Goat cheese- tastes of aged male goat and I cannot understand why it is so popular, especially warm as it gets even goatier...anything with tentacles ( this is squeamishness rather than the taste)....blacmange,tapioca and cold school custard with skin on it, snails ( what's the point? There are less personal ways to get rid of them from your garden), omlettes.

What food do you remember most fondly from your childhood?