Remembering the First 'Cold-Storage Banquet'

I remember from visiting my grandparents in the 1960s there was one cold store in the town. I believe that my grandfather (a doctor) kept some things there, like insulin. I never heard of anyone having a fridge of their own, which is the kind of thing that would have been told to a kid.

I only remember going there for ice cream which was made in a bicycle inner tube. They cut the tube into segments; the ice cream tasted of rubber of course.

In the 70s there was a huge wave of modernization in SE Asia and suddenly people had scooters and cars, girls had miniskirts, and A/C appeared in saree shops at least. I don’t remember if my GPs ever bought a fridge or not, though.

Interestingly enough, cold storage (in a more limited way) was already used centuries before the invention of the electrical refrigerator. For example, in Germany beer was only brewed in winter to avoid spoiling it during the warmer months, and stored in underground beer cellars which were kept cool using ice "harvested" during the winter. To help keep the cellars cool, chestnut trees were planted over them. And from there it was just a small step to also serving the cool beer on benches under the shady chestnut trees (only the beer was provided, food was BYO) - and thus the traditional German beer garden was born.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_garden#History

The article talks about the loss of seasonality in the taste of our foods, which is something I can directly relate to even though I am not that old.

When I was a kid (in the 90s), we got our milk from a local dairy. I distinctly remember the taste of milk changing around May, when the cows started to go outside and switched from dry feed to grass. That does not happen anymore... I wonder what they changed since then.

When's the Controlled Atmosphere Banquet?

(I guess nobody noticed when New York apples were still sold 'fresh' in February)

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/26/668256349/th...