Page 7 | Offended by friend’s comments about party food

LinsMum22 · 2025-04-28T19:45:21+00:00

We hosted my friend, her husband and three kids yesterday afternoon. Our sons are in the same football team and we said we’d put some food on at ours after and watch the Liverpool match who they both support. My friend agreed to party style food being the best option as everyone could pick at it as and when. Amongst other things, there was - Indian selection, tempura prawns, sausage rolls, mini pizza’s, mini sausages, chips, breaded chicken. So a good mix all from Iceland where we’ve had positive comments on the food before. I could tell my friends’ youngest looked unimpressed when they tried one of the items, and pulled a face to my friend. She made no attempt to get them to try another item and basically said ‘I know’. I noticed five minutes later she had barely ate anything herself either. 15/20 minutes later, the youngest moaned again and this time my friend said ‘don’t worry, we will stop at McDonald’s on the way back as I’m hungry too.’ I text her after they left to say sorry if they didn’t enjoy the food. She replied to say they didn’t realise it would be that sort of food and that they’d have got something else before coming round if they realised!! AIBU to find this really snobby and ungrateful? The fact she then took the kids to get a McDonald’s makes no sense!!

madaboutpurple · 29/04/2025 16:46

Your food sounded fine to me. Your friend was rude I reckon. To me party food covers snacks which is what you provided. If I knew you and you invited me I would be happy. I like party food now and then I must admit. I never go to McDonald's myself apart from using their toilets as they are usually nice and clean.

Calliopespa · 29/04/2025 16:46

BankHolidayBonanza · 29/04/2025 16:35

I actually find it depressing that anyone would want to "shine as a hostess". Some people really need a life - it's not something you ever hear a man say, is it?

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They wouldn’t phrase it that way but plenty of men like to flex with their cooking.

BankHolidayBonanza · 29/04/2025 16:35

WinWhenTheyreSinging · 29/04/2025 16:18

This really is the most Mumsnet thread ever, and 'certainly not what I'd use to host with as I'd want to shine as a hostess' (in relation to a couple of families with kids watching a football match) is, by some measure, the wankiest comment ever in a wide field.
😂

I actually find it depressing that anyone would want to "shine as a hostess". Some people really need a life - it's not something you ever hear a man say, is it?

WinWhenTheyreSinging · 29/04/2025 16:18

This really is the most Mumsnet thread ever, and 'certainly not what I'd use to host with as I'd want to shine as a hostess' (in relation to a couple of families with kids watching a football match) is, by some measure, the wankiest comment ever in a wide field.
😂

LillyPJ · 29/04/2025 16:14

InWalksBarberalla · 29/04/2025 13:11

I'm curious about what all the 'fresh food' people on here eat when they actually go to a game? Around here the general expectations is that the food served when gathering to watch a game on TV is along the lines of what you would eat at the game - it adds to the experience. Having the host off in the kitchen making food from scratch would be super uncomfortable.

If it's what you'd eat at a football game, surely it's got to be pies?

LillyPJ · 29/04/2025 16:12

CosyLemur · 29/04/2025 15:09

Tbh I wouldn't have liked any of that either. Party food is salad bits, sandwiches, crisps, cocktail sausages, scotch eggs etc. Not Indian food

It is in India. Oh - and anywhere else in the world that's slightly open-minded about food.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/04/2025 16:06

Sorry, got carried away there!

GinAndJuice99 · 29/04/2025 16:02

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/04/2025 15:11

Too exotic! There were mini pizzas, breaded chicken (which I take to be nuggets or goujons or similar), cocktail sausages, chips and mini pizzas. How is any of that exotic? As for the samosas, onion bhajis etc, you do know that the number one favourite dish in the UK for a long time now has been chicken tikka masala?

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Jeez, don't shoot the messenger. I didn't say I would find it too exotic!

RareMaker · 29/04/2025 15:59

I think this says more about her than you

HellDorado · 29/04/2025 15:49

CosyLemur · 29/04/2025 15:21

Just because I've seen them doesn't mean I like them! I wouldn't have eaten any of the food mentioned and would have eaten after.
It doesn't mean the food was bad our that by not eating I was being rude. It just means that different people have different tastes.

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Whether you like them or not is irrelevant - you said they weren’t party food. They clearly are.

TheHerboriste · 29/04/2025 15:46

They were very rude but to me, party food would be a cheeseboard, bread, crudite & dip, maybe popcorn, maybe sausages. I like the sound of a baked cheese!

OrangeQualityStreetAreTheBest · 29/04/2025 15:45

I find Iceland party food (actually most Iceland food) pretty grim, having lived around the corner from Iceland once and been fooled by nice looking pictures far too many times. I don't think I ever found anything good.

But...I never would be rude enough to comment if someone else served it, I'd even eat it. Not sure my kids would, but I wouldn't be happy with them if they made rude comments about it either.

Calliopespa · 29/04/2025 15:42

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/04/2025 15:11

Too exotic! There were mini pizzas, breaded chicken (which I take to be nuggets or goujons or similar), cocktail sausages, chips and mini pizzas. How is any of that exotic? As for the samosas, onion bhajis etc, you do know that the number one favourite dish in the UK for a long time now has been chicken tikka masala?

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I think people might have meant prawns etc. And the breaded goujons might have lacked the total “ l never actually was a chicken“ feel of the McDonald’s ones.

AncientAndModern1 · 29/04/2025 15:39

Baked Camembert! God this is all too funny.

Calliopespa · 29/04/2025 15:38

Everlore · 29/04/2025 13:26

I'm intrigued to know how some of the discerning gourmets on this thread are able to identify the provenance of a vegetable samosa or tempura prawn merely by looking at it. If you really are able to differentiate between M&S and Iceland samosas at a glance, no tasting involved, then that's a real super power!

The guest saw the packaging.

But I actually can tell frozen and defrosted- though not which supermarket it came from!

AncientAndModern1 · 29/04/2025 15:38

Lol at ‘Parma ham and melon’ to feed kids on front of the footy! Only on Mumsnet! 😂

DisagreeingALot · 29/04/2025 15:37

LinsMum22 · 29/04/2025 08:55

Well you’ll be pleased to know I saw my friend on the school run! And she actually said sorry that her youngest didn’t eat anything (didn’t mention her mcd’s comment). She said she thinks this was because it was frozen food rather than ‘cooked from fresh’ which she thought it would be (she doesn’t mean me cooking from scratch, just the same type of food but not frozen).

I asked whether she had any recommendations for future and plenty of you guessed it….apparently M&S is where she’d go! And that they do 4 for 3 which ‘she’d usually get a few lots of’. We had that stuff at Christmas and it wasn’t cheap and to be honest not really worth the money IMO, plus we’d have needed probably 10+ items to have catered for everyone on Sunday!

Frantically typed this sat in my car before work, I look forward to reading back on lunch 😂

We get those 4 for 3 Party food packs from M&S at Christmas. Apart from one or two, they over-promise and under-deliver. They are just not that great.

Itsallaboutme2021 · 29/04/2025 15:34

I’m a fussy eater and probably wouldn’t have eaten much of that myself, but that doesn’t mean to say I’d be rude infront of you all. I guess clarity on both parts would have been the wise idea here. She’s also teaching her kids to be rude which is the worst thing about this OP.

CannotWaitForSummervibes · 29/04/2025 15:29

I wouldn’t like this type of food either, but I would do my best not to be rude about it. I’m more a carrot sticks person. The fact they went to Mac Donald’s afterwards baffles me though, that’s also frozen food. So her comment about frozen food makes zero sense. Sne’s just being snobby about her frozen food.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/04/2025 15:29

Trovindia · 29/04/2025 12:25

We do plenty for the environment in other ways, so I'll consider it offset. But do feel free to share your locally sourced, plant based diet and UK-based holiday plans, plus your sustainable transport options and no-buy lifestyle details as I'm sure we would all love to learn from you.

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I feel a good many on this thread would not be keen in the slightest to learn from me, and that's fine, we're all different. However, since you ask, we don't have a car and are unlikely to take holidays that involve flying again. You can get a long way by train if you don't mind taking your time over it. We don't buy all that much beyond food because at our advanced stage of life we have most of what we need already. I quite freely admit that we don't live on turnips and cabbages, but I do try to buy British where it's feasible.

Motherland2624 · 29/04/2025 15:29

LinsMum22 · 29/04/2025 08:55

Well you’ll be pleased to know I saw my friend on the school run! And she actually said sorry that her youngest didn’t eat anything (didn’t mention her mcd’s comment). She said she thinks this was because it was frozen food rather than ‘cooked from fresh’ which she thought it would be (she doesn’t mean me cooking from scratch, just the same type of food but not frozen).

I asked whether she had any recommendations for future and plenty of you guessed it….apparently M&S is where she’d go! And that they do 4 for 3 which ‘she’d usually get a few lots of’. We had that stuff at Christmas and it wasn’t cheap and to be honest not really worth the money IMO, plus we’d have needed probably 10+ items to have catered for everyone on Sunday!

Frantically typed this sat in my car before work, I look forward to reading back on lunch 😂

Isn’t macdonalds frozen food ?

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/04/2025 15:22

Runner up goes to the poster who'd have been outside with the BBQ while everybody else was inside glued to the match. Just think how popular she'd have been calling everybody outside to get their food just at a crucial moment.

CosyLemur · 29/04/2025 15:21

HellDorado · 29/04/2025 15:14

Seriously?! You’ve really never seen samosas at a party?!

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Just because I've seen them doesn't mean I like them! I wouldn't have eaten any of the food mentioned and would have eaten after.
It doesn't mean the food was bad our that by not eating I was being rude. It just means that different people have different tastes.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/04/2025 15:20

AngieBlack · 28/04/2025 22:57

What I think of as party food is Parma ham and melon, a few salads, cheese board with chutnies and grapes, hams, hummus, tapenade, coleslaw, baguette, breadsticks, olives…a baked camebert…

I’m sorry 😔 I wouldn’t eat Iceland party food, but I would just fake that I wasn’t hungry and my kids certainly know not to be impolite.

but so very odd that she would go to McDobald’s afterwards… so I think she is a rude cow and don’t invite her back.

I think this post possibly wins top prize in a thread full of people quite blatantly showing off and being openly snobby. Good grief.

CarpetKnees · 29/04/2025 15:19

SchoolDilemma17 · 29/04/2025 06:35

Putting frozen stuff in the oven is not a thoughtful genuine effort! 😂
i feel sad for you if you think that’s good hosting.

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She invited her son's friend to watch the match and invited the family over too.

She didn't invite anyone to a dinner party.

She was quite probably also watching the match, but was kind enough to bung some food in the oven as the match was going on over a mealtime.
I call inviting people to watch a pretty special match that isn't on terrestrial TV to be pretty kind. The fact she fed them as well, made it more generous.