Holding a 1990s dinner party - please give me some food suggestions!

[lorettalemon]

I'm holding a 1990s themed dinner party to celebrate my niece's 30th birthday as she grew up in the 90s.

Can anyone give me some suggestions of meals which used to be really popular at the time, or things you remember really enjoying if you were a child or teenager then?

I know pizza was popular, but that's so commonplace for people to eat anyway that I would like to go for something a bit more nostalgic!

Ideas for starters, mains, desert and nibbles would be much appreciated! Party decorations too if anyone can think of anything!

There aren't any vegetarians/vegans/dietary requirements to cater for, so all ideas welcome. Thank you ever so much!

Trio! Trio! I want a Trio and I want one now!!

Breaded mushrooms

Coq au van
Crusty bread
Green beans

Vienneta or peach melba

I worked in a restaurant for most of 90s

I think a lot of people are remembering childhood food. My kids love a viennetta, I also like giving them a retro 70s style birthday party so party rins, cheese & pineapple, turkey drumstick equivalents abound, my friend always make them potato smiley faces because my youngest think they are exotic but they are in now way contemporary food!

Was Pret around late 90s, I had a Saturday job on Bond street & used to get lunch there.

Pasta with smoked salmon, vodka (!), tomatoes, chilli and cream was V sophisticated.

TGI Fridays was a big deal (not the shit eatery it is now) in the 90's. They did a Cobb Salad or Chicken Wrap (with olives and feta) that my gang thought was "amazing".

We drank Archers and Lemonade, JD and Coke,?Budweiser or Moët (if someone's parents were paying the bill).

Delia’s summer pudding is one of my main dinner party memories from the 90s!

Turkey twizzlers
Mini pizzas
Crispy pancakes
Beef burgers with cheese inside them
Potato croquettes
Mini waffles

Tiramisu
Party rings
Jubbly ice lollies
Panda pops!

Pret was definitely around late 90s, I used to get a crayfish & rocket sandwich nearly every day.

Same as previous poster, broomzoom, it is age dependent and I’d add area too.

I was 11 in 1996 (north west) and there was no pesto or sun dried tomatoes.

I remember going to McDonald’s parties or having a treat happy meal.

Family meals were just the usual meat and veg, pies etc. Nothing fancy.

Things that stick out for me, which were a little special (or not!):
Baked Alaska
Minute or Canadian steak - the really thin stuff with onions on a panini.
Angel delight
Hooch
Orangina
Super noodles
Tangy toms crisps
Highland toffee
Vice versa chocolate
Jublee (Made from those bright cartoon juice drinks 🤢)

Seems great.

Tapenade feels very nineties.

Mmmm Archers and Lemonade !

Just remembered another chocolate bar. Club. Orange ones. Think you could get mint ones too, but I didn't like them. Toffos, Hubba budda and Golden Wonder crisps.

Starting to become suspicious I didn't eat very well in the 90s!!

I can't believe no one has mentioned Chicken Maryland! That is the ultimate 90's meal for me. I have no idea why someone decided to pair banana and chicken together but it worked, I used to love that!

Yy cooking with vodka. Also, talking of chillies, there were infused oils. Some of which featured chillies.

Pret was definitely around in the 90s but I think only in London. It certainly wasn't in my parents' town in Yorkshire. It is now.

Club bars were around in the 1970s. I have a pack of orange and a pack of mint in my cupboard right now, nothing very 90s about them although they could be bought and eaten in the 90s.

Love club choc bars & you can still get them.

I remember tab clear being very cool for a few months, it was rank

My best friend at college was really into Masterchef in the early nineties and we had lots of "fancy" dinner parties using recipes from the show. Things that seemed to crop up week after week on the show were:

monkfish
polenta
remoulade
celeriac
(and combined as) celeriac remoulade
fennel
roquefort
goat's cheese
balsamic vinegar
sun dried tomatoes
pesto

In the real world... Haagen Dazs and Baskin-Robbins were everywhere. You could only get freshly squeezed orange juice in a bottle at M&S in 1990, it became ubiquitous by the end of the decade. Rectangular salmon fillets (preferably in watercress sauce) became a staple rather than something fancy in the early nineties. There was a fad mid nineties for exotic meats - even Tesco was selling ostrich, buffalo and kangaroo. Duck also became widely available in supermarkets for the first time, as did fresh tuna. Ciabatta was the bread of the moment, followed by focaccia.

Mid range Cajun and Mexican restaurants and stonebaked pizza places opened up everywhere - sizzling DIY fajitas (on those hot plates), blackened chicken, swordfish and alligator. Thai food was also becoming mainstream. Deep fried Mars bars were the ironic dessert of the mid nineties.

As for drinks - alcopops, flaming sambuca, Sol with a lime, Chardonnay and Beaujolais Nouveau were the drinks of the decade.

We had avid, tapenade, pesto, smoked salmon etc etc in the early 90's and before, and I'm from the North East, but my Mum shopped in M&S a lot.
Less so when I left home in 96 as I was living on a student budget!

By the 90's we were eating the sort of stuff we eat today. Most the suggestions here are 70's stuff. I remember having pesto for the first time, filled pasta too. Aldi arrived in the 90's selling 3p baked beans

And yes to whoever said coulis and jus!

Ooh yes vodka pasta.
And jolly ranchers (urgh)

Might be remembering Club bars from the 80s more. Probably am. I'm too young to recall any 70s eating.

I'm going to stick with Supernoodles though.

Delia ruled the 90s with her sauces and precise instructions. Nigella’s How to Eat was really ushering in the ideas of the 21st century about simplicity of preparation and quality ingredients. I bought it in hardback when it came out and read it from cover to cover. It is basically a guide to being middle class and I found it absolutely enthralling.

Blue wkd
Reef
Basically, alcopops

Other nineties Londoners: did you used to go to that big takeaway salad shop? It was literally a salad bar but an entire shop full of salad bar. Salad noodles, all varieties, salad rice, all varieties, all the potato/veg/grain salads, everything. Fill your wee box up and take it back to work. Was near Coutts, as I recall. I loved that place.