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!

cape gooseberries served with every sweet dish.

All the chinese takeaways here do chicken maryland my parents have a chinese once in a bluemoon and my dad has a CM

Capers, lime juice, chilli and garlic and filo pastry all featured a lot!

A typical 90s dinner party would be:

Grilled goats cheese on a flat mushroom, sun dried tomatoes and balsamic reduction

Monkfish wrapped in Parma ham, green beans, new potatoes

Pana cotta

But I think the 'irony' would be completely missed on your guests, since that's not that disimilar to a dinner party of today!

For a nostalgia trip, you'd need to serve kids food of the 90s: microwavable pizza, micro chips, twizzlers, potato waffles, frozen super mousse etc.

@origamiwarrior Yes!!! I have in fact cooked this menu back in the day. Not much has changed really. Maybe more kimchi these days but classic stuff like fillet of beef is still cooked on master chef

Sunny delight, gallons of it
Supernoodles were trendy

SunnyD was huge, mixed with vodka for me!
I don't recall supernoodles being trendy though, I ate them, loved them, especially after a night out, but I wouldn't say trendy.

I gave loads of dinner parties in the 90s.

I always cooked from Delia with a bit of early nigella for variation.

Menu staples

Soup (mix of two artfully poured into bowl -sweet corn & tomato)
Crisps/ crudités & Dip
Or some antipasto which was very new.

Posh sausages and red wine casserole
Chicken in white wine
The really fiddly chicken lasagna
Normal lasagna

Apple Crumble
Sara Lee gateaux
Lime & Marscapone cheese cake (a Waitrose recipe)

I’d say the 1990s was when we stared making “artisan” and “rustic” versions of fairly ordinary dishes like shepherds pie and apple crumble.

Oh you have to include a box of after eight mint chocolate squares for after!!!!

Also would like to say this is a brilliant idea! I'm 30 next year and trying to decide how to celebrate.

After eights ? That was the thing when I was tiny in the sixties !

The Aztecs sun dried tomatoes... Does that mean they can’t be part of the 90s?

@SirVixofVixHall oh 😳 I literally remember them being pulled out at every occasion with coffee and tea when my parents had friends over for dinner when I was young.

Watercress and orange salad

Roasted stuffed peppers

Parma Ham and melon or Tricolore salad with balsamic vinegar or goats cheese and caramalised onion

Jamie Oliver recipe - sea bass stuffed with herbs on a bed of wild mushrooms

Bailey's Cheesecake or some kind of fruit salad including mango , kiwi fruit and black grapes

Accompanied with Chardonnay

Something from an early Nigella book! Preferably teeming with sundried tomatoes. Veggie option in the 90s was without fail veggie lasagne and chips so there's that.

1990s was Delia Smith era

She’d come on the telly cooking something and the next day the supermarket would run out of the ingredients she was cooking with

Aqua Libra for the drivers!

Get an old Delia Smith book- my mum always used Delia for her fancy dinner parties, Mary Berry too.
Smoked salmon pate was a favourite I remember in melba toast

I can remember going out for dinner mid 90s and being given this by friends

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/french/chicken-liver-pate-with-cognac-with-sweet-and-sour-red-onion-salad

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/casseroles-and-stews/chicken-paprika

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/french/caramelised-apple-flan

And yes to the supermarkets running out of the key ingredients she’d used on the Telly the night before- I remember trailing around trying to buy Marsala wine for my mum

Delia lived her Marsala wine 🤣

Gastropub was big in the 90s wasnt it. Chicken Kiev if made from scratch with good quality ingredients would be my choice.

I’d do a Ready, Steady, Cook themed party. Set a budget, get two guests to act as contestants (green peppers and red tomatoes) get them to buy a bag of ingredients within budget and drop them off at your house in the am. Then serve them two mains concocted from each bag and get the other guests to vote on which is best. Make sure you have plenty of fancy bread, wine and puddings to fill up on.

That Delia chocolate torte made with liquid glucose that meant all the chemists ran out.
Mediterranean roast vegetables.
Warm salads.
Cous cous
Feta
Sun dried tomatoes
Chorizo.
Banoffee pie.
Duck breast with mango salsa.
Pasta with pesto, sun dried tomatoes, feta, bacon and black olives.
Thai food.
Vegetable stacks.
Salmon or chicken wrapped in Parma ham.
Vodka penne
Flavored vodkas- cola cube, white table robe.
Cosmopolitans.

White toblerone!