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!

Yes to monkfish! That’s a good shout whoever said that!

Space raider crisps
Pick 'n' Mix ( the one's from Woolworth's were the best)
Calypso drinks

Swordfish was also very popular

I was a student in the 1990s and we mostly ate Fray Bentos pies and Pasta&Sauce packets, and £1 apple strudel.

Nachos and Fajitas for food
Steps and S Club 7 for music

Lol that avocados are a new trendy food. I diets tried avocado In the 80s. I remember my mum buying one and all of trying it. She used to out olive oil, vinegar and salt in the hole left by the stone and we would use a spoon to eat the avocado, covers in olive oil and vinegar dressing. Not iike avocado has enough fat already!!. Delicious though, we loved it. I still.like avocado.

If your niece is turning 30 She didn’t grow up in the 90,s the millennium years were her generation.

I do remember serving pizza at a dinner party in the 90s! Also prawn cocktail. And recall being given sorbet in lemon skins too.

But I'm in the north so may have been behind the times.

As a pp said - broccoli and stilton soup. I do remember getting that at a 90s dinner party ( dh hates blue cheese but was too polite to say).

In fact broccoli in general seemed to be a thing. I don't remember it before the 90s.

Just serve loads of chardonnay- the Oakier the better.

So much of the stuff people are posting here is from the 70s!

Even avocados we were starting to eat in the late 70s/early 80s

I think the 90s was when we started to see premium versions of foods coming in, so Haagen Dazs ice-cream is a good example of that.

Filo pastry was another thing that I think is a 90s food.

Thai food (or at least restaurants) really started to take off around this time.

Iced gems.

Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple)
Microchips
Batchelors Pasta n sauce (in a packet, I think you just added milk or water)

Lots of these suggestions never made it anywhere near a dinner party!

Lasagne, garlic bread, doritos and lambrusco

Profiteroles

The 90s were 5 minutes ago. How can that be retro?

Whatever you serve remember to add a lovely dubbly drizzle of raspberry vinegar and a chocolate dipped physalis to garnish.

Actually, I spent most of the 1990s taking exams, so ProPlus featured high in my diet.

Also chips and sweet and sour sauce.

A friend of mine told me that her aunt put avocado in a fruit salad ( which was made of oranges , apples and grapes , soaked in lemonade in a bowl )
Because an avocado is a pear isn’t it ?

Well an avocado is a fruit...

Kiev's. Vienetta. Heaven.

There's probably a difference between what was "cutting edge" / on the telly and what people were actually eating on a regular basis though.

My parents ran a pub in the early 90s. On the menu would be breaded garlic mushrooms , pate and toast, prawn cocktail. Chicken Kiev, chicken in a basket, scampi and chips, gammon and pineapple, mixed grill. All with chips/jacket, peas AND salad. Dessert would be hot chocolate fudge cake, cheesecake, ice cream selection. Drinks, probably alcopops if later 90s otherwise Malibu, taboo, cinzano.

I stand by my avocado comment. If you were trying to be thin and marvellous you would not eat avocado in the 1990s. I know this because I was on all the bloody diets!

Lambrusco to drink and hooch. Sainsbos sell the former, everywhere the latter.