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!

Dinner parties in the 90s that I did or went to, were aspiring to fancy 'cordon bleu' food but also more Ready Steady Cook inspired.
Chicken in some kind of sauce, with French name I've forgotten. Veg steamed in separate dish, (sold separately in truly posh restaurants! !!! ) All a bit pretentious 😂
Fancy potato in sauce dishes. Stacked things.

Mussels and frogs legs too. Prawn cocktail bit passe. Also sundried tomatoes and feta. Black forest gateau.

Also profiteroles. And calamari.

Vast amounts of alcohol and cocktails and everyone had all kinds of colourful spirits in their home (in drinks cabinet if older) or just cupboard if in 20s as regular normality.
People drank more then but not as much as the generation above ☺

Battenburg cake

Agree most of these are 70s.

Alcopops were a big thing and bottled lager drank straight from bottle. Which lager bottle had lime wedge put in top?

Some of these suggestions seem to be really 70s to me! In fact 70s might be more fun....

For the 90s I'd say sundried tomatoes and mozzarella, grilled courgettes and red peppers and pesto. Ciabatta, parma ham and oil and balsamic.

Also a moussaka or roast vegetable lasagne. Rocket salad with parmesan.

Goats cheese and sundrie d tomato tart.
Baked potatoes.
Tuna steak, swordfish, monkfish.
Chicken satay.
Doritos.
Pepsi Max.
Alcopops (Smirnoff Mule, Hooch).

Wine was a big thing - we certainly weren't drinking Lambrusco in the 90s! As a PP said, oaky Chardonnay was the wine of choice (for some reason ). Sainsbury and Tesco really pioneered the development of wine, making it accessible (and affordable) for people.

Food was actually pretty sophisticated - and much more so than people are posting here. The 80s was the era of nouvelle cuisine, and although pilloried, it took food to another level, and it was much more original and imaginative, and interesting as a result.

Alexi Sayal did a scratch in the 90s about how every dinner party host, when praised for the food said, ‘ Can’t tell a lie, it’s Maaaks n spensa, maaaks n spensa...’ He got louder and more manic with every repetition. But he was right - it was this big thing, ready meals which weren’t findus or birds eye boil in the bag. Ready meals with salmon in cream sauce with puff pastry on top. Posh food. It seemed amazing at the time.

Chargrilled vegetables cooked on a griddle pan, with all the little stripes on them. That's very 90s. Taste really great too.

And filled potato skins...

Chicken Tonight, Birdseye Potato Waffles, Sunny Delight, Microchips

I recall a lot of "low fat diet" foods (allegedly) like Ski yoghurts, cottage cheese etc.

I agree with those posters who've said most of the suggestions seem 70s and 80s.

I recall the rise of Tom Cobleigh 2 for £5 deals that always saw a Kiev, half a roast chicken, a prawn curry etc.

I think you'll struggle to make it purely 90s to be honest as a lot of quintessential 90s food has been discontinued. :( some like the Frankenstein foods such as chocolate sprouts or baked bean pizzas rightly so!

Mange tout peas and baby sweetcorn were also a new, sophisticated thing in the early 90s, as far as I can remember.

You're thinking of Sol and Corona, @Daisy7654 - both still widely available!

Pasta and pesto as a genuinely sophisticated meal 😆

Beaujolais Nouveau was a huge marketing success in the 90s. This year’s batch is probably out now so a good birthday gift.

I drank some white Novello last week. Awful stuff, worse than lemonade.

Turkey twizzlers
Gino ginelli ice cream
Sunny delight
Cheese strings

Egg mayonnaise - half hard boiled egg with mayo and paprika on top

There were wine shops everywhere. Oddbins was one of them. It was really important to impress your guests and the shop salesperson with your wine knowledge otherwise you'd be looked down upon as unclassy. Ha!

Antipasti
Linguine carbonara
Rocket salad
Grilled tuna steak with baby vegetables
Goats cheese and red onion tart
Death by chocolate
Chardonnay
Shiraz

Yes Ski yogurts and vitalite margarine.

Pop Tarts!!

Bacardi breezer, watermelon especially

Thunderbird and Doritos

Chicago town pizza

We wouldn’t have touched prawn cocktails, Black Forest gateau or egg mayonnaise in the 90s - it wasn’t retro then, just old fashioned.

Loads of avocado and kiwi on everything. Eton Mess was popular. There was a time when beef on the bone was banned because of mad cow disease - everyone used to get it on the sly so we had rib of beef all the time.

Ski, vitalite, Gino ginelli were all available before the 1990s.