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!

Fusion food.

Thai fish cakes
Grilled goat cheese salad
Dough balls & garlic butter

Pasta - anything but spaghetti bolognese - pesto, seafood linguine etc

Tiramisu
Chocolate fudge cake
1 pint tubs of Haagen Daz or Ben & Jerrys (Cherry Garcia yum)

Bombay Spice Mix and pistachios for nibbles.

Garlic bread for a starter.

Chicken breasts stuffed with garlic and herb Philadelphia and wrapped in Parma ham. Mangetout and sautéed potatoes for your main.

Tiramisu or sticky toffee pudding with custard or Haagen Dazs for pudding.

Washed down with Chardonnay or Becks.

Tubby custard.

Hooch, MD2020, Smirnoff Russian.

Food wise I was eating curried goat, curry patties and walls Vienetta.

Ski yoghurt was 70s.

Loads of 70s, 80s things here. Maybe if you were small in the 90s your parents were still cooking those same things.

I was in uni and then moved to London, remember what we ate very clearly as cooking for ourselves and eating out was so new. As young adults there wasn't much different to now. Yes to sundried tomatoes!

Loads of pasta, lasagne, mexican became popular - more than now maybe - dips of all kinds, but really pretty familiar to now, don't know if you'd be able to theme a decade around them.

French bread pizza, micro chips, chicken Kiev, profiteroles...

Yes! Thai fucking fish cakes! We had them everywhere.

Balti was definitely a ‘thing’ in the 90s.

Moscow mule.

I only remember 2 dinner parties we had then. DH had a pretentious af Antony Worrall Thompson cookbook that was just incredibly difficult starters. There were poached pears stuffed with Roquefort mousse and something with calves liver. But he got the portions wrong and there was enough for the whole street. We finished off with flaming Strega. Woke up next morning to a collection of cracked and scorched glasses.
And Mexican. Old El Paso had just brought out taco kits and you could get picked chillis. Beer with lime wedges. Corona? Really awful margaritas and shits with salt and lime.

Smirnoff ice!!
Or bacardi breezer

luckygreeneyes gino, gino gelettai, sorry spelt wrong but completely forgot about it, can hear the song in my head.

Montyman yes with paprika. This may not have been 'cool' in the 90s but it was definitely being served. Maybe it was geographical

I just turned 30. Foods I remember being around in my childhood are Pepperoni, twiglets, choc ice, vienetta, an ice cream that had a bubble gum at the bottom, Sarah Lee definitely!!! And also little jelly shots that were all the rage then got banned because children were choking on them.....Bacardi breeze also featured highly lol

WearyWithTeens weird isn’t it?

Weirder still that those of us who were 16 in 1990 were born 29 years after the end of World War 2...and 1990 was also 29 years ago...

OhWhatFuckery yes, I remember those salt and lime shits...usually the morning after a night on the tequila

There seemed to be a massive change in the late 80s. I remember moving home from a few years in the US with my parents in the mid 80s and being shocked by the food - very few takeaways, just the odd pizza, chinese & indian, and judging by relatives here eating out was more of a rare treat but by the time I was at uni in the early 90s most things I'd missed were freely available (bagels!) and there were takeaways everywhere and eating out was common. By the time I moved to London in 94, gastro pubs were becoming a thing.

Freda

Just remembered - stuffed chicken breasts, but not Kievs - Parma ham and cheese tucked under the skin and pinned with a cocktail stick

Boulangere or gratin potatoes
Fancy types of broccoli and pointy green cauliflower

Monkfish
Salmon steaks

If you're doing a buffet, you can't go wrong with those mini kiev things

I have 90s children they were eating billy bear sandwiches and turkey dinosaurs would your niece be up for those

Filo pastry
Raspberry coulis

Bacardi Breezers

1990's - the decade of the alcopops!

Calves liver and mash. On every gastropub menu.

The 90 s was my decade. I was crazy about avocados and felt slightly sophisticated because they were very fashionable and edgy! Roast vegetables first appeared then, they were on all the menus whenever I ate out.

The other thing we ate a lot of at the time was disco biscuits