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!

Probably mad cow disease

Bernard matthew Chicken drummers or billy bear ham with beans/spaghetti hoops, oven chips shaped like the alphabet. Followed by either vienetta or Heinz pudding in a tin. Maybe rainbow drops and push pops on the table too?!

Sunny d juice, if they still make it? Or lilt?

Oh dear we're having friends for dinner tomorrow. Am making Salmon en croute with loads of parsley - think I'd better dig out the old Blur and Pulp CDs to complete the theme. Don't think I'm brave enough to stretch to alcopops.

Very late 90s food for me was Nigella Lawson stuff - 'How to Eat' - and a ton of red wine....

The high tea thing was definitely 1991-1999ish , it stopped by about 2000 - but could be unique to where I’m from maybe and probably dates back a bit earlier !!

High tea goes back a lot further than the nineties! There was a whole thread about it not long ago, people get it mixed up with afternoon tea, but it's different.

Delia Smith’s Sticky Toffee Pudding

Well I was a 90s kid and we definitely are avocado and pesto (not together) but we were SO POSH we really weren't

We also had melon balls in sherry but I suspect that was my mum's 70s influences

Chicken tonight or Homepride Pasta bake
Supanoodles
Vienetta ice cream
Any sort of posher crisp or pretzel with humus

Anything with sundried tomatoes

Or bruschetta

Deep fried camembert with cranberry sauce

Tiramisu

Nigella & Jamie ruled the late 90s foodwise, the Delia revival was slightly earlier.

Crispy pancakes were my first thought!

Oh my god Chicken Tonight. With that stupid advert. I'd forgotten that.

Soft serve ice cream when we went out was a massive treat, with all the sugary sauces but I suspect that was more my age that the era?

I think TexMex was pretty big.

See I would never have Vienetta down as 90s - we had a 1984 themed dinner in the 90's and the desserts were arctic roll and vienetta. Maybe it depends what age you were (my kids still love a Vienetta)

Chupa chips are still readily available. Although I never see the strawberry and cream one...

Neapolitan ice cream
Cheese and pineapple on sticks
Iced buns
Freddo frogs
All those weird types of crisps

I’ve just remembered an early 90s dinner party we had - pate to start, some kind of chicken thing from Delia with baked potatoes and death by chocolate. But what I remember more than anything is the huge quantites of Sicilian Red wine we washed it down with followed by flaming Sambucas.

I remember that we had hired a rotivator to churn up the garden for the next morning and I had the worst hangover of my life.

I agree TexMex seemed to be everywhere at the 90s and is notably absent in comparison now. Pretty hard to get a decent plate of nachos now (am so hungry)

Yes! Flaming sambuca’s with a coffee bean in them?

Cheese and pineapple on sticks

That was definitely around in the 70s...

Still a great thing to have though, I love that.

I don't think I ever had anything TexMex until about 15 years ago?!

Vienetta is early 80s! Maybe even 70s

Yes, what was the coffee bean for?

I think many posters must have spent the 90s in Bulgaria. I just about got away with taking vienetta to a friend's house in 2005 as an ironic retro nod ie 20 years after its heyday. It certainly wouldn't have been acceptable anywhere in the 90s.

Agree with monkfish and swordfish, definitely. Also seared tuna steaks. Lots of food wrapped in food or put in food eg chicken breasts wrapped in bacon with a sauce. Sometimes stuffed with haggis in which case a whisky sauce. Stuffed peppers. Stuffed aubergines. Stuffed and rebaked baked potatoes. Asparagus wrapped in parma ham.

Also agree with the towers of baby vegetables.

Roasting things with olive oil, recently become cheap and widely available.

Guacamole! I remember having a conversation about what's in guacamole. Risotto. Lots of risotto and lots of discussion about long slow authentic cooking of risotto (turned out this was all nonsense ofc and you can bang it out in half an hour but I remember lots of talking about waiting until your last spoonful of stock had been completely absorbed before adding the next one.