Themed dinner ideas?

[Turnedouttoes]

On Saturday DP and I got dressed up, had an M&S dine in deal, made cocktails, listened to music and had the best night we’ve had during lockdown. Zero bloody TV watching!

We enjoyed it so much we’ve decided to make an effort every Saturday and perhaps do a different theme each weekend. This Saturday is going to be Chinese night with Chinese food and lychee cocktails. I also thought a Mexican night could be fun.

Has anyone done anything similar or have any interesting ideas? Also ideas for cheap ways to decorate the table or any extras would be great

Italian and Indian immediately spring to mind. We did Indian on Saturday, with cobra to drink and asked Alexa to play us Indian music. We had a great time and are also going to do it again. Have to say we also did a Xmas jigsaw puzzle though!

Thai
Steak night
Pie night
"old school dinners" (but nice!)
Classics e.g. prawn cocktail and chicken kiev
Roast dinner
Veggie / vegan night
Burger night

Hawaiian theme? Flower garlands, swimwear and plenty of pineapple

We've been doing this all through lockdown. Starting to run out of ideas now but still lots of fun. Possible themes:

Loads of countries:
Thai
Indian
Italian
French
Japanese
Mexican
Malaysian
American
Spanish
Turkish
Lebanese
Moroccan
Jamaican

You can also do things like time periods (eg 70s menu) , recreating menu from a favourite chef/restaurant. Theme it around special days/festivals eg. Burns night.

We take it in turns to cook but could also do takeaway or ready meals if that's not your thing.

Big chacurterie & cheese grazing board
Indoor picnic (or outdoors if the weather is ok)

Lebenese and you could try some belly dancing out!

Greek, Moussaka, greek salad, baklava is easy to do or make it more complex with egg and lemon soup, grilled fish with herbs and strawberries drizzled with Greek aniseed liqueur.
Greek music of course and maybe try a dance or two!

Apres ski
Aussie BBQ (fun in winter)
80s night
Do a mystery box each that the other needs to cook from

I've done a couple of historical meals, my favourite was a selection from the First Class menu of the Titanic on the night it sank. Interesting to put it together, and quite a bit of work to create it, but lots of fun!

We did this during the first lockdown, we had Caribbean night (cocktails, pina colada cheesecake, jerk chicken)
Greek
Korean
BBQ

Oh we've been doing this for months and it's so fun!

We take turns to organise them. Last week we had a Spanish night, where DH magically appeared in a matador outfit, made tapas and paella and only answered to Miguel.

The one before was Swiss night, I made fondue, bought stein glasses and got a cheap leiderhosen type thing off eBay 😂

We do themed drinks and food and it usually ends up with us a bit pissed having a dance in the kitchen. It's great!

Fondue night - don't just do bread for dipping though. You can do a meat fondue and a cheese one.

Oh wow some brilliant ideas here! Wish I’d saved the old crockery set we’ve just got rid of for Greek plate smashing!

@Turnedouttoes our next one is "what you ate when you were 10". Going to attempt to make Findus crispy pancakes and wear a shell suit and a side ponytail 😂

Airline food night, all served on trays

We have done this the past 3 weeks!

Did Italian
Then Greek
Last Saturday went for Spanish

Themed the wine/beers with the country too I've been really enjoying it. I think this Saturday we are gonna go for Caribbean!

Nigellas book "Feast" is perfect for this.

Examples:

• Scandinavian
• Tunisian
• Venetian
• Georgian
• Indian
• Kosher

I've done quite a few of them (it's probably one of my favourite cookbooks.

Also covers suggestions for key events like Valentine's Day, Easter, New Years Eve etc etc