What food shall I serve at 80s party

[MagentaRocks]

Planning a post lockdown 80s party at mine. Probably over 50 guests. Going to be a BBQ and buffet. Trying to think of typical food from the 1980s. So far I have
Vol au vents
Cocktail sausages on sticks
Sausage rolls
Cheese and pineapple hedgehog
Sandwiches (cheese, ham etc)
Carrot sticks and dips
Monster munch
Space raiders
Fruit salads and black jacks
Dib daps
Wham bars
Cupcakes with 80s theme (rainbow cases, 80s toppers)

There will be burgers etc for the BBQ part. I have so many decorations - it will look amazing and a very long 80s playlist.

Can you think of any other typical 80s buffet food I can serve?

As long as there's a hedgehog I'll be happy OP.

My mum always used to do a hedgehog, mini-sausages on sticks, a big bowl of green salad that no one ate, and trays of baked potatoes with bowls of grated cheese, butter and Branson pickle. She would never buy ready grated cheese and grating mounds and mounds of cheddar is seared onto my memory.

French bread pizzas was for me and my mates - I'll never forget the agony of taking a huge bite which then got stuck inbetween the top teeth while the boiling hot cheese seared the roof of your mouth.

Drinks - cinzano, vodka and orange, pils lager and Baileys for the kids (not even joking).

Pate was popular, coronation chicken, I made hundreds of profiteroles with chocolate sauce. A hot chicken casserole with rice, whole salmon, garlic bread, cheeseboard, crackers, gala pie, mountain of coleslaw, curry to go with the rice. A whole gammon, cooked and sliced. Lots of condiments, mustards, relishes, garlic mayo. Decanted into dishes,

Prawn vol au vonts
Brie
Lots of baguettes
Sausage rolls
Egg mayonnaise
Scotch eggs
Plain salad 🥗

@Clevs Tesco do a chocolate gateau incredibly similar

My mom used to make spinach puffs and broiled bay scallops served on toast back in the 80s for parties. I remember broccoli cheese soup being popular.

Martha Stewart’s Entertaining was published in 1983 and hugely influential. www.amazon.co.uk/Martha-Stewarts-Entertaining-Stewart/dp/0283990376/ref=mp_s_a_1_19?dchild=1&keywords=martha+stewart+book&hvdev=m&hvadid=80676697743440&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1617831043&sr=8-19

Make sure you get your sandwich fillings right.

Sandwich spread.
Fish paste.
Peanut butter.

With some Orangina & liebfraumilch.

Angel delight
Trifle
If you're in Scotland they've started selling Creamola Foam again.

Please tell me you will be serving drinks made in the soda stream!

And in every restaurant the only vegetarian choice was veg lasagne.

It's the main reason I abandoned vegetarianism!

Choc ices
Jelly and ice cream or trifle
Mini sausage rolls
Quiche
Potted beef sandwiches
Jam tarts
Chip stix
Yoyo biscuits
Wagon wheels

Yes to the soda stream!

Our 80s BBQs always used to have spare ribs marinated overnight in sticky sauce and bags of marshmallows for people to skewer and toast. Did result in a few burnt mouths though (the kids never burnt themselves it was the alcohol fuelled adults)

People keep saying cheese and pineapple hedgehog and vol au vents, but that's all wrong for an 80's themed party. Only people stuck in the 60's or 70's did that in the 80's. Yes you did see them at buffets, but a buffet your gran put together.

I remember doing a Mexican themed party in the 80's. Guacamole and chilli is a must have.

Quiche is more of the period than sausage rolls and vol au vents.

The weird crisps are a must. I ate more than my fair share of Findus crispy panacakes, but might not work for a buffet.

Sounds like fun op.

Will you hire a crap magician to entertain the kids too?

Even if some of the things suggested were originally 60,s and 70,s buffet stuff,clearly some of us remember them from the 80,s so they were featured at 80,s buffets often.

Thanks everyone. Loads of ideas to use.

@x2boys

Even if some of the things suggested were originally 60,s and 70,s buffet stuff,clearly some of us remember them from the 80,s so they were featured at 80,s buffets often.

I agree! They definitely did! People are forgetting that the ‘80s are a whole decade! Buffet food/party food in the early ‘80s was as people have described. It changed throughout the decade and by 1990 it was rare to see a pineapple hedgehog at a buffet but early on they were still a thing!

Bowls of peanuts and roasted peanuts

Skips
Quavers

Party rings
Wagon wheels

Tinned fruit cocktail
Angel delight
Jelly in a rabbit shape
Squirty cream

Prawn cocktail
Spam fritters
Quiche
Pilchards
Pickled onions/beetroot/cabbage
Potato salad
Celery cucumbers salad onions and carrots on a fancy dip plate

People keep saying cheese and pineapple hedgehog and vol au vents, but that's all wrong for an 80's themed party. Only people stuck in the 60's or 70's did that in the 80's. Yes you did see them at buffets, but a buffet your gran put together.

Vol au vants were a staple at buffets I went to in the 80's. Prepared by different people, none of them my gran.

Vol au vants were a staple at buffets I went to in the 80's. Prepared by different people, none of them my gran

Same here!
(Still serve them myself 40 years later...) 😂

I wasn't alive in the 70s and definitely remember mushroom vol au vents and cheese and pineapple on sticks etc. We didn't have guacamole and hummus until well into the 90s, maybe it was a city thing which
took time to filter into the more rural areas. I used people who were older or who had more money would remember more sophisticated stuff rather than children's party food? Just surmising really. My parents definitely had blue nun and liebfraumilch and there was always Cinzano as well.

I didn't use people - probably meant guess?!

@LadyMonicaBaddingham we had the rabbit jelly mould which my mum did raspberry jelly and/or strawberry blancmange. I used to love that combo. Also pear halves with vermicelli eyes and liquorice tails on lime jelly grass.x

@SpringtimeSummertime

Vol au vants were a staple at buffets I went to in the 80's. Prepared by different people, none of them my gran

Same here!
(Still serve them myself 40 years later...) 😂

Me too, I love them