If you were an adult in the 80's

[Gr33ngr33ngr4ss]

What was your typical dinner party / restaurant menu?

Im thinking
Prawn cocktail / melon
Coq au vin with duchesse potatoes & peas
Pavlova?
With a glass of orange juice on the table before the starter.

Avocado vinaigrette for starter

or

Avocado, mozzarella and tomato sliced and served on a plate

Olives ?

Garlic bread, tons of it

Ah yes... Me and DH were newly weds and we had Indian take away once a week.

Goat cheese salad
boeuf bourgignon/pheasant casserole
apple tart/chocolate mousse

Smoked haddock tartlets. That sounds a winner. Don't suppose you still know how you made them... I'm on BBCGF looking at the Gordon recipe

Cheese souffle starter

or

Sweet souffle for pudding

Whipped cream with a bit of icing sugar mixed in to make cream Chantilly

Meals my mum made in the 80s were
Bolognaise
Mousakka
Chilli con carne

Beef wellington
chicken in white wine sauce and rice
and Beef olives! Which was thin slices of beef with a roll of stuffing inside. Placed in a dish in a row and covered in gravy to bake!

My mum had the Dairy Diaries!

I remember my mum making Charlotte Rouse and Baked Alaska for dinner party desserts in 80s.

Chicken in a brick, with oddly misplaced coriander. It was like a cult.

I lived near Billingsgate and used to buy huge quantities of fish for dinner parties.
Moules for starters and then something pretentiously weird like grey mullet cooked in pernod.

I lived a very yuppiefied life 🤣

I worked for Berni Inns in the early 80s. The standard menu was orange juice, melon or prawn cocktail for starter, steak chips & peas for main, a salad bar & black forest gateau for pud. I preferred duck or chicken with a jacket potato. The liqueur coffee floats had at least 2 tablespoons of soft brown sugar in them to make the cream float.
Dinner parties in the late 80s - lasagne, fondue (so many fondues!), beef in horseradish sauce. Dessert was usually chocolate mousse or we served ice cream with baileys or another liqueur on it & fruit salad.

I still have my Dairy Cook book, must drag it out.

Oh and Crème caramel or crème brûlée puddings as well

Moussaka or Stroganoff

i remember making a vegetable terrine with three types of puréed veg mixed with cream cheese. I thought I was the dogs bollocks making it!

i recently thought about it and I am planning on making it for Christmas Day starter! We usually have prawn cocktail as my DDs were able to make them with minimal help. They are in their 30s now though!

Things I remember that haven't been mentioned.
Grilled grapefruit with demerara sugar (and a cherry)
melon wrapped with parma ham
as starters

Most of my mains have been mentioned
I did a beef cobbler once which was lovely. Oh and a pork and apricot casserole. (I liked one pot dishes)

Sweets
Profiteroles (I know mentioned but making them is really easy)
Baked Alaska - another show stopper, that is really easy (so long as you don't make the mistake of using soft scoop)
And a layered pancake desert, with stewed apples (plus blackberries) and toasted flaked almonds between the layers.

Lots more, but those are what I remember making that haven't already been mentioned.

Avocado and prawns
Steak au poivre or coq au vin
Chocolate roulade

I did Charlotte Russe as part of my big exam meal in A level Home Ec in 76.

Oh yes, pork & apricot casserole. My mum made that from the 1970s until about 2010! It was in an M& S cookbook.

Our local Harvesters opened in the 80s so...

Garlic mushrooms
Combo for 2
Rocky Horror Sundae
Bottle of house red

You're all brilliant. Thank you

We used to get beaujolais neuvau on the day it became available. It used to be trendy to have it rushed over from France. Strange as it wasn't that great a wine usually.

I think it may be Beaujolais nouveau.day next week. There were parties & everything in the 80s. Terrible wine, put me off red for years.

Anyone mentioned Chicken a la king yet?
I remember helping my Mum make this for dinner parties with her friends.

Snap! Boston in 81-82 and Nottingham 83-86. Happy days!!

Always 😄

What carb would you have with coq au riesling?