To hate beige buffet food?

[SunSparkle]

Went to a couple of family parties recently with buffets of beige. Sausage rolls, cheese sandwiches, scotch eggs, breadsticks, crisps. A sea of golden brown and dry food.

It’s my daughters birthday coming up. What would be on your dream buffet menu?

YABU - I love a beige buffet. Embrace sausage rolls!

YANBU - give me veggie noodle salads and Parma ham wrapped green beans.

@Fallagain wow!! But do people still serve them?

Oh god that drop in Saturday buffet sounds fabulous

[quote dreamingbohemian]@Fallagain wow!! But do people still serve them?[/quote]
Yes.

Even if only in an ironic way.

For me a buffet should have at least one hot element, a slow cooker full of cilli or baked a pile of chats.

pbs.twimg.com/media/D9wrdwAX4AIklmx?format=jpg&name=small

Beige foods are ok as long as you throw in some colour - fruit and veg platters are usually popular as is charcuterie with pickles etc. I also agree with throwing in a few hot items. My very favourite buffet food is a slow cooker full of Swedish meatballs!

I always remember my dad did a buffet every new year when I was a kid, so I was about 13 so we are talking over 30 years ago.lol
Everybody loved his buffet and I remember he cooked whole chickens, Ham, fish, you name it and it was on the table.
The Good Old Days

You could do nice BBQ'd kebabs - capsicum, pineapple, onion, mushroom, meat of choice. Make a nice drizzle sauce to go over.

I do a super nice strawberries, blueberries and sweet cream cheese. Basically whip cream cheese with icing sugar to taste. Cut strawberries in half. Pipe a blob of cream cheese, top with one or two blueberries. Bite size and the flavour combo explodes in your mouth. Very popular.

Fun fruit kebabs using cookie cutters for shapes.

Also do a nice easy hokkien noodles, 3 different colours of capsicum, chicken, then a sauce which is a random mix of sweet chilli and other sauces. Could be put into little cardboard cups for a buffet - its a cold dish.

You can do a crudite platter with a mild dip eg tzatziki or guacamole.

All that chopping takes a lot of time, so beige oven options are also useful.

Somewhere between the two or beige if it's a child's party. It's not worth doing more than a few carrot batons and cucumber to accompany it for most kids. Some turn their nose up at the green bits (herbs) on a cheese and tomato pizza so cheap and beige all the way for kids.

I wouldn't thank you for warm sweaty meat wrapped veg though, buffet food needs to be left out for a while so I'd be avoiding meat and poultry unless it was less than 10 seconds since the buffet was set up and I can't eat pastry.

If the kids are primary age I definitely wouldn’t do a buffet, kids’ hygiene is usually pretty grim let alone in COVID times and buffets create a lot of waste, most leftovers get dumped. I always did individual food boxes for the kids and if parents were staying a cheese or antipasto platter with crackers and baguettes. My kids as teens only ever wanted pizza and ice cream or cake for parties.

Veggie noodle salad and green beans wrapped in ham will go really gross by the time it's been transported/put out/people get round to eating it, I think there's an in-between from fully beige to super fresh, there'll also be a range of tastes and some will prefer something familiar. I'd do sausage rolls and crisps but also do fruit skewers, cucumber and red pepper sticks etc, wraps, chicken on skewers etc.

I like the fact that I can select what I want at a buffet BUT I have so many dislikes it's a nightmare!!!
I choose not to eat processed meat, don't like mayonnaise, most dressings, dips or any spices! I don't like chicken wings or drumsticks [as I don't want to eat the skin] and it's so messy to try and eat just the flesh underneath. This rules out sausage rolls, samosas, sandwiches, dressed salads, dips etc etc.
I usually end up with crisps [hoping they're not a spicy variety] and bread!!!
My DH is my 'taster' and he checks whether I will like something or not!!!
I'm frustrated with myself for being so picky. I wish I wasn't....

A few years ago a neighbour had a 'do' for her husband's 50th and proudly told everyone the food had all come from Iceland! LOL. There was NOTHING I liked so I couldn't wait for the huge gateau to be cut as I was starving. Guess what? It hadn't defrosted and was still frozen!!! Happy days...

Love a 90% beige buffer

buffet

@IamMaz that must be so restrictive!

I love sausage rolls but an entirely beige buffet is miserable. I love anti pasti stuff...cheese, olives, salami, interesting salads, lovely canapé stuff like smoked salmon blinis

My dream buffet would include french bread, selection of cheeses, meat, sausage rolls, party eggs, veggie crudités, crisps, cheese straws, dips, garlic bread, wide selection of sandwiches, pasta dish, chicken in various forms.

Yabu. Brown buffet is the best.

For children's parties we go 80% beige processed food - they like it, it's familiar and says "party". To assuage my conscience, I always supplement it with a large dish of crudités - pepper, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and yellow pepper - and a big fruit platter. The fruit is always one of the first things to disappear, and a good portion of the veg gets eaten as well.

I love cheese and pineapple sticks

I have always found vol-au-vents disappointing. They really shouldn’t be as I love pastry but always have been

I like the beige food and the healthier food always gets left

I also agree a mix of both.

@dafey
Yes it is but I know in advance!
Barbecues are just as bad - but I can usually sneak a dry hot dog roll or burger bun and pretend!!! LOL

😆

So many opinions and tons of ideas to de-beige while still keeping the old favourites. Sounds like the cheese and pineapple hedgehog is a must unless I want my daughter to be scarred for life.

She's turning one so only a handful of kids and the rest adults - family, friends, people who haven't met her yet.

Any suggestions on sandwich flavours?

I'm doing all the catering myself so need a balance of easy stuff, prepare in advance stuff and some nice fresh stuff.

egg & cress
cheese & cucumber
tuna mayo

A pepper veggie train usually makes an appearance and my kids parties, with dip.

And a hedgehog.

But other than that I'm in favour of keeping it simple. So I can enjoy the party as well and not be in and out of the kitchen the whole time.

Neither really. The veggie noodle salads and Parma ham wrapped green beans doesn’t appeal.
But communal food never really appeals due to pissy fingers etc and especially since Covid.

I don't mind a bit of beige, but I am partial to a cheese and pineapple hedgehog and lots of veggie sticks with dips. Always fruit and veg with everything. Im not happy with beige only