To think party food is tacky and tasteless?

[Fudgeycake]

Every Christmas the supermarkets really push all that sort of beige finger food (bung in the oven stuff) as if it's delicious and what everyone wants? M&S and Waitrose offerings this year look vile, eg. mini prawn toasts, feta popcorn, chicken doughnuts? Does anyone really love this food?

I think this type of food is really outdated, bit tacky, doesn't look very appealing and mostly pretty tasteless? Some of it is quite expensive too. I'd rather just do a cheese board and some nice breads, meats, chutneys, pickles etc. Aibu? What do you have for your Christmas buffet/party food?

Aldi have reduced a lot of their frozen party food so I'm off there tomorrow to stock up. The air fryer will be very useful for my tacky tastes at christmas. Might decorate the buffet table with tinsel just to up my pleb Christmas points a bit more.

While it may taste good a lot of it is fatty , you can almost smell the fattiness when it drains out .

It’s quick and convenient. If you’re drinking you could be eating anything! It’s unhealthy, the amount of food that comes out at Christmas is 🤢but it is what it is!

DS1 is awaiting ASD assessment and is so picky with foods and textures. I'm grateful for the party food as we can put it out with everything else, for us all to help ourselves to what bits of Christmas dinner we want, and DS can join in with his beige party bits without any awkwardness for him! There is a place for it. And I do love a cocktail sausage and what are essentially bizarre shaped chicken nuggets. (Like pp, washed down with prosecco always makes it better)

You just enjoy your christmas salad and let me worry about the sausage rolls.

Absolutely love a party food tea at Christmas. It's traditional Christmas Eve fare in our house. In fact I buy loads and eat it throughout the week. I think it's a bit bizarre to call a food tacky. If you don't like it don't buy it, it's really simple.

We do have nice cheese, bread, olive and charcuterie with our mini pizzas and frozen chicken selection. Does that make it less tacky?

I’m not a fan of that kind of party food, but each to their own.

However, it’s really meant to be used as canapés that you just take one of from your passing host while you’re milling around with a drink, or have one or two of from a tray on a coffee table with a pre-dinner, rather than something you fill a buffet plate with, so a cheese/charcuterie board and chutney wouldn’t really fulfil the same function.

Anyway. Each to their own. Nobody’s forcing you to buy it. But you know that - it’s pretty obvious that you just wanted to sneer at other people’s choices.

Iceland and Tesco party platter things with little bits of everything. They taste fine. I don't really care about how healthy, or not, it is at Christmas.

Surely this is a case where you cater for your own tastes/the tastes of your guests? Doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks.

I like the bung in the oven beige party stuff, not my favourite food by any stretch but its often quick and tasty.

Personally I can't stand cheeseboards or chutneys/pickles so would not serve it unless there was someone coming who i knew loved cheese. I'd probably end up just eating a bit of bread from the things you listed.

I cook from scratch daily. My husband and I have various conditions and it helps if I do so.

However, a couple of times a year we couldn't give a fuck and Christmas is one of them.
It's beige food all the way.
Pakoras, vol-au-vents, tempura prawns, quiche, pizzas ,samosas , sausage rolls... bring it on.

Just don't care.

I LOVE looking at all the party food that comes out at Christmas, I sadly can't eat most of it due to allergies but clearly there is a big market for it or they wouldn't make it

OH NO! Fatty food at Christmas? Whatever next?

Are you also going to judge people for eating cheese, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, pigs in blankets, pâté, any kind of pastry, sausagemeat stuffing, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding and anything served with cream? Because those things are extremely fatty as well.

It's the kind of thing that looks better than it tastes. I've bought it in the past and been disappointed.

I think you're probably right tbh. I bought a load from M&S as a "treat" for me and my daughter as it looked so nice, but it was all a bit disappointing and not as nice as stuff from the takeaway. Perhaps I didn't cook it properly though.

I'm not getting it for our Christmas party as decided I'd rather have some of the charcuterie boards the supermarkets are doing, along with cheeses, baked camembert and chopped up carrot sticks, peppers, grapes etc. I do accept though that I might have just not cooked it properly as I just followed the timings on the packet and I'm not sure my oven is as efficient as industrial ovens. Or maybe it's more efficient and I over cooked it all. It wasn't that nice though.

This is spot on.

I love party buffet food even as a guest, but I love it even more in that it is so easy to serve as a host.
It's just nibbles to soak up the alcohol. You don't have to eat it if you don't want to.

Saw a pack of vol-au-vents in the Co-op earlier today. They were a staple of Mum & Dad's party buffets in the 70's.
I was sorely tempted but I try to limit pastry to once a week and I've got a roll of puff in the fridge to use before next weekend. There might be a bit left over though to make half a dozen😀

We're having it for Christmas lunch, normally have an Indian takeaway but I'm looking forward to hot party buffet nibbles and alcohol.

I agree OP
They are horrible tasteless crap

Wow you sound like you’d be fun at a party!

I don't mind some beige bits, but I would throw in lots of veggie Higgedy Pies/quiches and maybe some devilled eggs.

haha we had them too! Served to parents at my daughter’s birthday and they were amazing and everyone loved them :)

Outdated? if anything it's a growing food subsection so I don't think it can be considered outdated.

Tacky? can food be tacky? maybe that trick of cooking a chicken by sticking a beer can up its...cavity...might look slightly tacky. Prawn toast not so much.

enjoy your chutney and your pickles.

I don't think it does make it less tacky, but we have the exact same party food Christmas tea every year and plenty of others too.
All severed with a massive salad but somehow I have room for both + the quality street.

This year I've been avoiding Waitrose mini Yorkshire's with beef & horseradish despite being our favourite, as I've been making massive ones instead. Love a miniburger & a goujon. Some sort of Brie and cranberry parcel wouldn't go amiss either.

The cheese board and cracker selection is a lot higher end.

Picky teas are the best at any time of year but especially during the festive season.

You can prise the oven mozzarella sticks from my cold dead hands.

For a couple of years now at Christmas we’ve had at least one evening where we just have party food for the 4 of us. DH goes off and shops for it all himself and he gets quite excited at it all bless him. We also enjoy the meats and cheeses, dips and olives and all that jazz but just one night of beige with a bit of salad is alright. Fuck it it’s Christmas 😂😂

I'm gluten free and can't eat a lot of the beige stuff. A long time ago I used to love the kind of pastry bites you just bunged in the oven - with sausage meat, something cheesy... that kind of thing! Homemade party food is lovely though - today I was at a gathering and had fantastic home made hummus, baba ganoush and guacamole, plus loads of different salads with pulses etc and a great cheeseboard. And loads of deserts! It was delicious and everyone brought a dish, so not a lot of work for each person.