Friends promised a BBQ and delivered an Iceland beige buffet!

[Bbqdisaster]

As above really, myself, DH and 3 DC went to our friends’ house yesterday on the promise of some drinks in the garden and a BBQ.

They said they were having issues with their BBQ so would do an ‘indoor BBQ’. This consisted of beige food from Iceland!!

AIBU to find this a woeful alternative?

This thread is very outing OP. I hope the Iceland couple are not on mumsnet.

If you are friends with someone you just have to sometimes suck up bad food if they are hosting.

Everyone has different standards.

No doubt certain "foodies" in here would freak out, but you and your friends rescued a really dreadful evening! I'm sure you had a convivial time.

We did, @mybeautifulemeraldparure. We're still good friends today.

Nothing that some good beer, good wine and great company couldn't fix.

A fantastic attitude! 👍🏼

Well, at least they didn't cancel (which, I suspect, is probably what they wanted to do).

Was it exclusively Iceland OP? Did you check their recycling for packets? any evidence of Aldi or Lidle ?

I'm glad I'm not friends with you.

They hosted so they are well within their rights to provide the food they see suitable... Idk how I'd feel, probably just as conflicted as you, but it's also their call, so not the guests' place to judge really.

Hopefully they’ll read this and get some new friends, they certainly need them.

You sound an ungrateful snob !

i would have done BBQ food on the oven!! I wouldn’t have made party food.

Wouldn't phase me. If friends invite me round I'm there for the company. Shit happens. They found a solution so the evening could go ahead.

If it was buffet food it was unlikely to be frozen 🤔

I'd be disappointed if what we had to eat was the criteria on which to judge the success of an evening in friends company.
I'd be thinking that I either needed new friends so the draw was the time together rather than the food, or that my preoccupation with my stomach needed reining in a little so I could focus on other things socialising has to offer.

Who cares? The BBQ is just a vehicle to see your friends isn’t it? And they did put on alternative food even if it wasn’t to your liking.

I don’t see my friends for the quality of their catering. I see them because I like to spend time them.

Surely it’s about seeing your friends and spending time with them? Not the food? You don’t sound very nice.

I would have been disappointed. It’s ok to be disappointed I think- people can’t help having emotions. A beige banquet isn’t tasty or nutritious or satiating in my opinion; it’s the sort of thing I’d only eat if I had a monstrous hangover and needed calories but couldn’t manage to put a meal together. I avoid alcohol nowadays so no hangovers for me.

I wouldn’t have said anything though, I’d have eaten some and said thank you. Were there salads at least? A sea of beige and brown without any green or red is depressing.

Ffs this thread honestly. I am pleased my friendship choices are not based on their eating habits. Doesnt affect me! Choose to eat it or not

Wow! Have a word with yourself OP! 🤯

I know I'm completely missing the point here, but where did all this use of myself come from? If you took your DH and kids out of the equation, would you say myself went to a bbq? No, you wouldn't. It's I. I went to a bbq.

Op so are you saying you only went for the food? Surely the BBQ is about having people over to socialise in the garden rather than what food they are serving? I mean they may have only been planning to cook a few sausages and burgers in buns anyway so maybe you'd have been disappointed in that too?

I'm with you OP, but I actually cannot imagine anyone serving up such food.

If I was under pressure buy good quality sausages, burgers, doing a quick simple marinade for chicken breasts, buying nice bread, rolls, store bought coleslaw and throw together a couple of nice salads and steam salad potatoes.
That definitely wouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

I wouldn't eat the food you were offered and I doubt my children would either.
Some premium quality Lidl/Aldi store bought pizzas would go down better.

I don't think one meal of UPF, will give you dementia, and it's been widely known for years that fried and BBQd food is carcinogenic.

So you'd go to someone's house and refuse to eat their food?