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I WOUDL BE GRATEFUL IS PEOPLE WOULD STOP OFFERING SHITTY FOOD AT BIRTHDAY PARTIES.! Thank u kindly!

358 replies

MintyandTink · 22/06/2008 22:08

Having been to a few birthday parties since my little one was born I am quite shocked at the shit quality of the food being served at bday parties.

Shitty cocktail sausages- yuk, rancid carrot sticks, hard cheese just to provide some examples.

The thing that gets me is not the kind of food but the bloody quality... CRAPITTY CRAPITTY CRAP!

Rant over.

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Kewcumber · 24/06/2008 10:57

yum - would be happy for you to come and cater DS's party in November. Otherwise it will be macaroni cheese and lurid cake for the kids and TEsco indian party food for the gorwn-ups.

Kewcumber · 24/06/2008 10:58

unfortunately will only be able topay you what I would have spent in Tesco - but you won;t mind that will you?

OverMyDeadBody · 24/06/2008 11:02

Minty I couldn't afford that kind of spread ever. But polish that halo of yours, you are obviously the greatest partyfood provider around . Well done.

MintyandTink · 24/06/2008 11:10

Hey girls, no halo here just a bit of love for cooking, a passion for great food and an ounce of imagination . That's all!

I feel strongly about shitty food and have no qualms about expressing my feelings about it!

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onebatmother · 24/06/2008 11:17

you see
I am scarily like Minty.
I do all that too. Except my cake was in the shape of an Actual X-Wing Fighter from Star Wars. No lightweight 'chocolate cake' for me. It involved hidden skewers which enabled it to defy the laws of gravity.

BUT
I know in my heart it is WRONG, VERY WRONG, and nothing more than an expression of my particular combination of social-anxiety and competitive-parenting, with a leetle dollop of low self-esteem thrown into the mix.

[GRIN]

onebatmother · 24/06/2008 11:17

DAMN.

QuintessentialShadows · 24/06/2008 11:20

Well thats great, but do you have the guts to express those feelings to the face of the people who have invited your dcs to the party, and whose food you disaprove of?

Making such a spread is not a hard thing to do, I think most of us could, if we were so inclined. However, I fear that most people would just sniff and say "oh boy, what does she have to prove?"

OverMyDeadBody · 24/06/2008 11:24

well, me too minty, but to me good food doesn't always have to be expensive food, and I would hate for someone to turn their noses up at my offerings just because it was cooked with cheap ingredients.

At DS's last birthday party I heated up some frozen kids organic ready meals (my own label lol) and cooked lots of biscuits made with playdough cutters, then let all the kids go wild decorating them.

I did not cater for any adults, or indeed let any adults stay

I got on with mumsnetting while the kids got high of blue icing and hundreds and thousands.

OrmIrian · 24/06/2008 11:38

Well when it comes to cakes I will admit to an teeny weeny bit of irrational snobbery. I always make a birthday cake - sometimes 2. Never buy.

Your food sounds delicious minty. But I think it would be wasted on most children I know.

And I still think that being quite so direct about what other people offer could simply be construed as rudeness. Personally I am more concerned that my children learn to be polite and considerate, than learn to be arsey about food.

ranting · 24/06/2008 11:38

God Minty, you're such a lightweight!!

No chicken passes the mouth of any children I entertain unless my eldest has personally wrung it's neck that morning first, just to make sure that it's fresher than fresh!!

AMATEUR!!

prettybird · 24/06/2008 11:38

me too onebatmother. I do the home cooking and baking for ds' birthday for me, not for him . It's my own bit of therapy.

We don't scialise as much as we would like - ds' birthday pary is a goof excuse for the adults tohave a good time too.

However, I am impressed with MandT's "real" food for the kids - the most ds' friends get is the (cheap white bread) marmite sandwiches and the (Lidl Cheddar or Red Leicester) cheese sandwiches.

And ds is never that impressed by the traffic light jellies (again, done more for my benefit methinks) - although having had them for the last three or four parties, he now demands expects them. At least I now know to start making them the day before to allow the layers time to set! .

The adults usually congregate in the kitchen - and helping me finish off the bcooking/baking that I never quite manage to get all done!

MilaMae · 24/06/2008 11:46

Minty that's fine and dandy but your menu would be way over most people's budgets.

Up until last year we ate pretty much 80% organic(until the dc began to bleed us dry financially). We're now into the 5th year on one salary so it's just not possible anymore.

However we all eat very well. I try to buy organic meat and milk wherever poss( but have recently bought Lidl chicken and Aldi sausages and the veg box has gone -so shoot me) but this is increasingly rare. We eat veggie most of the time instread and I'm a pretty fine imaginative cook myself which helps.

Regards parties I'm afraid my kids come first. As I mentioned before after paying for venue hire and other bits and bobs(we don't have entertainers and do very nice tasteful party bags for £2 a head)the food has to be on a budget.

I do it very tastefully and often homemade and to a theme eg dinosaurs,fairies etc. However as my kids very rarely get to eat chipolatas,coloured products etc I always include a lot of those too,it is their day after all and is what they want.

I keep to the budget and will find cheaper mini sausage rolls etc to suit them and my purse. That way I don't get into debt over a party and they're happy. Also we may be able to afford some nice organic sausages to eat at home the following week

What I'm trying to say is your menu is very impressive and
if I had the money and a nanny to look after the 3 dc whilst I was concocting it all I'd do similar but the fact is I haven't.

It's all down to money,the mums whose parties you're turning your nose up at are probably also trying to keep to a budget just because you don't have to doesn't mean they should be condemned.

MintyandTink · 24/06/2008 11:47

Don't have anything to prove to anyone nor to myself.

I just love providing with great food to my guests - no in a stepford wife kind of way but I have a passion for good food. Is this a crime?

Regarding the fact of being rude, I never say anything to the hosts of other parties about the food they serve, I am well aware that this woudl be utter rude but I don't hesitate to vent my feelings here.

I really think after all the responses to my post that it has tickled some of you big time!

Glad to read that there is other mumsnetters that share my passion for quality, healhty, imaginative food!

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pooka · 24/06/2008 11:49

Are you Jools Oliver?

Because you write a bit like her. Yummy chocolate sauce as opposed to what? Grim chocolate sauce?

snowleopard · 24/06/2008 11:56

Oh there is such a thing as grim chocolate sauce, and certainly grim chocolate icing and grim chocolate cake, with just enough cocoa / chocolate in it to turn it veeerrryy slightly brown, and not taste of chocolate at all. Oooh I hate it when someone produces a "chocolate" cake and you then realise you are going to get no chocolate hit from it whatsoever...

prettybird · 24/06/2008 12:17

I also like quality, healthy imaginitive food - and we tend to eat that most of the time. However I am not sure that ds fully appreciates that. He would live on a diet of rolls with Nutella and wafer thin ham (don't ask ) and/or chips if he could get away with it.

I find at kids parties, even though I do do them nice food, they tend not to be that interested in it - although they will snack away on the sweeties and crisps.

Like OrmIrian, I think most of the kids food would be wasted on them (altohgh I know the adults will appreciate your efforts form them!) - but then, you know the kids coming, so maybe they do eat it all.

The food isn't the primary purpose of the party - the fun is what they're there for!

In my epxereince, even the best of eaters, at birthday parties are too excited to concentrate on actually eating anythign sensible.

Locksikas · 24/06/2008 12:28

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Tortington · 24/06/2008 12:31

my PFB tarquin only goes to the parties of others to sample celery sticks.

he realised that the games are childish, the children are childish and the parents are usually (compared to us) ill-educated.

we rarely stay longer than 20 mins.

bacon · 24/06/2008 13:02

Just because they are children doesnt give people to write to treat them with such conceit!

The reason why we have problems with children not eating healthy food in this country is purely down to the parents. If you went to France or Italy would you see cheap nasty sausages on sticks with bread that's not nutritional enough to feed birds!

I'm sorry but children are only fussy because parents say "he/she wont eat that".

A child will eat good food with taste (believe it or not children have more strength in their taste buds than adults).

I wouldnt dream of serving such rubbish at parties and for sure the cakes and biscuits are not on show until the sarnies have been eaten up.

I understand that children dont like salad but they will eat humus, olives, garlicy stuff and anything tasty which is tomato based.

I'm actually in the food business and know exactly what goes into what, you wouldnt eat it then why should they and why should poor old OAPs in homes be fed it either!

If you can't afford to hold a party just have a small affair with close friends not a every tom dick and harry on a Tesco Value...

My children dont have any eating problems purely down to us laying down the foundations straight after weaning.

SauerKraut · 24/06/2008 13:03

Aha, but they would get plenty of other varieties of shit in France and Italy...

hatrick · 24/06/2008 13:05

This reply has been deleted

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Locksikas · 24/06/2008 13:10

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OverMyDeadBody · 24/06/2008 13:13

bacon I'm in the food business as well. There is nothing wctually wrong with most value products in the supermarkets, as my earleir posts outlined.

Kewcumber · 24/06/2008 13:16

"bread that's not nutritional enough to feed birds!"
Ummm, isnt bread quite nutricious? Even value cheapy bread? Corect me if I'm wrong but aside from the fibre (which there is an argument shouldn;t be overdone with chidlren) white and brown aren;t that different are they and fortified with vitamins.

MintyandTink · 24/06/2008 13:46

Ah, don't get me started with the amounts of fish kids eat in our country.

But I will leave this one for another thread!

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