1980s retro dinner party - recipes wanted!

[flamingnora]

I rarely ate out in the 1980s and suspect the fare I was served by mum at home thoughout the decade was more representative of the '70s! I'm having a retro 1980s dinner party & would love some inspriration. Another snag is - 2 of my guests don't eat meat - so fish main courses/starters would be fab please!

rofl crusty bread.

I agree,a lot of hte food mentioned was 1970s style food.

Ime, the 80s was more about the introduction chilled and frozen products and ready meals! (and some 'exotic' food)

Eg, chicken nuggets and oven chips followed by some defrosted dessert (Sara Lee gateau maybe?)

garlic bread was big news.

mercy yes definitely. I used to be allowed to make the garlic bread - french stick, butter with crushed garlic, foil --> oven. Voila. Sophisticé, non?

Loving this thread, especially melon with port.

I'm pretty sure my Mum discovered cheesecake in the 80s - with the base made from digestive biscuits of course. Also pate - I'm certain I was teenager before I tried that.

My Mum's great starter was half a hard boiled egg covered with Campbells condensed mushroom soup, served in a ramekin dish [boak emoticon].

half a hard boiled egg covered with Campbells condensed mushroom soup, served in a ramekin dish

Cheesecake - oh yes!

Squeaver
You just reminded me of mum's blackcurrant cheesecake, out of a packet. The crowning glory was the little foil packet with the berry plastic-flavoured sauce. It was quite purple. I loved it.

I tell you, Brian, she'd had it at a dinner party then inflicted it on served it to us for ever after...

Oh I think ours came from a packet too!

I've just thought of something - you have to serve Blue Nun wine!!! Or Mateus Rose!

Nigella's London Chesecake is an absolute replica of the one my mum used to make - biscuit made from digestives (I did it last weekend and it was lovely). Mum use to cover it in thinly sliced kiwifruit halves. Kiwifruit is definitely an 80s fruit.

When did sundried tomatoes come in - early 90s?

PMSL

LOVED that too, mmelindt. with biscuit base.

Noooo

Liebfraumilch

The height of sophistication

I lived in Germany for 16 years and never saw it on sale. No German has ever heard of it, much less tasted it.

Liebfraumilch

The name is a German word literally meaning "Beloved lady's milk".

In Germany this wine is sold as low-priced supermarket wine due to the perceived campiness.

In the U.S. and the UK, perhaps the best known example has been Blue Nun, which no longer uses the Liebfraumilch designation. While the term is associated with low quality wine, Liebfraumilch is defined by the German Wine Law as one step above the lowest category, Tafelwein (table wine).

perceived campiness

Or Sangria

Lambrusco

80s were definitely the era of poncetastic food. Nouvelle cuisine especially. Anything with kiwi fruit and mangetout.

I used to buy a magazine called A La Carte, which was real foody porn. It inspired a series of OTT dinner parties; yuppies were all the rage as well.

One colour plate in particular inspired it. It was in a feature of an 'ordinary' reader and her dinner party, and featured one dish that was mangetout stuffed with pearls. I kid you not!

One menu I remember went like this:

White and green tagliatelle, woven together to form a green/white sort of mat effect, stuffed with mozzarella and garlicky tomato sauce

A sort of savoury swiss roll of quails eggs and cheese/tarragon sauce

Pink champagne jelly

All served with vats of Champagne!

Mangetout - brilliant. The height of sophistication chez nous (see what I did there?). I hated the rubbery bloody things.

LOL only winos in Germany would touch blue nun. We keep the good stuff for ourselves.

Really, to be authentic it has to be out of a box

tagliatelle - very 80s.

some kind of fish, with tagliatelle (tricolore, natch) and mangetout?

grilled grapefruit
vol au vent

ice magic..we need a revival!
sure chicken kiev was a bit of a dinner party special in the 80s

lol at grilled grapefruit

pimms...

babbity, yes I think sun dried toms were 90s. When I was a young a kiwi fruit was known a as Chinese gooseberry (but I had a forriner father)

Pasta was popular in the 80s (especially taglietelle and lasagne iirc). Ready made sandwiches (prawn and mayo)