Beverages and Bites / Theme Parties / Uncategorized

Alex and I often debate about the role of the menu at a party.  There are clearly parties where the food is the main star, and others where it serves as more of a supporting actor.  Even if it’s more of a supporting actor, I still try to really focus on food that fits the party.  After all, even supporting actors win Oscars.  Pandemonium at the Disco was definitely a “food as the supporting actor” kind of party.  Was food even available at Studio 54?  

The owners of Studio might have been able to get away with minimal food service, but as any hostess beyond the age of 21 knows you can’t have alcohol and not have food to absorb it.  So, we needed a menu.  Since Studio had its run at the end of the 70’s (yeah we know it ran into the early 80’s, but we’ll just think of that as a 70’s hangover) we decided the menu would be 70’s focused.  We have a few “family” cookbooks that date back to the 70’s but mostly we did basic internet research.  Other than one or two uncomfortable dinner scenes from Saturday Night Fever, I really don’t recall much food from the movies we watched. As I write this, I’m sure there were some in Halston, but they were all overridden by cocaine.  

Mmm mmm sweet, sweet cocaine

I’m sure there was normal food at the dinner table in the 1970s, but when you research “party food” you’ve entered a whole different realm.  I ran across a quote while I was researching food, that roughly said, food in the 70’s was food pretending to be something else. Case in point, Shepherds Pie shaped like an igloo, cranberry sauce candles, and our favorite the “party loaf”.  This was our jumping off point for the menu.  In addition to incognito food, we tried to incorporate other gastronomical fads into the evening’s bites.  Then, we mixed in some of our favorites to help round out the menu. 

No, no. That’s not a cake

It doesn’t take a lot of research to know that Jell-o was huge in the 70’s.  Of course, it was more than the simple stuff pushed by the comedian who shall no longer be named.  Like much of the other food of its time, Jello couldn’t be simple.  Rather it needed to be mixed with just about anything… carrots, grapes, raisins and shaped in a fancy mold.  If all else fails, it needs major presentation points, like this Jell-o tower in a trifle.

There’s always room for Jell-o

Hawaiian Cuisine was definitely on trend in the 70’s.  I’ve read that it might have come from the increased travel to Hawaii and people’s desire to replicate that at home.  Maybe they shared  their pineapple dip over an evening watching their vacation slides with unwitting friends and family.  Alternatively, people were so moved by watching Jack Lord in Hawaii 5-O they had to add pineapple to everything. 

Nothing like meatballs in the murder room

I think it’s pretty common knowledge that fondue, both cheese and chocolate, was synonymous with entertaining in the 70’s.  Any US suburban housewife worth her mustard yellow fridge had to have a coordinating fondue pot.  While it is delightfully fun to stab your food and then dip in a nice hot vat of cheese, I was curious why this was so popular in the 70’s.  I’ve done a minimal amount of research and have been assured it was all driven by the Swiss Cheese Cartel (Isn’t it always the cartels?).  Now, if the cartels really wanted to get fondue to take off, they need to come up with a better temperature controlled pot. 

You had ONE job Fondue Pot

Of course, one cannot forget Watergate.

Below is a list of the party foods separated as best we could by what inspired them.  In some cases we grouped them together, but that wasn’t always the case.  I’ve added descriptions where I think they’ll be helpful. (I may come back and add recipes if I’m feeling bored or ambitious).

Foods Pretending to be Other things:

  • Party Loaf- this is really a three tiered sandwich made of white bread with various salad spreads.  We used pimento cheese, chicken salad and ham salad.  Then itis “frosted” with mayonnaise sour cream mixture and decorated with piping to make it really look like a cake.
  • Head of lettuce stuffed with pimento cheese.  
  • Salmon Mousse Mold

Jell-O 

  • 7 layered Jell-o Salad
  • Watergate Salad (Green salad with Jello, renamed after the scandal)
  • The Salmon Mousse could go here too. 

Hawaiian

  • Hawaiian Inspired Meatballs
  • Curried Pineapple Dip (served in a pineapple) with pineapple skewers and crackers
  • Curried Shrimp Tarts
  • Mini Pineapple upside down cakes

Fondue

  • Cheese
  • Chocolate
  • Things to dip: Fruit, Vegetables, Pretzel sticks, sliced bread, pound cake, marshmallows, shortbread cookies, etc. 

Other Foods:

  • Salmon Mousse canapes (this was so there was some edible salmon mousse)
  • Cocktail Shrimp (I just remember it being a thing- maybe I’m making that up)
  • Little Smokies (my parents always had them)
  • Deviled Eggs 
  • Mini quiches (apparently Quiche Loraine hit the US big in the 70s- maybe it was the French cheese cartel)
  • Stuffed peppers
  • Salads like Pimento and chicken that were included in the party loaf 
  • Mini Carrot Cakes- Carrot cake was apparently huge in the 70’s because it was considered a healthy alternative to other desserts.  Afterall, it did contain carrots. 
  • Mini cheese balls (People in the 70’s were really into cheese.)