A group of food lover friends of mine held a dinner party last Saturday night. The general theme was Thai. We were all contributing at least one plate of Thai food to this meal. We were cooking for 7 people. Four of the eaters were aged in their 30's, the others were in their 50's.
A request was made to Pete, the person who volunteered to do dessert, for a Bombe Alaska. That's what got me started on the Bombe story a few blogs ago.
Except for the (younger) one who had requested the Bombe, the others hadn't experienced it before. They'd heard of it, but didn't know anything more than that it was a dessert.
That got me thinking about fads and trends in food. They all were absolutely entranced to see the theatricality of the Bombe, and then to find that it actually tasted fantastic as well seemed like an added bonus for them.
One of the girls present professed to be up there as Hobarts hugest foodie and is actually doing a Uni degree in some food-related subject, even though her daytime job at Aurora is totally unrelated.
My jumbled food fad thoughts have swirled round since Saturday night. I'm not sure whether it's good or bad to have lived through so many food fashions. I think for me it might tend to be bad, because I seem to mix and match my food too much. I could make for a dinner party a Prawn Cocktail for appetizer, Smoked Duck Breast for Mains and Panne Cotta for dessert, then Deep Fried Camembert after. I love all those dishes and don't have a problem with them, but someone else (like my kids) would inevitably question my "trendiness". (In reality I wouldn't select those dishes for fear of being judged "out of it" anyway!)
If you are a typical dinner party holder of age 30-ish in todays world, what would you cook? I know what Nellie cooks, but not others.
I'm very interested in this, so would appreciate any feedback.
Thursday, 1 March 2007
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5 comments:
Rita we have a simple rule of thumb when entertaining. Firstly, lose the perameters of age & of limitations of food trends.
If friends are coming over who are quite spohisticated in their food tastes we ALWAYS do a simple roast, braise or shared platter ensemble. They appreciate the simplicity, the tactile inviolvement & the rustic nature of the meal.
Conversley when our guests are not as worldly in their appreciation of food, we 'frock-up' the offering. Plated individual meals, highly worked with lots of garnishes & frou-frou.
When dessert time arrives we go troppo. The bigger the better. It will be a a giant over the top concoction with shards of caramel, chocolate spears, fairy lights & sparklers. We have to restrain ourselves from having it carried out on a gilded mirror by four buff, bare chested men to the sounds of Ravel's Bolero!
Hope this helps!?
In our 20's we were way too over the top with food, but I guess that was just a way of experimenting and getting a feel for it. Looking back, a bit pretentious but always well-intentioned.
Now, I still think a 'roast' can do it. Sure it might be a whole eye fillet with a red butter sauce, or a rolled pork loin with crispy deep fried sage; or marinated boned out lamb shoulder slow cooked; but I can't think of anyone who'd turn up their noses at that. (None of our friends are vegans and none of the kids have explored it yet..)
We tend to cook very simple food for guests, and I have a preference for food that's been prepared earlier and requires no attention when guests arrive, bar plating.
Examples would be grilled salmon or barbequed eye fillet, served with steamed veg or a salad. And crusty bread. I love serving comfort food too, like old-fashioned stews and braises with mashed spuds.
None of it is particularly glamorous in presentation, but is simple, excellent produce prepared with little time to linger in the kitchen. We are usually eating at 5pm to cater for everyone's kids (people in their 30s invariably have small children, Rita, which is a consideration).
Like Kitty, we tended to be far more OTT in our 20s with dinner parties, but I now leave the complicated dishes for dining out in restaurants.
BTW, Rita, how do you know what I cook? I don't recall having you over for a dinner party lately!!
Our dinner parties usually consist of:
-Good friends
-Simple food comfort food made from good produce
-A fantastic cheese plate
-A few great bottle of wine
-Lots of laughs and a late night
We have found that if you add all of this together- the meal is spectacular!
as for my thoughts on what is trendy to eat as a 30 something - it depends on the crowd. do you want an intimate dinner party for 6, with good wine to share? asian food is great. do you need to feed a bigger, hungrier hoard, who are probably not into wine as much ? feed them a few good pasta dishes and bring out the lambrusco(something better than lasagna - Donna Hay had some great pasta recipes in the paper a few weeks ago which we enjoyed), or do you want to be relaxed, and not worry about the washing up? Go the BBQ option, but not necessarily snags and burgers - marinated chicken or lamb with a different kinds of salad.
love your work Rita!
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