"80's" Cuisine?

[thebelly]

I'm going to an "80's" party, and am trying to think what food could be considered "80's food." Anything come to mind? Thanks!

[laliz]

foods/beverages that I absolutely remember from the 80s.
7 layer salad
7 layer dip
DIET COKE ~~ the world's single greatest invention to this day
Chicken McNuggets

[Alwayscookin]

Cheesecake! Everything cheesecake! I remember all these little coffee shops popping up that served only cheesecake and the smell in some of those places was a kind of wet mouldy wood smellike or some reason. Does anyone else remember this or am I crazy. The height of an evening out circa 1986? To have a new coffee (read latte) and a giant piece of cheesecake, preferably in some flavor like Toblerone or Oreo. Oh, gag me with a spoon!

[mels]

Cream puffs made with Stella D'Oro anginetti cookies were big in my mother's circle of friends. recipe straight from the bag, of course!

1 pkg Stella D’oro Anginetti Cookies
8 1/4 oz can crushed pineapple
1 cup cool whip
3 oz cream cheese

Slice off the tops of the cookies. Hold aside. Drain pineapple leaving a scant amount of juice. Mix cool whip and cream cheese together in a bowl about 1 minute at medium speed. Add pineapple and blend all three ingredients for 1 minute at low speed. Drop filling from spoon onto bottom layer of cookies and replace all tops. Refrigerate until ready serve (at least 2 hours).

[Waurus]

I love that part of Bonfire where all the rich folks are at an elaborate dinner party, and everything is very chi-chi except for the entree--a simple roasted cut of lamb or some such.

Bagels and muffins were "healthy" breads. Blackened anything. Cappuccino was newer and more novel.

[potterybliss]

didn't lean cuisine frozen meals come out in the 80's? that being said, i agree with anything from the silver palate cookbook. also hummus & pita, spinach dip in a bread bowl, and soup in a bread bowl. i think the boneless chicken breast trend started in the early 80's, too.

[jessi20]

lean cuisine is definetly an 80s thing as is the boneless skinless chicken breast trend.

[Justpaula]

The 80's covered ages five through fiteen for me, so this post was fun to read and god, what I wouldn't do for an english muffin pizza and a pudding pop right now. :) I actually just asked my boyfriend the other day if they still made pudding pops. Can't remember what made me think of them, but do they???

[vvvindaloo]

I wish. I would go out and buy some Jell-O Pudding Pops right now if I could :( As an adult looking back, that was one satisfying low-fat snack.

[Chuckles the Clone]

>> I actually just asked my boyfriend the other day if they still made pudding pops.
>> Can't remember what made me think of them,

*snicker* :)

Yes, they're still available: http://www.icecreamusa.com/products/p...

But reports do not seem good. A web search for "jello pudding pop recipe" turns up a lot of very simple-looking recipes, though.

[creativeusername]

Everytime I go down the cereal aisle I still look up to see if Carnation is making the Instant Breakfast Bar again. Can you find that for me? :)

[donatella1015]

Jolt Cola.. "all the sugar and twice the Caffeine"

[MrsT]

I lived on that stuff in HS....they're now marketing Jolt as an "energy drink" with new packaging and dropping the logo. They also have Jolt gum.

[aynrandgirl]

Energy drink? How lame! With "all the sugar and twice the caffeine", it was a favorite of late-night coding sessions when I was in college. A mere "energy drink" wouldn't have been bad enough for you to be appealing to that crowd.

[Miamicooks]

ANYTHING FROM THE SILVER PALATE COOKBOOK....quiches, pesto, the pritikin diet to name a few

[jessi20]

not invented in the 80s but definetly trendy at the time: beef carpaccio, american style chicken teriyaki, pita bread or english muffin pizzas, chips and salsa, natchos, pita and hummus, bruchetta (again, american style), stirfry, souvlaki, pavlova, bagels with anything... omg..i could go on and on.

[Avalondaughter]

Oh god! I forgot how huge pita was for a while in the 80s. Remember how Burger King used to offer salad in a pita?

[Chuckles the Clone]

I believe kiwi fruit were invented in the '80s.

[capetowngirlie]

I'm with the Nurse, pumpernickel bread stuffed with spinache dip was big!
also, oysters, stuffed quail, cheese platters and very fussy little apps!

[eller]

I think that air freight and logistics gave the 80s its kick in the butt to bring non-regional ingredients to most people in North America. While I was just a kiddo dancing to Madonna then, I do remember eating Fruit Roll-ups while my parents munched on things that were fresh and exotic and not from a can. Dandelion salads and fiddleheads, goat cheese, smoked salmon and real Danish cream cheese on pumpernickel bread. Toward the end of the decade, there were also sun dried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.

Shrimp that weren't tiny were also a new treat to me back then, but I mostly have memories of snacky foods like squirt gum and Blo-Pops and the previously mentioned Lik-m-aid candy. Lots-a-fizz candies too.

Lest I forget Sarasoda which was legal for a minor to buy at less than a percent of alcohol per volume. As 8th graders, we saved our lunch monies and chugged 2 each and pretended to be drunk. Chased with a box of Toffeefay, we were only wired on sugar.

[BigboyDan]

Fajitas - started in the 1970's in South Central Texas, nationwide after 1980. Portobello mushrooms as the main ingredient in a sandwich. Spinach and mushroom enchiladas. White Russians and Hurricanes. Oat bran in cereals. Northern Italian Cuisine and tiramisu. Inidan cuisine.

And: pesto.

[julesrules]

I was also remembering Sarasoda!
Muffins, as in chain shops devoted to them.
Smoothies
Thin-crust, "gourmet" pizza - with sundried tomatoes of course!

[Diane in Bexley]

We got married in 1983 and one of my chores this past weekend was cleaning and organizing an old recipe file I got from back then from the various showers we had (kitchen, bar, etc.). I had 3 recipes for hot artichoke dip, which must have been the rage for young housewives to make in Chicago around that time. Recipe called for:

2 cans artichoke hearts, drained, save juice from 1/2 of 1 can
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
2 T garlic, finely chopped
salt, pepper, paprika
1 cup parmesan cheese

Chop artichoke hearts into quarters. Mix with mozzarella, mayo, garlic, salt & pepper and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Sprinkle remaining parmesan on top and dust with paprika. Bake in 350 oven for 20-30 minutes till bubbly, serve with fancy crackers.

[Cat Chow]

I think a version of this was the also ubiquitous "spinach dip in a sourdough bread round". A staple of the 80's party scene!

[harryharry]

How about sushi? Not that it was new in the 80's but it was the start of a huge fad. Do you remember the little machine that popped out little sushi rice balls, it was in a scene in the movie Wall Street.

[Cat Chow]

Also in the breakfast club, Molly Ringwald snottily announces her "bag lunch" is sushi.

[Munkipawse]

... and VALLEY GIRL... LESS THAN ZERO....

[thenurse]

pumpernickel bread with spinach dip

I remember my mom making this all the time as an ap in the 80's.

[Chuckles the Clone]

The Silver Palate Cookbook was something of a bible back then.

Pour yourself a pint of vodka and oj, lay out a line of blow, crank
the Duran Duran, and make the awesome Lemon Cake recipe.

[jeanmarieok]

The chicken marabella (or marabella chicken - I forget what it's exact name is) was my very first party dish while I was in college. It's still a really good chicken dish.

[Cat Chow]

Re: Chicken Marbella, from the Silver Palate cookbook! I just made it over the weekend. Sure fire pleaser any time I dish it out. I serve it over cous-cous

[Roland Parker]

Much of the better 80s food has its origin in the “discovery” of food in the 1970s, but only in the 80s did the marketplace actually begin to meet the rising consumer demands for better quality food, and supermarkets started offering foodstuff beyond the typical processed, packaged, foodstuff. This, combined with the rising popularity of traditional Italian cooking, is what defines the 1980s cooking for me.

A couple items readily come to mind:

Cheese. Although it started in the 70s, the 80s were when people really discovered the joys of brie, and from there moved on to the world of artisan, non-processed, cheeses. For me the hallmark of this period was brie served with grapes and crackers and white wine. Younger people today have no idea how limited the selection of cheese was before the 1980s.

Wine. Once again, wines started becoming popular in the sixties/seventies, but in the eighties people finally moved away from the ubiquitous too-sweet jugs and boxes of wines into proper bottles.

Olive oil: started in the 70s, but really took off in the 1980s.

Pasta: started out as noodles, became spaghetti, and finally settled on pasta. Then the shapes and forms multiplied. I don’t think you could have found penne pasta anywhere in the country before 1980. Rigatoni, sure, but not penne.

A couple of processed food I remember:

Pop-tarts, flavored yoghurt, and fruit roll-ups.

[hotoynoodle]

pop-tarts were introduced in 1964. my mom was eating light-n-lively flavored yogurt in the 60s. fruit leather has been around forever too.

i grew up in the nyc area and there was no lack of different pasta shapes in the 60s.

agree with the post below about the silver palate books. they were every hostess' bible back then. i especially remember how fond they were of fruit sauces over meat. raspberry vinegar. yuk.

[Avalondaughter]

I don't think it was so much about different shapes being discovered as it was people were realizing that pasta had possibilities as a base for better food other than tomato sauce, alfredo sauce, lasagna and other chees-filled delights. In the 80s, pasta was thought of as a "diet food" because it was the sauces that made it fattening and not the pasta itself (and in the late 90s, they went back to demonizing it for the "carbs").

Because of the idea that pasta didn't have to be unhealthful or fattening, Pasta Salad became huge as did Pasta Primavera. Of course you had to call it Pasta Salad rather than macaroni salad because the latter meant elbows drowned in mayo.

[hotoynoodle]

lol, i guess growing up italian-american we saw it differently. pasta salad was, and remains, a crime against nature.

[freddybirdy]

" designer" pizza? a la Wolfgang Puck, Spago?

[Emme]

My thought exactly... the BBQ Chicken pizza especially.

Also, low-fat products... since the low-fat diet was huge... we didn't look at sugar content on labels or calories either really, just fat. Low fat cookies? Must be diet friendly ;)

Salad bars... like Souplantation or Fresh Choice

McDonald's McDLT and McRib

Candy-wise-- Sweetarts, Skittles, Nerds, Runts, Hubba Bubba Chewing Gum, Candy Dots, and Five Alive

Boboli

Push-Ups

Snapple (Mango Madness Cocktail!)

Cheese Puffs

Tuna Helper

Sara Lee Frozen Iced Cinnamon Rolls

Fi-Bars

Cookie Crisp Cereal, Trix ("silly rabbit, trix are for kids" commercials ran non-stop), Cocoa Krispies (koo koo for cocoa puffs! commercials ran like nuts too)

[Sister Sue]

Emme, you do have some hits on your list, but some of those on your list have been around for a long time. I enjoyed some of those when I was a kid in the late '60's and early '70's. Cheese Puffs have been around since the '40's. Trix and Cocoa Krispies were introduced in the '50's. Candy Dots are from the the '40's and Sweetarts from the '60's.

[Emme]

Cheetos came out in the 80's my bad.

True that some were not initiated in the 80's, but the cereals I really was going for the nostalgia of the commercials of the 80's promoting them, as the ad campaigns changed over time.

Candy Dots and Sweettarts were still much popular in the grade school yards in the 80's too...

[PotatoPuff]

hmmm candy, maybe pop rocks?

[aynrandgirl]

Don't forget Rondo. Lightly carbonated so you can slam it down! An Australian import, it was my favorite soft drink, but sadly it is no more.

[ellenb]

OMG RONDO! I grew up with Rondo in the midwest but none of my friends in the northeast have heard of it. How long was that actually around? Great post!

[aynrandgirl]

I'm not sure how long it was around, but it was until at least the early '80s in California.

[Chuckles the Clone]

Except for a a couple of pioneering outposts, decent coffee hadn't happened yet. So a percolator full of Chock-Full-O-Nuts would not be out of place.

[fara]

Things that come to mind: circus peanuts, lik m'sticks (vanilla candy you dip into sugar) or the sugar filled tubes (name escapes me), Wise cheese balls in a cylndrical container, Kraft mac n'cheese, frozen breaded chicken breast stuffed with broccoli n' cheese or ham n'cheese, tomato sauce with lots of vegetables mixed in over spaghetti, ritz crackers with cheddar cheese, nachos with bean dip jalapanenos and pepper jack cheese, ruffled potato chips with sour cream and onion dip, hi-c, capri-sun, evian,Old el paso tacos! those are the common foods...
the "gourmet" foods - calling something "gourmet" is VERY eighties, basically the standards on a restaurant menu that makes you think the place is not imaginative: molten chocolate cake, creme brulee, quiche with asparagus, MESCLUN!!, PHYLLO!! phyllo appetizers especially, mousakka, feta cheese in salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. did sweet salads ala mandarin oranges start in the eighties?

[notgreg]

Ha, this was fun reading for me. My 80's diet was dominated by Gerber and breastmilk, it's fun to see what I was just too young to capitalize on.

[vvvindaloo]

fara- pixie stix!

[PrincessBakesALot]

We LIVED for the orange-almond salad at the Magic Pan in the late 70's. Lots of crepes & pop-overs too.

[paprkutr]

How I miss that place. The orange almond salad was great, and I loved the chicken broccoli crepes.

[Kagey]

Crikey, fara! almost everything you mention in your first paragraph was from my childhood! But that was in the 70s...!

[fara]

really?? i guess those foods have real lasting power with kids. more imaginative at least than green ketchup. i remember distinctly too when I could eat each of those foods -my mom did not keep/make any of it except maybe the sour cream dip for a party. the wise cheese balls were strictly at one of my aunt's and one of my grandmother's houses.

[Kagey]

Ha! Yes, I do think it's the power of childhood-nostalgia. I still remember the first time I had a Lik 'm stick and thought it was the greatest invention ever. The cheese balls, Old El Paso tacos, and Kraft (Deluxe) mac n cheese were around a lot in our house. And I remember going to a friend's house after school (5th Grade) and making a huge batch of sour cream and onion soup dip, only to find that we had no potato chips. My friend's mom wasn't home. We just ate the whole tub with our fingers. 27 years later I'm still not sure I could face that stuff again.

[southernitalian]

Lik 'm Sticks were definitely early to mid-70's.

[ArikaDawn]

This site suggests blackened fish, monkey bread, and dirt/mud pie. Wouldn't exactly make for a well-rounded meal, but a well rounded posterior would be ensured if you ate those things too often, haha.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecad...

[Megiac]

How about really vertical food a la Gotham Bar & Grill (which opened in '84).

[Roberto7]

Would I be mistaken to suggest Fondue?

[tartiflette]

Fondue would be about 5-10 years off the mark. The height of the fondue craze was in the 1970s, with the most sophisticated version (for my folks and their friends, anyways) being the "Fondue Chinoise" - thinly sliced raw meat and various veggies which were dunked in a fondue pot filled with hot oil or boiling broth until cooked.

Which reminds me... I really should dust off ye olde fondue set for a cheesy 70's themed fondue party. :)

[jinet12]

Loaded potato skins, for sure...

[southernitalian]

When I think of the 80's (and I try not to too much) I think of Cajun spice on almost everything, bacon flavor on everything else, crepes, and, at least in NYC, Snapple.

[hungry_pangolin]

Roasted chicken breast stuffed with chevre, basil, and sundried tomato. Serve with a Californian chardonnay.

[Snackish]

Anything with sun-dried tomatoes.

"Chinese" Chicken Salad

Hot artichoke dip

[MrsT]

If they still make it...Duncan Hines and Pillsbury used to make microwave cakes. The mix cooked up in the microwave and came with frosting. My parents used to get it all the time. I don't really remember how good it was though...

[SpencerLV]

Remembering Jolly Ranchers were huge for a time there in the mid-80's. Too sour for me, though!

[swissgirl]

For drinks - California Coolers and Zima
The McDLT - Keep the hot side warm and the cool side cool

I thought of those but it turns out there is a website that lists Food of the 80s
http://www.inthe80s.com/food/index.shtml

For example:
Hawaiian Kettle Chips
Pudding Pops
New York Seltzer
Magic Pan Crepes

and many, many long gone cereals and fast food items (Rainbow Brite Cereal, anyone?)

[krez]

omg I used to love ET cereal - peanut butter and chocolate way before it's time!

[amyzan]

I'm pretty certain that Zima was a 90's introduction. I was in my early twenties and going to bars with my musician boyfriend when it was first on the market.

[visciole]

Agree -- early 90s. Another thing to dislike about that decade.

[laliz]

Zima was a 90s introduction. I quit drinking in 1991, then Zima came out and I couldn't have any ~~ a distinct memory.

[visciole]

You didn't miss much!

[eastcoastgirl_westcoastlife]

LOL @ pudding pops - remember Bill Cosby's plug for the Jell-o brand in the 80's? And pudding points from the popsicle sticks? Also - maybe pass around some Big League gum after dinner so everyone can have a chew ;)

[Sister Sue]

Wasn't Cajun food starting to get lots of attention in the '80's?

[Sra. Swanky]

According to the "From the 80s" recipes in the Better Homes & Garden's cookbook, homemade ice cream (made in one of the old-fashioned machines that you crank by hand!) was big! I thinking back about 20 years - it sure rings a bell!

[Gio]

Right! Paul Prudhomme was very popular then. Yukon Gold potatoes were introduced in the '80s.....as was Cheetos, Oscar Mayer hotdogs, and Boboli pizza crust. I remember Old El Paso tacos and all their accompaniments. Oh, and Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing....(Make my own now.)

[bachslunch]

Cheetos and Oscar Meyer dogs were part of my growing up back in the '60's and Old El Paso dates from at least the '70's if not before. But I think you're right about Boboli pizza crusts being an '80's thing.

[Gio]

Oh - thanks for that correction. I guess I was thinking about what my children clamored for...

[Glencora]

I remember things grilled over "vine cuttings." Sundried tomatoes were new and trendy, too. And wasn't that when Santa Fe was big? How about blue corn tamales served on peach and pale green plates.

[L_W]

Quiche...as in "real men don't eat..." I am pretty sure that was in the 80s.

[mselectra]

It was 1982, I just checked -- I don't have that off the top of my head! (though it made a big impression on me at the time -- as I think about it, parallels the defeat of the ERA and the rise of the New Right, interesting.) Of course, early 80s was still pretty 70s (I think quiche is maybe more 70s.)

I also think that a lot of "nouvelle cuisine" has just become so standard we don't think about it any more, especially using fresh seasonal ingredients and asian influences. To me, very 80s would be the individual pizzas with (then) unusual (and fresh) toppings and combinations, which you now get everywhere -- that is, California Pizza Kitchen type pizza.

Also, goat cheese.

[lagatta]

Quiche became popular in North America (and other English-speaking countries) in the 1970s.

In Lorraine, of course "real men" - miners and steelworkers - had eaten it for decades, as a starter before some hearty dish.

Nouvelle cuisine also got its start in the 1970s but perhaps took a few years to cross the pond from France.

A really nice trend in fresh, "California" cuisine in North American cookery got underway in the 1980s.

[ginnyhw]

I remember a friend complaining that she was sick of having "fruit dumped over her food" in restaurants- that was the downside of California Cuisine.
We watched Julia Child every Saturday at 5pm and tried to come up with Julia meals on a shoestring budget.

[Avalondaughter]

I recall that chocolate mousse was huge in the 80s. It stopped being a fancy dessert and was dumbed down for the masses with instant mixes and recipes for "mousse" using pudding and Cool Whip.

Mesquite was a popular flavor along with the blackened thing.

[krez]

Ah yes chocolate mousse LOL! That was so in the back of my mind but as soon as I read it I thought 'yes'!

My mom used to always make cream puffs, but I'm sure that was around for awhile too. I wonder if you can look up some old recipes somewhere.

[swf36d]

As far as fast food, chicken nuggets, loaded potato skins, and 7 layer dip were really popular in the 80's. Of fancy food, creme brulee first gained popularity in the late 80's. It seems all I can really remember about 80's food was junk food!

[vvvindaloo]

I believe the year was 1987: Jean-Georges V. catapults the molten chocolate cake to the top of dessert menus everywhere.
Other than that, everyday "foods" that remind me of the '80s include: Doritos, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Haagen Dazs Ice Cream, "deep dish" pizza, and white cheddar popcorn.

[5 and Dime Eater]

French Bread pizza and Tostitos Pizza rolls would make great 80's party food

[Jennalynn]

Blackened anything...

New Coke...

Bloomin' Onions...

Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers...

Chipwiches...

Tofutti....

[watercress]

Something with raspberry vinaigrette?

[jsjs09812]

Oh man, we always had Bartles & Jaymes in the house. My mother loved those. Makes me wonder what moms drink now?

Astronaut food, definitely. Tab. Shasta soda. It's hard to not think of junk food because I was a kid in the 80's and was convinced I could live off of slush puppies and Now & Laters.

Hi-C Ecto Cooler? Or was that the early 90's?

[Jennalynn]

Tab was a 60's thing... it was already dying in the 80's because Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke came out.

[Angela Roberta]

Diet Coke! That was a revolution in my life. It was sooo much better than the diet sodas that came before. I drank so many cans of Diet Coke that I'd get woozy from the caffeine and couldn't drive. Caffeine-Free Diet Coke was the next great step forward.

[bosun]

My mother drank TAB all through the 80's.

[shellyesq]

Wasn't Ecto Cooler related to Ghostbusters? In that case, it would be 80's.

My first thoughts were fruit roll-ups and Capri Sun drinks.

[Sister Sue]

js, sorry but a lot of the stuff you mentioned was around at least 15 to 20 years prior to your childhood. I was born in the early '60's and well remember having Tab (my mother always had some in the refrigerator), Sluch Puppies and Icees, Now or Laters, "astronaut" food (Tang, packets of freeze dried stuff) as a child.

[xena]

Hey SS, I hope you had some Space Food Sticks to nibble on while you drank your Tang.

[creativeusername]

Tofutti...Yes! And bran muffins.

[ipsedixit]

http://www.inthe80s.com/food/index.shtml

[Angela Roberta]

I vaguely recall kiwi tarts or some such being served at the White House. The ladies who lunch--not finishing their pasta primavera at Le Cirque. All-you-can-eat shrimp at Beefsteak Charlie's (New York area).

[tartiflette]

The only big fad I really remember from the 80s was Nouvelle Cuisine, with teensy little portions of overly complicated food (salmon mousse quenelles with dill cream, anyone?) nestled in ginormous plates, complete with fancy sauce dribbles. Might be hard to replicate for a party, though.

However, baked brie screams 1980s to me, for some odd reason. Or as a tongue-in-cheek reference to ET, bring along a large bowl of Reeses Pieces. :)

[mamamia]

I'm totally with you on the novelle cuisine. You just described the opening sequence to the movie "American Psycho", which takes place in the 80's.

This isn't something you could do for a party, but I do remember before the height of microwave frozen foods like Lean Cuise and such, there was......BOIL IN THE BAG!! I remember my mom buying Stouffers boil-in-the-bag roast beef and gravy, in convenient single serving sizes. bleccch.

[krez]

Ew at the boil in the bag Stouffers. That reminded me of Hamburger Helper and various microwave TV dinners on re-useable plastic plates that we kept for no apparent reason. I think that was still the 80's, before that it was salisbury steak and mashed potatoes in a foil package for the oven....

But hey, what about Reagan and his Jelly Bellys!