What was considered fancy food in the 70s?

Beef Wellington, Duck L'Orange

Liver and Onions

OP’s Moms crotch

Chicken Kiev

Jello molds. Betty Crocker cakes shaped like the Easter Bunny. Fondue. Et cetera et cetera et cetera.

I believe we've gone down this rabbit hole several times before but have at it if you will.

Shrimp cocktail

Pancakes Barbara!

Fondue!

Every newly wed couple received at least one fondue pot and cheese skewers as a wedding gift.

Ramaki on New Year’s Eve.

Nothing with Jello was ever considered fancy unless you lived in a mobile home park.

We ate caviar with boiled eggs and capers and drank champagne every Saturday.

Chicken Divan

Anything made with whip cream or can even be used to spread on someone’s body.

Veal Prince Orloff

Baked Alaska?

R14 I lived with Mr. Grant takes half of the Veal.

Oysters Rockefeller

WASP food at the clubs from the Main Line to the Cape. Or French food such as at La Caravelle. Also Trader Vic's tiki luxe, and Benihana. Also traditional expensive steak houses.

Shit on a shingle

Pork chops and applesauce.

Beef Bourganion even though it's really french peasant food.

This dessert was generally saved for special occasions.

Coq au vin

Bananas Foster?

Fondue!

Crepes Suzette, coq au vin, anything French.

Knickerbocker glory

Prawn cocktail

Escargot

I remembering hearing about filet mignon and associating it with snooty rich people.

The Viennetta. So fancy I still want it

The Viennetta. So fancy I still want it

Lobster Newberg.

There was a French restaurant that all the doctors went to. They were the richest people in town. Very expensive.

Steak tartare was considered hoity toity.

Lobster Thermidor

Quiche lorraine, pineapple upside down cake, Baked Alaska, Beef Wellington, Lobster Thermidor, Chicken Cordon Blue, Green Beans Almondine, Fondue.

Chicken.

Hamburger Helper, introduced in 1971.

An entire Luau

Oops, forgot steak and Coca Cola. Therefore, only my younger sister got to eat that stuff because she could throw tantrums and I was “a good kid”. Yep, she got to eat chicken, steak etc. every single night.

Baked Stuffed Lobster

Crepes and quiche were tres chic in the seventies.

Clam bakes were "exclusive" for a while. There were companies that catered to the wealthy who would take groups of people to the beach and do a clam bake where they used seaweed and dug pits and things. Lots of champagne cocktails.

These are pretty common nowadays but it was for the upper class back then.

Prime rib, roast beef, quiche, jello with fruit.

r27 Those seem more like late '50s into '60s to me.

I love prime rib! So hard to find in restaurants nowadays. I love mashed potatoes too but garlic has contaminated restaurant mashed potatoes. I found an old fashioned seafood place recently that has mashed potatoes and string beans as side dishes. I also miss diners that used to give separate bowls of mashed potatoes and string beans with dinner.

Crown roast of pork.

Caviar wishes and champagne dreams

Pâté was a popular as a "fancy" snack or hors d'oeuvre. Served with Dijon mustard (then new to the American market and, because French, fancy) and cornichons (ditto).

Escargots were also a popular appetizer for the same reason. Anything French, really, was considered fancy.

In the spirit of R44 and R45, a standing rib roast was considered one of the finest things you could serve your dinner guests.

This is making me hungry; all the serious suggestions in this thread are awfully good.

Spanish coffee

Black Forest Cake

Chateaubriand.

Riunite

You forgot "on ice!" R51.

Baked Pears Alicia

There weren't microwaves or bowl foods yet so it was hard to indulge. Most people ate maize, gruel and on special occasions, meatloaf.

Cornish game hens, cherries jubilee, and anything flambe!

Prime rib,crown of lamb or pork,beef wellington .many other shellfish dishes as well

There's Craig Claiborne's dinner for two in Paris in 1975, costing $4000:

Beluga caviar consommé of wild duck with shreds of crepes and herbs parfait of sweetbreads mousse of quail in a small tarte Belon oysters with beurre blanc lobster with truffle sauce poularde de Bresse with wild mushrooms in a cream sauce chartreuse of partridge Limosin beef with rare truffle sauce ortolans en brochette wild duck in salmis rognonette de veau woodcock chaudfroid vintage wines desserts and dessert wines.

Screw it. I had it written as a list and now it shows up as a paragraph without commas.

Apparently old money WASPs would eat any old crap at home.

Beluga caviar, consommé of wild duck with shreds of crepes and herbs, parfait of sweetbreads, mousse of quail in a small tarte, Belon oysters with beurre blanc, lobster with truffle sauce, poularde de Bresse with wild mushrooms in a cream sauce, chartreuse of partridge, Limosin beef with rare truffle sauce, ortolans en brochette, wild duck in salmis, rognonette de veau, woodcock chaudfroid, vintage wines, desserts and dessert wines.

"pineapple upside down cake"

I thought this was more like coffee klatch/potluck comfort food.

I think sushi was considered very "exotic" and fancy in the 70s but became more common place if still expensive in the 80s.

Of course, once you could buy "sushi" at truck stop it lost quite a bit of its allure.

R43 I’m in Australia, we were and are decades behind the times

Prime Rib

r57/r60, you have to hit enter after each entry. I usually hit enter twice after each entry just to be on the safe side:

Beluga caviar,

consommé of wild duck with shreds of crepes and herbs,

parfait of sweetbreads,

etc.

Vicchyssoise

Steak Diane and Steak Au Pouivre

Pepperidge Farm Cookies

A special dinner on Friday night my mother would make Veal or Chicken Parmigiana with Fettuccine Alfredo and Italian seasoned vegetables. This was ca. 1979.

Dubonnet on ice

Campari and soda

Veal Parmesan

[quote]R57/R60, you have to hit enter after each entry. I usually hit enter twice after each entry just to be on the safe side:

Thanks, R64. I did hit enter after each item and it did look like a list before I hit "post". Then it shows up as a paragraph. I'll hit enter twice.

Hello to the WASP at R69.

[quote]What was considered fancy food in the 70s?

I assume that Jeff Stryker's dick would fulfill this requirement.

Popup Pizzas

I'm English, so -

Smoked Salmon

Asparagus

Avocado

Chicken A La King

Sauce Bearnaise

Steak

Chicken Vol Au Vent

You’ve got me pegged, R72!

When we were very good, mommy would make

The three C items: Caviar, Champagne, and Cocaine. If you had guests who really had an appetite, the other C would be Coquilles Saint-Jacques served in the shells.

Oysters Rockefeller, champagne and pearls! Or, Wine and cheese and tweeds!

R78 - cocaine was all the rage in the 90s! It was wonderful because you could enjoy a night out with cocktails and then do a line if you got tired and be instantly perked up and ready to hit the dance floor. I miss those days!

General Foods International Coffees, I’m 100% serious.

Swiss steak

rolled flank steak with stuffed wild rice

Escalloped potatoes

Flounder or turbot with creamy dill sauce

scallops in aspic

For "Mexican night" -- tacos from the box kit or Tamale pie

Chung King "Chop Suey"

Tang

Ovaltine!

Green Goddess dressing. It was everywhere.

Canapes, I heard they were popular from my rich aunt who gave parties regularly back in the 70-80s.

Quiche Lorraine and a spinach salad with warm bacon dressing

This was so sophisticated to a boy from North Carolina.

Chicken a la king, the height of sophisticated eating!

R81, my dear, your prole origins betray you.

Brie cheese

Mousse au chocolat. NOT to be confused with chocolate pudding, lord no!

I think a lot of the French influence, as shown by boeuf bourguignon, crêpes, filet of sole, brie, quiche, etc, is directly attributable to Julia Child and her PBS show.

Benihana (Japanese steakhouse)

Italian dishes today are very common but back in the 70s if you really wanted to impress guests you served lasagna, or pasta Carbonara, or linguine with clam sauce. It's amazing how impressed white people were with foods we ate all the time.

R91 I how I loathe Benihana. They make you pay upwards of $30 for some in the bag, refried and diced, bland as hell, fake Japanese food that doesn't cost $3 and they give the kid sitting next to you, more than you, as an adult.

Souffles were a big things

& what was that bread that you'd dip in the hot cheese thing called? with a long fork.

In England - I kid you not, but real Americana was considered exotic, fancy even - Baskin Robbins Ice Cream, Root Beer floats, real American burger joints (there were so few), American Variety Pack cereals...

[quote]I think a lot of the French influence, as shown by boeuf bourguignon, crêpes, filet of sole, brie, quiche, etc, is directly attributable to Julia Child and her PBS show.

True. My mother hardly cooked a decent meal in her life until she got the gospel according to St. Julia sometime in the late '60s. She gave me a copy of Julia's [italic]The French Chef Cookbook[/italic] when I went to college in the '70s. We both made things like quiche Lorraine, coquilles St. Jacques, a number of things with crabmeat, and chocolate mousse. She made her favorite all the time, French onion soup. I also learned to make fruit tarts.

I knew how to make southern Italian food since childhood. Later in the '70s, I discovered northern Italian courtesy of Marcella Hazan. I never thought of it as fancy, per se, though making my own pasta was quite the feat. Glad I learned to do that.

Now I'm missing these foods. Not that I had a chance to eat them often. But I remember eating a really good beef Wellington and Lobster Newburg (different occasions). Still love escargots as well.

I finally tried pate for the first time. I don't think I need to eat that again.

Minced clams mixed with cream cheese. Put that on a Triscuit and then a few seconds under the broiler until slight browned and bubbly.

Celery stalks with a cream cheese and olive filling.

Creamed chipped beef (shit on a shingle).

My mom would host these ladies luncheons and would serve this slop (more in the 80s though)

Coq au vin, or as we call it in the UK shagging in a lorry.

Steak Diane or Steak Oscar

R93, I realize now I was thinking of Tanaka of Tokyo, not Benihana. But it’s probably the same sort of fare.

Shrimp cocktail wasn’t fancy food. It was a standard restaurant appetizer in the 1970s, along with baked clams.

Beef Stroganoff

Pears with mayo and shredded cheese

Celery with pimento cheese

Wow, R104. I've gotta stop mixing Xanax and vodka. I read your middle line as "Pears with mayo and shredded cheese!"

I agree on Benihana. I went there for dinner before HS prom and also before a formal at college. It was the fancy eating place.

[quote]Shrimp cocktail wasn’t fancy food. It was a standard restaurant appetizer in the 1970s

And the 1960s, the 1950s, and probably well before.

My parents always used to eat Coquilles Saint Jacques back in the '70s.

Benihana for real?

Had no idea it started out that way.

When I was around 10 or 11 or so, it was the place where everyone had their birthday party. You'd get like a dozen kids around the table and the chefs would do special tricks for the birthday boy or girl.

This was mid-late 90s though.

^^And your coat would smell like Benihana for the next few days.

Veal Prince Orlov

At least R14 spelled it correctly R111

Bean Dip

Popovers

Baked Stuffed Jumbo Lobster

Baked Alaska

Orlov is spelled with a “v” (B) in Russian, not an “f” (ф)

In English however.... (and damn does that look nasty)

So was this fancy food kept in an avocado or harvest gold refrigerator?

That’s looks like grim death r99.

While truffles.

R105, Southern style means mayo on everything in quantity. Mayonnaise sandwiches with or without tomatoes. BLT if fancier. Tons of mayonnaise or Miracle Whip on every kind of salad imaginable or vegetable or starch combo imaginable. Of course mayonnaise or Cool Whip or Miracle Whip or a combination of 2 of the 3 on all Jell-O salads.

Progressive dinners and backwards dinners were also a thing along with sleepovers.

Croque Madame, Croque Monsieur

Coquilles St. Jacques

Anything foreign, except Chinese and Italian, which we always had. Such as sushi.

It wasn't fancy schmancy food but my friend came from a wealthy family and beef rouladin was as a bog fave of theirs.

Big fave

They weren't bog Irish

Rack of lamb with mint jelly

R75 and R85- Those vol au vent pastry shells are known in the US as patty shells. Pepperidge Farm makes frozen ones; they’re still available. They can be filled with any creamed dish, but creamed chicken ( to make chicken vol au vent) and various creamed vegetables are most common among savory fillings.

[quote] what was that bread that you'd dip in the hot cheese thing called? with a long fork.

R94, that was fondue. In fact, it still is.

R84, yes to Green Goddess dressing! That needs to make a comeback.

Most of the foods listed here were the fancy foods of the 1950s and '60s.

The 70s had moved on.

Quiche was all the rage. Raw spinach salad. Pasta "primavera". Patè. Quenelles. Cassoulet. Red snapper. Escargots. Truffles.

High Point Coffee, of course!

It's the De[italic]CAFF[italic]inator's Coffee!

R128, yes - quiche and spinach salad with a glass of white wine (probably Chablis) was the classic fancy middle-class lunch of the '70s.

^^^ Let me revise that to "fancy shopping mall middle-class lunch". It's the kind of thing you'd have with your mother at a nice restaurant in the most upscale mall in town. In big cities, truly fancy lunches at truly fancy restaurants could get a lot fancier because we were at the tail end of the age of haute cuisine.

Crepes were also new and considered fancy.

Brunch was a new thing ...eggs benedict, eggs "Florentine"...the Bloody Mary....

Lobster bisque

R105 , your Mother NEVAH made cling Pears with a dollop of mayo and Shredded cheese ?

Your low rent family probably did not have Part time help or a Bunt cake mold .

[quote]Anything foreign, except Chinese and Italian, which we always had. Such as sushi.

I don't remember sushi in the 70s. I think it "happened" in the 80s.

[quote]Brunch was a new thing ...eggs benedict, eggs "Florentine"...the Bloody Mary....

Interesting. I wonder where and when the brunch hoopla began.

My mom thought this was way fancy.

R128-Is so right. A lot of the dishes people mentioned were fancy food in the 1960's NOT the 1970's. Lobster Newburg for instance.

My mother would serve cheddar cheese with red wine swirled into it to company ca. 1974.

Crêpes Suzette.

Vicodin and a martini

I definitely agree with the people who mentioned quiche. In the 1970's everyone called it quiche lorraine. In the 1970's people said-Mercedes Benz. No one says the benz anymore.

[quote]Croque Madame, Croque Monsieur

Yes, very 1970s fancy luncheon food.

[quote]Coquilles St. Jacques

Yes.

So many delicious memories here. . . . in Virginia, only to be had at the finest weddings and events, slivers of Smithfield ham on small beaten biscuits. So divine I can still taste my first one.

[quote]So many delicious memories here

All trips back to the America of the '70s are good ones on DL.

I'll tell you one thing I loved when I went to the USA in those days was the way you were nearly always offered a salad with a choice of dressing every place you went. I always chose Thousand Island. To me that was exotic and fancy.

I remember getting back to London and thinking when will I next be able to have a salad with Thousand Island dressing.

R136 Not the best source, but some basic info.

Thanks, R146.

But I'll always prefer the British Sunday Roast.

Quiche Lorraine!

"Health food" had been around for decades but it really caught on in the early 70s: granola, yogurt, big salads as a meal.

Hard to believe but Yogurt was exotic back then. People only started to eat it when Dannon had the brilliant idea of selling it in containers with a layer of fruit.

AND Haagen Dazs.

The first "gourmet" ice cream really took off in the 1970s. Before that ice cream was ice cream.

Along with the ubiquitous raw spinach salad (with raw mushrooms) there was the salad Nicoise . Very big in the 70s.

Jordan almonds.

[quote]Crepes were also new and considered fancy.

Crepes were hardly new in the '70s, but they were a fad for a while.

[quote]Crepes Suzette, coq au vin, anything French.

Where Cathy adores a minuet, the Ballets Russes, and Crepes Suzette, our Patty loves to rock and roll, a hot dog makes her lose control.

[quote]Crepes were hardly new in the '70s, but they were a fad for a while.

People knew Crepes Suzette. A fancy desert in the 50s and 60s but savory crepes were new to most people in the 70s. And they did become a 1970s fad. The Magic Pan.

Onion soup had also been around but was quite a fad in the 1970s. Every NYC restaurant seemed to offer quiche and onion soup.

I remember a restaurant called “the American Cafe” in DC which was very trendy and served Americanized French food. American food, like pimento cheese and collard greens, didn’t get popular until recently.maybe due to the farm to table movement. Back in the seventies, all the midwestern immigrants thought quiche Lorraine was the height of sophistication, and they were ashamed of their fried catfish roots. Now it’s the opposite.

[quote] Your low rent family probably did not have Part time help or a Bunt cake mold .

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

B U N D T

When did "Ladies Who Lunch" first start getting into Tuna Fish Salad? I remember American women always eating that and I don't mean Diane in Arkansas.

Fondue. Crepes. Paella.

These Andes layered mint candies seemed fancy to me.

Cock. With a full, untrimmed bush.

I worked in a "fancy" restaurant in the late 1970s, so this is different from the home version of fancy foods. This was the last gasp of restaurants that began after WWII with sommeliers, waiters in tuxedos, hat check girls, and table-side cooking. Mid-size city but I also think there were still remnants of this in the big towns too. Veal Oscar, Steak Diane, Daisy Chicken, Shrimp or Crab Louis, Crepes Mornay, Onion Soup Gratinee, Caesar Salads whipped up by the host, flaming brandy sauces for kebabs, and weird desserts.

The influx of French dishes really started in the 60s with Julia Child, and that brought in to the 60s things like soufflés and then in the 70s things like quiches, which were considered very exotic and glamorous. (Quiches were much easier to cook than soufflés, and not apt to fall in the oven.) Old favorites from the previous decades--food with names appended to it because of how they were prepared (Lobster Newburg, Steak Diane, Beef Wellington) continued to be big on restaurant menus. Italian food was also starting to be taken more seriously, although pseudo-Italian food (like fettucine alfredo) dominated over actual Italian food.

[quote]I remember a restaurant called “the American Cafe” in DC which was very trendy and served Americanized French food.

I liked American Cafe, but I liked it even more when it was Blimpie's. I had one delivered almost every night my last year at GW.

Was chocolate mousse considered fancy?

yes, R166

A backwards dinner--what a cunning idea!!!

Now I want chicken a la king SO BAD.

I’m craving Steak Diane but my partner refuses to eat mushrooms.

When were Swedish meatballs a big thing? Wasn't that in the 70s????

r170 My mother made the worst Swedish meatballs in the world—she didn't cook her onions before folding them into the meat—and she started in the 1950s.

I first had sushi in about 1975 in San Francisco, in Japantown (does that still exist--I have lived in LA for years). It was pretty unknown everywhere else even in LA at that time. I loved it from the first taste and still do. I remember that even much earlier my mother, who was from New York and knew from fancy cooking, used to make bouillabaisse, which I learned to make from one of the early Julia Child cookbooks. Didn't make my own fish stock though but maybe I did? The Silver Palate Cookbook was a very popular 70s cookbook that everybody had and used for parties and stuff to bring to potlucks. It's probably still around. Had a lot of great recipes. One of the two authors died quite young. They had a popular takeout place in the West Village I think, where they developed the recipes in the book.

R30, my first thought was the Vienetta too but it wasn’t introduced until the early 80s

Most of this stuff was 60s or even 50s.

70s: Spinach salad, Moussaka, fancy hamburgers, anything with a chicken breast, cream of brocolli soup, imported beer

Felafal & Gyros would have been the new plebian ethnic foods

r172 The Silver Palate was on Columbus Avenue, near 73rd.

The Bacardi rum cake was big. I used to make it frequently for work parties.

Garbanzo Beans a la King!

I have to laugh at a few of these, as both chicken divan and rumaki were in regular rotation for dinner. I'm 50 years old, so these would show up in our house throughout the 80's. We were a low income family...but both my mother and father were excellent cooks. Loved the chicken divan, HATED rumaki (i hate liver).

dog food meatloaf

I still love almost all of these posted. In fall and winter, I enjoy anything in vol au vents. Paté and all the steak or beef dishes are still in a heavy rotation for me as well.

When Windows On The World a fancy restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center opened in '76 Steak Tartare was the cheapest entree on the menu.

The Scarsdale diet became so popular restaurants would put lamb chops on the menu on the night of the week that lamb chops were the dinner dictated on the diet, ie, Wednesday night was lamb chop night in the book).

The chocolate mousse in Rosemary's Baby turned me off from chocolate mousse. I think there was poison or drugs in it.

[quote]Steak Tartare was the cheapest entree on the menu.

Of course it was -- they didn't have to cook it!

R157, if you were in DC in the ‘70s, you might remember the Cafe de Paris in Georgetown. They had a dish of scallops broiled in vermouth that was amazing. It always jammed, and the service was rude and rushed, but it felt so boho-chic to eat there. Oh, and like all bistros of the time, it was smoky as hell. People smoked waiting for their food, between courses, waiting for the check, and gabbing with friends after eating. I can only imagine how the typical 21st century American would react to all that smoke, but we took it for granted.

Au Pied de Cochon was another Georgetown bistro. I liked it better than Cafe de Paris, although I'm sure it was just as smoky.

[quote]American food, like pimento cheese and collard greens, didn’t get popular until recently.maybe due to the farm to table movement.

That was a "movement"?

[R185] I was a kid then, but I remember those restaurants, and all the smoking! The Vietnamese restaurant in Georgetown made the best food I had had up to that point in life. I wish I could go back in time and taste it again for the first time, because I take it for granted now.

R185, I went out on a date to Au Pied du Cochon, and my date got in a huge tiff with someone who was smoking a cigar. What a guy! I didn't dare smoke another cigarette. (1981, btw.)

r187, was the Vietnamese restaurant on M St, not far from Cafe de Paris, maybe a block closer to Foggy Bottom? I used to go to one there for lunch on Saturdays in the '90s with a Vietnamese friend.

[R188] Yes it was, and I think it still is, but now with all the choices at Eden Center in Falls Church I haven’t been in years.

I grew up in southern Indiana so we didn't get too much of the fancy French foods you guys got. The fanciest I remember were the things mom would make for boozy cocktail parties with the neighbors. She made some sort of cheesy sausage thing that sat on those little dry German rye bread squares and baked sauerkraut cheese balls. Looking back now I can see the German heritage in our region in those appetizers. When the adults all left the kids got to come out of their rooms and polish off the leftovers. The fanciest restaurant in town was a Japanese steakhouse called F's.

R154---What a wild duet!

I lived in DC from 78-87 and remember those places, as well as Aux Fruits de Mer (which sounds like a gay lifeguard team) and Cafe La Ruche.

Bicentennial cakes.

Salad bars were as gourmet as it got in the '70s. People would ooh and aah over them. So many different things to put on your salad, and the choice of salad dressings was overwhelming. As a kid, making a trip to the salad bar was like going to Disney World.

I remember my sister putting two different kinds of dressing on her salad because she couldn't choose. Exciting times.

r192, I worked in Georgetown in the 1980s, and Cafe La Ruche was one of my usuals. Aux Fruits de Mer was next to Au Pied du Cochon, n'est-ce pas?

[quote]Salad bars were as gourmet as it got in the '70s. People would ooh and aah over them.

And that was before salad bars added sneeze barriers.

[quote]I remember my sister putting two different kinds of dressing on her salad because she couldn't choose.

She must have chosen Once around the Garden.

I'll second fondue, but most of the above goes waaaaay back much further than the 1970s. Chicken a la King? Forget that.

Salad bars were fab in the 1970s, they were all you could eat and at dozens of restaurants, but it wasn't "fancy," the question is about fancy foods. Anway, I'll throw in that in this pre-Reagan era, you could handle raw chicken and eat a raw egg without fear of getting sick. Every morning I used to put a raw egg in the blender with my Carnation Instant Breakfast powder with milk before I went to high school in 1974. 1980s Reagan deregulation made food unsafe.

Anything eaten with utensils.

Strawberries Romanoff. This is probably another thing from the '60s, actually. Involved fresh strawberries, brown sugar, and real whipped cream.

Actually, it involved sour cream.

Brewed teas and coffees were considered fancy in the '70s. Most people back then used insane tea and coffee. You would take a teaspoon of tea or coffee crystals and mix them with water. Brewed coffee/tea was saved for special occasions, like bridge club or church socials.

Brewed coffee became a thing with the introduction of the Mr. Coffee machine that Joe DiMaggio advertised on TV.

My family drank brewed coffee at home every day, r202, in the 1950s and before.

It's amazing how tastes change. I searched for a restaurant in Houston that serves fresh spinach salad with bacon dressing and couldn't find one. Also quiche is found primarily in bakery restaurants now.

Those dishes need to be rediscovered.

And what ever became of kiwi fruit?

Anything from Julia Childs French cookbook.

[quote] Also quiche is found primarily in bakery restaurants now.

Never liked it. real frau food.

^^ Aaron Schock

R202, everyone had at least a percolator on the stove for coffee until the electric Mr Coffee machines came out

I’ve always loved a cup of fresh-perked coffee ... fresh-perked coffee ... fresh-perked coffee ...

After decades of using drip coffeemakers, I just started using an electric percolator. It's kind of retro-cool and makes good coffee. And the best part is that it doesn't have an automatic shutoff so the coffee stays hot all morning. I hate having to reheat coffee in the microwave.

Your taste buds must be non existent r211. Perked coffee is generally bitter and awful if not prepared and served precisely, and if it's left hot for more than 5 minutes it tastes like absolute shit. At least get a thermal carafe.

[quote]At least get a thermal carafe.

That they keep their brewed coffee in thermal carafes is the real reason people don't like Starbucks coffee. Not because it's "burnt." It's fine when I make it at home. I generally don't, but if I had to drink Starbucks, I'd only brew it at home.

R198, Orange Julius also offered customers a raw egg addition for extra protein.

Stouffers frozen dinners

R204, I agree! Quiche would have to be re-named because it's still so closely associated with the '70s. I suggest adopting tarte - mushroom tarte, spinach tarte, etc. Maybe that would help people overcome the stereotype associated with quiche. Or maybe the problem is that French food seems to be out of fashion at the moment. It's hard to find pâté even at Whole Foods.

Like you, though, I'm mystified by the disappearance of '70s-style spinach salad. Everybody loves bacon; people eat so-called dinner salads all the time. Why not revive this one? Maybe part of the problem is that you really need grown-up spinach - the dark-green kind with big, crinkly leaves. Baby spinach would instantly wilt in such a heavy dressing. Unfortunately, adult spinach is hard to find; the stores near me seem to sell only baby and teenage spinach.

Fortunately, both quiche and spinach salad are super-easy to make at home (if you can find the right spinach for the latter).

R216 Quiche could go retro. Call it "Sausage and Egg Pie."

Percolator! That takes me back to the 1960s, R209. My parents used Eight O Clock coffee from the A&P, and it was GODAWFUL. Then they divorced in the 70s and my mother then skipped coffee altogether. I drank freeze-dried instant whatever, it was better than the perked version.

Wine and cheese parties were all the rage.

Szechuan and Hunan were cutting-edge in the 70s. A pu-pu platter was a meal for a special occasion. It made quite a presentation with its flaming sterno can and skewers to heat up the dumplings, rolls, and such.

I read this thread and it really REALLY made me wonder about my grandmother's background. I wish I had asked more questions when I was little, before she died.

I am first generation American (Nana and family were German) and in a small, rural New England state. we were poor, DIRT poor. and we ate a lot of the things in this thread as just normal food and I think of them as poor people food. Quiche, french onion soup, crepes (breakfast and savory), stuffed chicken parts (breast, thigh), etc are poor people food. I wonder where my nana learned those things to cook?

or maybe it was a time when Americans had basically forgotten how to cook after the advent of canned, frozen foods and peasant food was easy to make?

^^your grandparents must have been from Alsace region.

I don't know sadly, r222. my nana always said Austria but I later learned that was due to American suspicion of Germans.

^^ Anywhere in western Germany you'd find these recipes. Alsace through the Black Forest along the French and Swiss border region are the most likely for the 1960s and 1970s.

Canned smoked oysters were a specialty served in our house with Kraft singles and Saltine crackers.

she's the reason I can't eat baked goods as an adult. she was a professional baker. meanwhile, fancy food in the 70s at my birth mother's apartment was sliced hotdogs in lentil soup. :/

[quote] That they keep their brewed coffee in thermal carafes is the real reason people don't like Starbucks coffee.

I started ordering Cafe Americano coffee whenever I am at a Starbucks (or wherever). It's basically a fresh-"brewed" cup of coffee. I never wanted to order it before, because it sounded stupid (watered-down espresso). However, it's my go-to order now. Try it! Not watery at all.

Cherries Jubilee.

Coquille St Jacques.

r227, caffe americano is what I order in coffee shops. Thanks.

R228 Cherries Jubilee was not a 1970s food. It would have been considered retro even back then. Some of the dishes listed here Beef Wellington, baked Alaska etc were fancy foods from the '50s.

R218, percolators make terrible coffee but they smell better than any other coffee-making method. It’s tempting to buy and perk some cheap coffee just to get that “Good morning!” smell going through the house. “It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee” wouldn’t have made much sense without percolators.

R219, I remember those! Wine and cheese receptions were our go-to fancy event in the office where I had my first real job.

We still have late-afternoon receptions where I work now (academia is like that), and wine and cheese are featured, but there are other hors d’oeuvres as well. In the ‘70s it was all about a big variety of cheeses, always including some that were new or different. They were consumed with Carr’s water crackers and maybe slices of French bread.

In general, the '70s were very cheese-y in more ways than one. In DC (Georgetown), there was even a restaurant called The Big Cheese.

Not understanding how percolator coffee is so much worse than French press coffee. Yes, it will be bad if you keep it on the stove percolating forever. It should taste fine if you brew it for a limited amount of time.

R234, I think the issue is that the water is almost always overheated, leading to a bitter flavor. Water for coffee should be about 10 degrees below the boiling point. With non-electric ones, that would be a big challenge. Even electric percolators had to heat the water hot enough to get it to "perk" through the coffee. I think that's too hot for good flavor ... but I'm guessing.

Wasn’t alive in the 70s, but my mother would make steak tartare as a dinner party hors d'oeuvre. Always sounded gross to me and I like my steaks VERY rare.

By the 80s, her go-to appetizer was escargot baked in new potatoes.

Beef consommé with noodles ...but not a lot of noodles

R231, my parents made Cherries Jubilee into the '80s. People made some of the same "fancy food" their parents did, like Beef Wellington and Baked Alaska. That's provincial living, pre-internet.

I used to get terrible headaches from wine and cheese parties. By the time I realized why, they had gone out of fashion.

Watermelon baskets were quite the fancy showstoppers in the 80s. I remember being astonished the first time I saw one at a wedding shower. I had never seen such culinary showmanship before. I always did have an eye for the finer things in life.

I remember the smell of old “coffee shops” which weren’t really coffee shops. They were pre-fast food places where you’d go for a grilled cheese sandwich, a hamburger, a hot dog (all 3 served on grilled bread with a handful of potato chops and a slice of pickle) or a sandwich or soup. They always smelled like coffee and cream. Not milk, but a rich, creamy aroma.

Watergate Salad, if you liked pistachios; I did not.

YES, R220. Some of you from Westchester may remember when Central Avenue had dozens of Hunan restaurants from Yonkers to White Plains in the 1970s. The dreaded Tung Sing still stood (near four corners in Hartsdale on Central Ave), I always wondered if anyone under 75 went there.

R241, they were called COFFEE SHOPS.

Space Food Sticks.

Spinning bowl salad prepared at your table.

York Steak House - Growing up in the 70's, when taking a family of 5 out for steak dinners was actually affordable.

[quote] [R241], they were called COFFEE SHOPS.

Which is what R241 said they were called.

Loved York Steak House. That was a damn treat for an '80s kid.

My parents took us to Steak & Ale for "fancy" dinners, but I liked it less.

Ground Round was another restaurant fave. TGIFridays and Houlihan's, too

R250, was that the one with the peanut shells all over the floor?

"Japanese food" was grilled on a table in front of you, such as Benihana. They were the rage in the 1970s, and you came out smelling of grease - clothes and all.

Cafeterias were considered fancy in the 70s. Mainly because of all the selection of salads, entrees, sides and desserts. I remember being overwhelmed by the abundance as a child. My mother would always tell me, "You need to make a decision, people are waiting."

Luby's cafeteria was the bomb back then! I was fascinated at how they cut up jell-o into little cubes. I thought that was so classy.

I still like Benihana’s. It’s fun.

[quote] This Syria issue has really pissed off some bigtime Republican Senators. This could be his Waterloo

No they weren’t

r252, when I worked at Compaq in Houston we'd go to Luby's at least once a week for a Luann platter for lunch! Memories! Thanks, r252!

Chateaubriand

Steak Diane

French and Swiss cuisines were considered fancy.

Chateaubriand

Steak Diane

French and Swiss cuisines were considered fancy.

"Steak Diane"

NO FUCKING WAY. You were born in 1997, R257.

[quote]Luby's cafeteria was the bomb back then! I was fascinated at how they cut up jell-o into little cubes.

This thread seems to have wandered away from the premise of "fancy foods."

Almost anything French, especially a Julia Child dish or something from the Gastronimique. Saumon en croute, but heck - anything en croute.

Soufflé au chocolat . Wicked hard to make, but huge success when it came off just right. Always with a vanilla sauce, not craptastic fruit.

Christ, it's frigging coffee you babies. Of course it's bitter, it's coffee, dash of milk and two sugars and just drink the god damn thing.

Baked Alaska

R261 I like you, Smitty. It’s nice to know not everyone is a Yuban girl. Some folks are generic aisle, bag your own beans people.

Isn't Baked Alaska a '60s food?

I remember in the '70s, Russian caviar, on toast points, with egg, onions, and capers -- with French champagne and cocaine was considered a fancy way to start an evening.

Ratatouille was big in the 70s (because of Julia). Good dish to bring to a potluck.

[quote]Isn't Baked Alaska a '60s food?

It became popular in the '50s.

Cafeterias were never considered fancy foods. Ever.

Hey remember the Luby’s shooting? All those big bad Texans loving their big bad guns, but the guy ended up shooting himself after cops got there. No good Texan stopped a bad Texan with a gun.

He turned that Luanne Platter into Luanne Splatter!!

Beef Wellington

Coquille St Jacques

Table side Caesar Salad

Lobster tail with drawn butter.

Quiche was chic...and fondues.

Definitely fondue. My mother used to routinely throw fondue parties and she had a fabulous hostess outfit with white crocheted hot pants under a matching top that was split up the sides to the waist.

To the person saying how hard it is to find prime rib, there are a handful of places near me that have prime rib night. I love it and we usually have it for Christmas dinner.