Food that REMINDS YOU of the 80s

Hoogies.

I lived in Jersey much of the 80s.

Sun tea

Sun dried tomatoes

I’m sensing a theme.

govt cheese;

couldn't melt it with an open flame.

Caviar... such a rare thing now.

Things like mozzarella sticks, potato skins, loaded nachos, and blooming onions from places like Bennigan’s and TGI Fridays, back in the mid-80’s when those places were half way decent.

Served with a large side of ranch dressing of course.

Pop rocks

I loved those Pizza Hut deep dish personal pizzas too...i always thought PH put the right amount of sauce on the crust, and it was so tasty! No PH near me for miles so haven't had their pizza in years.

Twix and Kit Kat bars. You get both and share them with a friend.

Oh, how could i forget nachos loaded with the drippy, melty cheese from the cafeteria, lots of jalapenos!

R6 I miss the Pizza Slut personal pan pizzas I used to eat quite frequently in London.

French onion soup, chicken marsala, lobster bisque, sushi, pesto, quiche

Forgot to sign.

Eggs Benedict

I had a Jolt Cola addiction as a child.

Take the Nestea plunge!

FUDGE

Vienetta

Anything described as "nouvelle"

Fondue, served at every party.

Swedish meatballs, served at every other party.

Crepes (I really miss the Magic Pan!)

Orange Julius

Pasta salad

R6- Pop Rocks was introduced in 1977 when I was in Junior high school. The late 70's was it's peak in popularity.

Key Lime Pie

r19, OPs original post said it didn't have to ORIGINATE in the 80s, just that it reminds you of the 80s. I went to Jr & Sr High in the 80s and believe me, Pop Rocks were still VERY popular with all the kids. Especially when combined with carbonated soda.

"Gourmet" frozen dinners.

My cheap ass trashy aunt Pat had a whole collection of plastic plates from Le Menu.

A lot of this stuff goes back further. Fondue was a 60s/70s thing. Magic Pan and Orange Julius also a 70s thing.

Large Pepperidge Farm cookies with chunks of nuts and white and dark chocolate in the white bag. They’re still around, but in the 80’s it felt like they were special.

Pizza Hut’s Priazzo (Italian pie)

Budget Gourmet linguine and clam sauce. So good. The Budget Gourmet brand went to shit when it became Michelina’s.

Fondue seemed like a 70s thing to me. Our circa 1972 burnt orange fondue pot gathered dust all through the 80s in the basement. So the fondue pot reminds me of the 80s, just sadly with no gloopy cheese sauce in it.

r24 Pepperidge Farms remembers.

Hagen Daz Cookies and Cream ice cream. I remember when that flavor first hit and then it was everywhere.

Dust

r19/r23: did you read the VERY FIRST LINE of the original post:

"It doesn't necessarily have to originate in the 1980s. It should have been popular in the 80s."

wine coolers

McDLTs.

Soft baked packaged cookies

R32 OMG I forgot about the pre-packaged “soft cookie” trend.

Or giant cookies with frosting like a birthday cake. They always had places at the mall that sold them.

Sizzling fajitas

Taco salad!

Nouvelle cuisine. Also any fish that could have been served at Aquavit or Le Bernardin. Vegetarian food that is much better than 60s slop but not refined yet.

I now realize General Foods International Coffee was well ahead of its time. I remember those commercial from the early 80s. I dreamt of a fabulous tour around Europe with such exotic flavors as Cafe Vienna, Suisse Mocha, Café Français, Cappuccino, and Irish Mocha Mint. Nowadays, the same idea is sold encapsulated in wasteful little pods for 20x the markup.

I was going to mention Quiche Lorraine but that was all the rage by the late 1970's- and it does remind me of the 1970's- now with the Cheese, Heavy Cream, Eggs and Bacon it reminds me of a HEART ATTACK ON A PLATE.

[quote]2. Sloppy Joes, Beef Stroganoff

Why?...why are these two listed together?

Weird list.

The '80s are when I really started learning to cook. I remember (and still love, in most cases):

homemade egg pasta

sun dried tomatoes

pesto (I'd avoided fresh basil previously because I hated dried basil so much; then I tasted pesto. Mmmm.)

parmigiano-reggiano

stuff I made from Martha Stewart's and Alice Waters' cookbooks (cranberry tarts; leek and chevre as a filling for lots of things)

Tex-Mex

white chocolate in lots of desserts, including cakes, mousse, cookies; and just eating it plain

lemon curd

flourless chocolate torte

R40 Probably something the poster's family ate quite frequently in the 80s. Why is it so very odd to you? I don't understand how the foods or dishes cannot be listed together. Clueless foreigner here.

Pizza Square with curled up pepperoni

Tex Mex

Bubble Yum

Big League Chew

Haagen-Dazs and then later, Frusen-Gladje ice cream.

I quit drinking in the '80s, and one night my sponsor took me to the 7-11 to buy me a pint of Haagen-Dazs. When I discovered later that Frusen-Gladje made Pralines and Cream, that became my main flavor. I hadn't eaten ice cream in decades prior to this.

Fruit Rollups. Beer-cheese soup. Hotpockets.

Italian cream cake became very popular among southern hostesses in the 80s. It was probably THE cake that defined the decade.

Blackened foods

R46 I've yet to try that... it's on my to do list for '22.

The seasonal milkshakes at McDonalds, like the Shamrock. According to Wiki they debuted in 1970 but they seem to get really popular in the mid-80’s when apparently they first added mint to them. Before that they were just vanilla shakes colored green.

I remember in the 80’s people got really obsessive about them.

There was also a cherry one with bits of cherry, in a pink shake. I loved that one.

Also in the 80’s McDonalds used to put a cherry on top of the whipped cream. They stopped adding a cherry some time in the 90’s.

Kiwi fruit

Frozen yogurt (that 80’s trend was out of control!)

Ice cream places that would fold ice cream into a slab with crushed up candy bars or cookies and slather it into a large waffle cone.

Tofutti (in the ice cream section at Gristedes!)

R51- I remember going with my family to Stew Leonard's in Norwalk Connecticut in 1976 ( they only had the ONE store then) and getting a soft serve frozen yogurt strawberry for 25 cents.

I’m probably just echoing other posters, but I remember a lot of…

Blackened chicken, salmon, shrimp

Lemon-Pepper Seasoning

Quiche (late 70s too)

New York Seltzer

Wine Coolers

Pasta Salads

Chinese Chicken Salad (with that awful sweet dressing & crispy wontons)

Spinach dip w/bread chunks

So, so many pudding desserts (poking holes in cakes!)

Sushi

Tex-Mex

Cobb salad, Ande’s mints, steak au poivre, Caesar salad, Brie cheese, anything by Stouffer’s.

I worked at Pizza Hut back in 1985 for several months. As far as "corporate owned" pizza places go, I think Pizza Hut is very good. Like someone else mentioned, there's no PH near me, so haven't had it in YEARS!

I'll have it the first opportunity I get!

Remember the Book It program at Pizza Hut? Kids got a free person pan pizza for reading a certain number of books. I bet it produced many a future fat whore!

[quote] "I now realize General Foods International Coffee was well ahead of its time. I remember those commercial from the early 80s. I dreamt of a fabulous tour around Europe with such exotic flavors as Cafe Vienna, Suisse Mocha, Café Français, Cappuccino, and Irish Mocha Mint."

My mother would never buy them, and the trend was over by the time I started drinking coffee regularly in high school, R38. I DID try them on occasion, in the homes of friends and family. I haven't had them in years. These days, I'd probably just use a teaspoon or two as a coffee additive (I typically take my coffee black).

Oh, and my entry to the list is BBQ Corn Nuts.

Bennigans Monte Cristo sandwich

I know some of these aren't necessarily 80's. but it is foods i remember from then

Sunkist soda

Chef boyardee ravioli

Jell-o Pudding Pops

pasta salad with italian dressing

Dominos Noid

Bartles and James and Seagrams Wine Coolers

NY Seltzer Water

Wendy's salad bar

Mall Foods I Enjoyed:

Cinnabon: The actual Cinnabon w/icing & the frozen coffee drink, Chillatas (came before Frappuccinos). Yes, I was chubby.

Mrs. Field's: soft cookie, macadamia nut & white chocolate.

Otis Spunkmeyer: soft pretzel, Parmesan & garlic flavor.

Hotdogs injected with liquid cheese.

Stacks of individual frozen pizzas.

The beginning of the bulk food trend - Sam’s Wholesale individually wrapped microwaveable chicken sandwiches.

Chick-Fil-A

Giant brownie sundaes served in heavy stemmed glassware at places like Bennigan’s and TGIFridays.

Chicken Tonight

Chef Boy R Dee canned ravioli

Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Gummy bears

AIDS diet chocolate candies

Famous Amos cookies. Never really thought they were any better than any other grocery store cookies.

Le Menu frozen dinners. Don’t remember if they were any good but my mom had a ton of those plates.

McRib. I thought they were ok when they came out. I got one a few years ago during one of the revivals and it was gross.

Nothing was better following an afternoon shopping for trendy clothes at Chess King then an Orange Julius.

I remember my mom making a "Better than Sex" cake for Thanksgiving or Christmas one year in the 80's. It was just a sheet cake still in the pan, covered in whipped cream and crushed up butterfingers on top. I'm sure there was some other ingredients, but i can't remember them. It was not better than sex.

I loved Orange Julius, until I discovered it was just orange juice whipped together with milk 🤮

Steakums

Café Costes

I worked at an Orange Julius as a teen. They were tasty as were the strawberry Juliuses. It wasn't just orange juice and milk.

Screaming Yellow Zonkers

pasta salad for sure.

R69 what else was in an Orange Julius?

Kudos granola bars

[quote] what else was in an Orange Julius?

Sugar, ice and vanilla.

Olga’s Kitchen at the mall.

i though OJ sold hot dogs or something. was there some hotdog chain?

Ruby Tuesdays

Bennigans

Chi Chis

(the vomitus) Mighty Taco

Ground Round

Nutri-Grain "natural" cereal (it was the only cold cereal my parents allowed us to eat)

O'Grady's potato chips (I really miss those - thick, great tasting chips with ridges)

I remember thinking velamints were the height of sophistication.

Former Orange Julius worker here. I actually worked at an OJ stand at a fair (a couple or a few days of work while the fair was in town). Anyway, back in those days, believe it or not, I think I remember fresh-squeezed orange juice. There was a white powder that you added to it. Yes, it was probably mostly milk, but there had to be some other ingredients in there. You could actually ask for a raw egg in there, too. That would never happen, now. I recall selling hot dogs as well.

this thread isn't complete without Viennetta

People used to put Lawry's seasoning salt on everything back then. It was the ranch dressing of seasoning.

French Onion soup

Submarine sandwiches (favourite was Hawaiian sub)

Broccoli and cheese

r81 I actually have some Lawrey's in my spice cabinet! I keep forgetting about it when I make fries.

Crystal Light.

I was only five years old when the decade ended, but some friends recently threw an 80s Fitness Party and they were playing clips from the Crystal Light National Aerobics Championship which had to be the most 80s thing ever. I imagine many DLers followed this competition or maybe even participated.

Snausages

i live in the southern us and they still put lawrys seasoning in EVERYTHING.

R80 then this thread was complete at r15

As a child I loved Honeycombs, Smurfberry Crunch, Waffalos and Quisp.

[quote] "I remember thinking velamints were the height of sophistication."

NO ONE I know remembers Velamints, R78! I thought the chocolate was the worst (despite my love of chocolate & mint). Very nice.

[quote] "Crystal Light."

My grandmother was diabetic, and always had this around the house, R84. My mother mostly forbade us to drink it, because she didn't trust NutraSweet. The lemonade was my favorite.

R89 go buy some Crystal Light at Target tomorrow. It’s STILL hugely popular and is no longer forbidden for you to drink.

Crystal!

Cryst-o-mint lifesavers.

Chocolate Mint Bubbalicious. Breathsavers, Feenamint Gum. Burger Chef. Cool Ranch Doritos. Dominoes Pizza. Pepsi Free. Those tinned Christmas popcorn troughs in butter, cheese and caramel flavors. Tombstone Pizza. JELLO FUCKING PUDDING POPS. popsicles in root beer, banana or cherry which we called poop, pee and period. Bubble gum ice cream with chicklets in it. Chicklets. Giant soft pretzels

Skor bars

Reeses Pieces

Tato skins and one flavor of Triscuits.

Reggie Bars. Damn I'm typing fat

Fruit rollups

Another vote for Bennigan’s Tavern. 4 for 1 Happy Hour!

Nachos became mainstream in the late 70s into the 80s.

“Healthy” salads and salad bars—not really, Fat Whores just dumped their meal on lettuce.

I loved chicken tonight as well as another product (I can't remember the name) but it was pasta in a jar.

Also you used to be able to get tv dinners with roast beef or those encore meals with roast beef in the bag that you boil

Chicken Tonight, natch!

Giving out everyone’s favorite candy, Chunky, on Halloween beggar’s night.

Budget Gourmet frozen shrimp Newberg.

[quote] "Tato skins and one flavor of Triscuits."

I remember the Tato Skins, R96. Hated them. It was the texture. But I've always loved Triscuits. My ALL-TIME FAVORITE flavor is the Limited Edition "Cranberry & Sage", which was released for the holidays in 2014. They need to make a comeback.

[quote) "those encore meals with roast beef in the bag that you boil"

I LOVED the boil-in-bag turkey. Now, I'd be weirded out by boiling my food in a plastic bag. But I loved them then, R100.

R100 & R101 I've heard in the last few years, that Chicken Tonight is still available in Australia.

[quote] "go buy some Crystal Light at Target tomorrow. It’s STILL hugely popular and is no longer forbidden for you to drink."

Great idea, R90! I'll pick some up the next time I'm out.

Jello Pudding Popsicles.

Fruit Roll-Ups

Little Debbie Star Crunch.

Little Debbie Snack Rolls.

O’Grady’s Augratin potato chips.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Yogurt.

TCBY

Total Cereal

Nestle Crunch Bars - they don’t seem to make full sized ones any more.

Back then, chocolate bars included a cardboard sheet that held the chocolate and the wrappers were different. Often foil plus an outside wrapper.

Bridge mix

I was a cocktail waitress in the 80s - I think that I must have served THOUSANDS of Long Island Iced Teas, Sex On The Beach and anything and everything with Midori. To this day a whiff of Midori makes my stomach turn!!

[quote] Nestle Alpine White chocolate bar

Sweet dreams you can't resist. N-E-S-T-L-E-S.

SpaghettiOs Fruity Pebbles Tang - and Ho Hos and Ding Dongs.

Marathon bars!

magic pan MALL CREPES and that salad. I crave it to this day.

[quote][R100] & [R101] I've heard in the last few years, that Chicken Tonight is still available in Australia.

They have it in the UK, too.

Whatchamacallit Bars

Honey Nut Cheerios

Toasted Almond Ice Cream Bars

Slice soda

Fruit Roll-Ups

Jelly Bellys

Bubble Yum

Goober Grape

Danish

Anything from this book.

Miller High Life 40 and a pack non filter cigs

We asked for Orange Julius so often in my house that my Dad learned to make his own version with half the amount of sugar and we ended up liking better

cream cheese was a big thing in the 80's. It was like no one ever had it before. It was weird.

[quote] "Jello Pudding Popsicles."

R106 My favorite thing about these was the very thin layer of ice that would form around the pudding as it warmed up just after being removed from the freezer. So by the time I ate it, it was crispy on the icy outside, and cool and creamy inside.

Frusen Gladje as as OP said. My mom LOVED that stuff, I always thought that was an adult ice cream.

Pudding Rollups. Fruit Rollups but in pudding flavors. Disgusting.

Sticklets gum

Candy cigarettes when they had the powdered sugar “smoke” and looked like cigarettes.

Bubble Yum checkermint gum.

Anything made by Beatrice foods.

Does anyone remember these Milky Way milkshakes? They came in the ice cream section and you had to put them in the microwave for a little bit to soften them. They were vanilla ice cream with caramel and chocolate. Soooo good.

There was another drink Ice Teasers I think it was called. Came in a canister like Crystal Light.

Cream cheese was, indeed, popular. My mom made a few good snacks with it:

1. Clam dip w/canned clams.

2. Cream cheese & mango chutney on crackers (Wheat Thins, IIRC).

3. Oyster roll. Canned oysters rolled up in cream cheese. Used as a dip or cracker spread. Really good. Some onion in the oyster. I think there was some butter in the cream cheese. You spread the CC on some plastic wrap and roll up the oysters like a jelly roll.

r100/r101: You can get Chicken Tonight shipped to the US in 1-2 days at r115's link!

I must be the only person who has never eaten a crepe at Magic Pan! Although growing up, we really didn't have extra money to go out except the occasional pizza (I'm the Pizza Hut lover from upthread!) and even then it was like maybe every 3 - 4 months! Gotta say, when it comes to Mall Food, the only thing I really liked was Mrs. Fields Cookies (I was an Asst Mgr there for about a half year when I was 18) and Cinnabon. Not a fan of Orange Julius.

I bought Crystal Light lemonade because my water doesn't taste great at my place. I would have preferred unsweetened ice tea instant powder but i can't seem to find that.

there was that dark chocolate whipped cream mousse cake thing, one can get at every restaurant.

box crakers was a thing. Obviously, it was part of a marketing campaign.

Tiramisu is the quintessential 80s dessert

It came before the 70s and disappeared in the 90s, but I’m sure my last taste of Jello 1-2-3 was in the 1980s. If I would have known it was the last time I would have savored each spoonful and committed the experience to memory.

I used to go to Magic Pan all of the time - it made me feel so grown up! I had a really good friend who was extremely talented and creative. She could pick up any instrument and play it - she could sew clothes and costumes without a pattern. She could even cut out a man’s coat out of fabric without a pattern. She was the oldest of 8 kids - she could bake, cook any food, bake any dessert, soups, stews without a recipe better than most chefs. Unfortunately she was a know it all. At 18 she was put in charge of our local Magic Pan - it was a big deal. Unfortunately she got fired after a week. She liked her crepes recipe better than the official Magic Pan recipe and would only make HER recipe. Corporate was not amused!!

KFC used to have these little desserts called "Little Bucket Parfaits" which was layers of pudding and whipped cream topped with sprinkles. Looked something like the pic below, except not in a glass. Chocolate of course.

Tunnel of Fudge bundt cake.

R129, did you stay in touch with her? I love stories like that and I wonder what happened to her.

R123 holy shit you're the only other person I know who's heard of clam dip with canned clams. My mom made it at least once a year and still does, I make it too. Most people find it disgusting but I love it.

OP this crap is why we have rampant obesity, diabetes and heart disease these days.

R133, I just Googled "clam dip recipe." Seems like all the recipes use canned clams. Most people I know like it (clam dip).

I lost my appetite whenever anyone served a fudge tunnel to me the 80s.

R134 you're thinking of the 90s

Oscar Meyer hot dogs and bologna/baloney. 🎶 My baloney has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R...🎵

Spinach dip was my mother’s signature dish in the 1980s and the discovery of Knorr boxed dried soups. If you wanted to make it extra fancy you went to the bakery and got a round loaf and hollowed it out and put the dip inside, and then cut up the part you cut out to dip into it with. At the end you could even eat the bowel! A friend loved it so I gave him the recipe, but they made it in the blender, it did not go so well.

My mom made that dip, too, R139, complete with hollowed out bread bowl.

We didn't eat bowel in our household, though.

This was her other signature dish at holidays, for some reason Creme de Menthe was big in the 80s.

There's a thirtysomething episode where Melissa flies to LA and spends the day on the set of a TV show and the executives keep walking by saying, "We have danish!" "Have some danish"

Sushi--rare and exotic in the 70s. Ubiquitous in the 80s (especially with the coked out crowd.)

Marasala chicken. If you watched a PBS cooking show in the 80s, you either attempted to make it, or just ordered it in a restaurant.

Nouvelle cuisine. Such tiny, tiny food on such large plates!

We had a Danish exchange student at college in the 1980s. She told us that there was no such thing as Danish Butter Cookies in her country and it was all a big lie. In a late night run to Pittsburgh we decided to stop at a all night Dunkin Donuts and get some and asked her if she wanted one. She waved her hand in the air and said, no, no I don’t want that. As we sat there eating them she stared at us until we asked if she want to try some. She broke off a piece, popped it into her mouth and loudly exclaimed “CAKE!”

My post disappeared about spinach artichoke dip. I had never even heard of this until the mid-90s, which was odd because my parents grew an extensive vegetable garden with artichokes and both of them were excellent, adventurous cooks.

There should be a 90s thread

Trifle

Funyuns.

Also, the Hostess fruit pies, they made one that was chocolate coated & filled with custard. I vividly remember scarfing those down when they came out in ‘86. I would bite off one of the tips, suck out the custard, & eat the shell last. I was reading a horror book called Swamp Witch the first time I ate one. Yes, it was a memorable experience.

Hi 129 - I’m embarrassed - I still don’t know how to reply to a # ….. Yes I still know her - she is pretty wonderful - picture a “fun” Lilith from Frazier. She married husband #1 because he looked like Leslie Howard aka Ashley Wilkes. She was one of the first grand prize winners of the 100,000 Name that Tune. She put a down payment on a house and bought a small building and turned it into a dinner theater. She did all of the cooking, sewing, set designing and did really beautiful productions of Brigadoon, Funny Girl, South Pacific , Cabaret - really happy memories. She cast herself as Guinevere and fell in love with sexy younger man who played Lancelot. She divorced Ashley and married Lancelot and they had a son. the theater closed in the late 80s. She went back to school and has every masters on the planet and runs the theater dept at a school. She has had breast cancer and brain cancer but she is fine. She and Lancelot live next door to Ashely Wilkes! Next weekend her son s getting married and true to form she is cooking dinner for 200 with husband of 30 years Lancelot.

i love love the magic pan.

A glass of tomato juice as a course at a steakhouse. Cottage cheese as a starter or side.

Coffee out of one of those gold tone pots. Sanka. Instant tea crystals.

Boiled hot dogs. For some unknown reason these were a staple for my extended family. Always boiled, never cooked any other way. Boiled corn on the cob as well.

Soda in six pack glass bottles you could recycle. My grandparents had special rubber seals to maintain the fizz after opening.

Cabbage Soup

Haas no one mentioned Perrier and all the versions that followed.

Tofutti.

Pesto sauce.

Sundried tomatoes.

Frozfruit bars.

David’s cookies.

The Calvin Cooler

French Onion Soup was really big I remember. As were store bought croutons.

Tuna/Hamburger Helper

Fruit roll ups and Jello pudding pops because the 80s were my childhood.

I was too young to drink but I remember wine coolers being huge.

Do you still get Egg Plant Parm-ee-jaarn in America?

[quote] As were store bought croutons.

LOL

Quatro.Coolest drink eva.

Tuna Salad - all the gurls used to have it "I'll just have a Tuna Salad!"

Another 80s saying - "I don't eat red meat".

Decaffeinated Coke

Speaking of coke, those small fat glass bottles like these.

𝓕𝓻𝓾𝓼𝓮𝓷 𝓖𝓵ä𝓭𝓳é!

Magic Shell!

Does anyone remember Spoon Candy?

It was a 70s thing for sure, but I don’t think it made it to the 80s.

That’s when we got hooked on Magic Shell, I think because you couldn’t get Spoon Candy anymore.

Yes r110 - Long Island Iced Tea in hurricane glasses!

And we’d all split a layered dip.

Deep-fried zucchini sticks with ranch dressing.

Also Deep-fried mushrooms.

Deep-fried artichoke hearts in (garlic?) melted butter and squeezing a lemon wedge all over the top of them.

Five Alive!

Ben and Jerry’s White Russian ice cream

R149 - that’s amazing!! :D

As for ‘80s food, all my teen years took place during the ‘80s on the west coast of North America where fast food (except MacDonald’s) wasn’t really a thing, and I was anorexic/avoiding eating for pretty much the entire decade, so I mainly just remember trends.

Within my family, sushi, tiramisu, cheesecake, and that spinach dip in a sourdough bread bowl that’s been mentioned several times upthread were big. I’m Canadian, so the “Best of Bridge” cookbooks were a HUGE deal with my mum and her friends (and many others, obvs). There are recipes in them that are still family holiday classics, though.

Anyway, at the end of the ‘80s, things started to change. people started valuing simplicity and good ingredients. Tuscany was huge, as were the patterned ties. I guess boomers were aging into peak influence as their depression-age canned-food-aficionado parents were fading…? 🤷🏻

Jack in the Box fajita pita (they still have these) and also JITB greasy 2 little tacos for 1.00 (they still have these as well)

Sara Lee Cheesecake in the frozen food section.

Soup Starter

Evian Water

I think there’s an entire thread on the Jack in the Box fried tacos, and also the packets of hot sauce that came with them. In the 80’s they were incredibly cheap, greasy, and scrumptious. You HAD to put that hot sauce on them. Yum!

I imagine it’s all changed now but JinB do still have them.

i was on that thread, r174! And nope, they really haven't changed a bit. Still that cheap, too!

If we’re going to start talking cookbooks, here was my bible for the 80s and much of the rest of the 20th century along with other Moosewood Cookbooks. In 1981 at 16 I became a vegetarian and never looked back. Key recipes were the quiches, lemon poppyseed scones, tabbouleh, and mujadara, which is this lentil, rice, and onion dish that goes back to biblical times and is what Esau sells his birthright for to get the recipe. It also the perfect dish for starving vegetarians during there very poor twenties, as it’s about as cheap as you can get in terms of ingredients. I made a big pot Sunday night and would take it for lunch at work all week. It was hearty, filling and a nutritional blend of ingredients.

R176 - I was a vegetarian from around 1984 at age 14 to now, too! (of course, it was partly due to punk and the Animal Liberation Front stuff… but really meat always grossed me out and I loved animals, so…) the Moosewood cookbook was something I pored over and gleaned techniques from, but didn’t end up using so much, but EVERYONE had it in the ‘80s! (at least where I live) :)

R177 The real book that got me there was Diet for a Small Planet which also had some recipes in the back.

Salad with all the fixins from the grocery store salad bar. Or, perhaps the Wendy's salad bar with a Frosty.

O’Boisies potato chips.

Dexatrim diet pills and Slim Fast during my early 80s Anorexia phase.

In the mid to late 80's my favorite yogurt was Whitney's. It was so rich and tasty. Does anyone remember Whitney's yogurt?

[quote] Dexatrim diet pills and Slim Fast during my early 80s Anorexia phase.

Didn’t you have access to cocaine, poor thing? It WAS the ‘80s!

Specialty stuffed baked potatoes. Slap some broccoli, "cheese" sauce and sour cream on it for a healthy lunch. And twice baked potatoes. 3 times the work that will have you asking why

R183 I was 16 in high school in the suburbs, so no.

Omg, yes, R178! Everyone (who was early 20s and “alternative” in the scene in which I found myself)) had that book back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s! That isn’t to say veganism/vegetarianism wasn’t important, but out of all the people I knew then who talked about how much it mattered, my sister and I are the only ones who stuck with it to the present day. It’s a bit depressing, tbh, but still - gen-z kids seem to care more about where meat comes from. Where I live, farm-to-table is huge.

The ‘80s/‘90s, and into this century were a food revolution. The internet made it easier to connect with like-minded people and find new ways to cook and eat. It’s wonderful to be a vegetarian/vegan now: it’s shifted from the nearly punitive, hair-shirt stuff of the ‘70s and early ‘80s to a world of food plants, techniques, sustainability, and new ways of looking at diet and local food/food producers! (I say this as someone who isn’t even super into food or eating! [I enjoy cooking/baking, but mainly for others.])

R186 I got more shit and a bigger hassel about being a vegetarian then I ever did for being Gay.

R151 that sounds like the 1960s. Did you grow up in an Appalachian hollow?

R187: Yeah - I’m fortunate to live in a very liberal/hippie part of Canada; I can’t imagine what it must be like, even now, in much of the States.

I have family friends from Kansas whose neighbours berate them if they dare mow their lawn on a Sunday - not for noise reasons but because of cultural “Christanity”. Those same people probably think tater tot casserole is the height of sophistication.

There was a brand of potato chips called CRUNCHERS that were so good. Not the current brand Krunchers.

This was spelled with a C.

As i said upthread, O'Grady's (regular or Au Gratin) was the BOMB. So bummed when they discontinued them.

Sizzlelean

EggBeaters. My partner at the time was ultra paranoid about cholesterol and EggBeaters was the only way. Vile. When I did bake with the occasional whole egg, I might as well have put a skull and crossbones sign out. I don’t miss that at all.

Chicken Marbella seemed to be at every 80's dinner party, and I still make it on occasion. It's from The Silver Palate cookbook which was an 80's thing.

lol 193

Exactly why i'll never turn vegan. I wouldn't mind being vegetarian to be honest, but right now i barely ever eat meat so i'm not really ready to move all the way to full on vegetarian.

[quote] Deep-fried zucchini sticks with ranch dressing.Also Deep-fried mushrooms.

You forgot deep-fried mozzarella w/marinara dipping sauce.

I used to LOVE a frozen Carrot Cake I would buy in the late 80's into the early 90's called

Oregon Farms Carrot Cake- does anyone remember it?

UK specific memories

Red Stripe lager

Pot noodle (late 70s intro but HUGE for school kids in 80s)

Elderflower water

Of relevance to this thread

I remember that, R197. But we had a family recipe for carrot cake (super easy), so I never tried it.

I do remember "Grandma's" brownies. Yes, I realize brownies are easy to make, too.

r199 pop rocks was covered way up at the beginning of the thread.

Who gives a fuck, r201? The topic is "Food that REMINDS YOU of the 80s." If Pop Rocks are what remind r199 of the '80s, who cares about your hall monitor obsessiveness? People like you are what suck about DL.

Your control queen antics are neither necessary nor appreciated.

Like R151 I also remember tomato juice as an appetizer option, but I generally got the fruit cup instead. Technically though those appetizers remind me of both the 70s and 80s.

In the spirit of just in my family food from the 80s, my mother had a huge wok and used to make her own version of Chinese food on occasion. It tasted nothing like food from a Chinese restaurant, but I remember it as being a family favorite.

Uh oh. Hate to be a killjoy, but someone mentioned Chicken Tonight, which I completely forgot about, until reading those words in this thread and immediately flashing back to the jingle in the commercial which I won't post here, but, according to Wikipedia:

[quote]Initially launched on [bold]October 23, 1990[/bold] under Unilever's Ragú brand in the United States and Canada, it was [bold]launched in the United Kingdom under the Knorr brand in 1993[/bold], while the same year, Chicken Tonight made its way to Oceania under the Raguletto brand. As of 2015, Chicken Tonight is a standalone brand.

I'm shocked too. It's seems like such an 80s concept, especially the goofy commercials of people flapping their "chicken wings," but it actually came out in 1990. Oh well. Most decades don't culturally end right away (the early 80s looked like the 70s, the early 70s looked like the 60s, the early 60s and the 50s, etc), but I swear I remember this from the actual 80s, too.

R204: see r124. Link to get it shipped from the UK to the US at r115.

Salty box mixes like Zatarain's, Hamburger Helper & Rice A Roni.

Chewels and Freshen-up gum with liquid in the center.

Ordering cheese balls, meat logs, and Dobosh Tortes from Swiss Colony.

Blue Nun and Paul Masson wines. - We will sell no wine before its time.

r206: we always received the Swiss Colony catalogs during the holidays and the dobosh torte always looked sooooooooo good, but my parents were very much whole foods, lots of vegetables, farm raised livestock. No cold cereal, no candy, ice cream only in summer with our fresh strawberries hand-cranked. So no-go on something so sweet for us.

Has anyone mention the buffet that was (is) Hickory Farms? Port Wine Cheese spread, the meats, the crackers, the jams, the smoked or bacon infused various specialities. If you played your cards right you could make a whole meal out of one of those gift boxes.

Nope r208. Good call!

Thank you R202 - what's hilarious is that the article is about a number of foods from the 70s through the 90s --and I was posting it because I thought ti would be of interest to learn why many of them were no longer sold, not as a comment on Pop Rocks.

Your post is 100% spot on though and appreciate you having my back

Entenmann's chocolate chip cookies will always remind me of the 80's.

r199, i'm r201. I apologize...I just saw the pic of pop rocks and didn't realize there was an article with other products. I was unnecessarily bitchy, and i apologize.

ElderLez, my mom had a giant teflon red electric "wok" by West Bend. So many snow peas.

Baco’s!

They were terrible.

Fruit juice in a frozen concentrate cylinder you peeled out of a cardboard tube with aluminum ends and plopped in a pitcher, stirring with a wooden spoon under running tap water.

Remember trying it “raw” like a popsicle? No, it wasn’t.

Jello Pudding Pops

[quote][R204]: see [R124].

Um, okay. Why? I didn't say I wanted to buy Chicken Tonight. Nothing in R124 has anything to do with what I wrote at R204.

Did you read what I wrote? What made you think I was looking to buy Chicken Tonight?

Thirty-eight-year-old cock.

Chicken a la King in the boil-in bags

Stouffer's pizza

It’s me again, the person with the mom with signature dishes. The frozen juice person reminded me of her signature summertime alcoholic treat, Whiskey Slushes, which used a can of frozen orange juice and frozen lemonade amongst other ingredients. I loved this because with the high level of alcohol it never completely froze and was always icy. This concoction looks like it was pity into a blender, Mom’s didn’t look like that.

OH GOD I want a whiskey slush.

According to Wikipedia Chicken Tonight was debuted in 1990 in the US and Canada. I would have sworn it was around from 1985 or so but apparently not. It has disappeared from North America but it’s still popular in the UK and Australia.

Hershey's Golden Bar- It was a thick milk chocolate bar with roasted almonds- YUM.

I know I know- I'm a FAT WHORE.

1990 sounds right for Chicken Tonight's US debut.

I remember because I was a cute young twink, 20 years old, and the old queens at the bar I'd sneak into would sing "I feel like chicken tonight, chicken tonight..." every time I passed by them.

r179 Wendy's salad/taco fixin's bar was THE best!

R225 that made me chuckle! Thank you!

Wendy’s when it was really good. Like a lot of places that are still around, their food just doesn’t seem as scrumptious as in the 80’s. And many of the portions are smaller.

R228 Agreed. The baked potatoes are just sad now. And the chili seems watery and weak. The burgers are good but there’s something blah about all of it. Plus the frosty sizes are all off. I swear a large frosty is now the former medium size, with a skinnier cup.

R228 R229 WHERE’S THE BEEF?!

In the '80s, there was a Wendy's close to my house. Unfortunately, it was on the wrong side of the road, heading home. I didn't like making the left turn to go home coming out of the Wendy's. I tended to go to the fast food places on the other (right) side of the street.

Anyway, I did brave the left turn and go to Wendy's a few times. I remember the chili being good. Had to have French fries with that. My mom was into the Frosty and I liked it as well.

R231 First world problems.

Carvel Ice cream cakes because I probably ate 50 in total in birthday parties as a kid. Are they still a thing?

r223 their stupid commercials were infamous

On the weekends my friends and i would go ice skating and afterwards we would always go to the wendy's and get burgers, fries and chili. It was great after being out in the cold. It's just not the same anymore.

R45 I never ate a hotpocket. Are they as awful as they sound? I'm not a total anti-junk food snob, but hotpockets always seemed like a bridge too far.

r234 Oh, [bold]that[/bold] product. I thought the phrase "simmer sauces" was even stupider than people suddenly sprouting wings.

C-3PO's

You could load a baked potato up at Wendy's for like 2 bucks. And free refills.

College..

Tater Tot Casserole and Jeno"s Pizza Rolls. The California Raisins.

Klondike Bars

R241- What would you do for a KLONDIKE BAR!?

Sweet N Low ice cream

Sweet N Low boxed cake mix in artificial strawberry

Equal artificial sweetener

Caffeine free coke and Caffeine free Pepsi sucked

Hormel frank n stuff chilly dog stuffed hot dogs

Double stuff oreos

New York Deli potato chips - the purple bag - I think today it's more like a kettle chip

Cheddar Melt - appeared in the mid-80s, came back for a short while, then disappeared again

Chicken Mc Nuggets - first offered in 1983

Tostitos nacho flavor/cheese dip - why did Frito-Lay stop making nacho flavor Tostitos?

R245 you think that's bad, I have a friend who all he drinks is Caffeine Free DIET Coke.

Why fucking bother, just drink water.

He's kinda trashy.

Here is the commercial for you R241.

Cheesecake with strawberries!

Peppermint Patties (and the tv commercials that came with them)

I was always busy sucking the juice out of things like capri sun bags.

Pixy sticks

Jolly ranchers

R246 I hated those chilly dogs. They were never hot enough!

[quote] Pixy sticks

Oh dear!

Burnt champagne.

Mr. T Cereal

Smurf Berry Crunch cereal

I recall brie cheese (which I had had in the 1970s) was a big thing at parties. People spoke of it as if it were magical; in fact a little bit goes a long way, and it couple be the opposite and it's familiarity soon enough bred contempt.

Brie cheese with cranberries. Cream cheese with cranberries. Anything with fucking cranberries.

Apricot everywhere.

Onion rings were at their peak of popularity.

Filet mignon. Shrimp cocktail. Fruitcake.

R261- If we're discussing the 1970's you should also mention Wine Cheddar. My mother would serve it at dinner parties ca. 1974. I like the stuff even as an 8 year old in 1974.

Sinbad and cheap champagne.

Star search while eating ass

I pity the fool who doesn't eat my cereal!!

I was going to post about Chicken Marbella, R194 ! I've made it a fair number of times and went to a dinner party not too long ago where it was served. So easy! So good! An 80s classic that endures. They also had a very delicious Fettucine Alfredo. I don't know anyone who would make that now.

The Silver Palate co-owners, Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso, ended up in a huge DL style feud and broke up their partnership.

R253 LOL, you were in training!

Stuffed croissants remind me of the1980s.

197- I was a LITTLE FAT FUCKER and I dug me that Oregon Farms Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting. They always had that one and the carrot cake.

I would inhale that thing in one sitting adding another layer of fat to my 10 year old Jabba The Hut frame.

This thread has triggered me.

And those goddamn Pepperidge Farm Croissant Pizzas.

DAMN they were good!!!

I’m eating my favorite snack circa 1980. A Pillsbury Figurines bar with a tall glass of RC 100. So refreshing!

Never heard of chicken marbella. can someone link a recipe? sorry if this has been linked already, my head is not on straight today, went for a long walk and my head is hot.

I enjoy chicken Marsala but I’ve never heard of chicken Marbella either.

now i want the silver palate cookbook

R39: what you described isn't a heart attack on a plate. We know more nowadays. Things like dietary cholesterol won't hurt you it just goes right through. Or that the protein i the meal isn't a killer. Want to know what's causing all the metabolic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and more? It's the sugar that gets added to everything right down to condiments.

Here you go r272

my head is hot?

This is the original recipe for Chicken Marbella. There have been adaptations and variations ever since.

r276/r278 thank you. I like chicken. I like prunes. but the two together seem disgusting. Glad i haven't been introduced before now.

r277 i took a 2.4 mile walk today and had to carry a 25 lb dog 1/4 of the way home in blazing heat. i'm fair skinned and overweight/don't exercise much. My face was bright red and my head hurt/was hot when we got home. it's always been a problem (heat/sun exposure/physical expenditure).

R208 You could make a meal off the sample table outside the store at the mall. Good stuff.

R279- I took a four mile walk on January 29. The temperature was 13 degrees F. It was brutal.

Dim sum is so ‘80s to me. When I saw it in Working Girl, I knew it had hit its peak.

Unwrapping the hospital-cornered folded foil of a Kit Kat was like opening the first present under the tree on Christmas morning

baked alaska

torching shit at upscale restaurants was fancy.

tableside torching.

japenesse cusine was hip.

lobster thermidor and baked alaska. maybe throw in steak diane. This was fancy.

anyone remember the pacfic island room at the Fairmont (San Fran)? Good I loved that place. I think this maybe more last 90's though.

Obviously it existed before the , but didn’t Thai cuisine become ubiquitous in the ‘80s? The ‘70s were all about Chinese or Mexican, at least in the Bay Area.

in san fran, it was about Japan town and the kabuki theater.

mission district was mexican/little latin american influence; until, silicone valley/social media destroyed it.

Pesto, focaccia and sundries tomatoes.

sundried tomatoes was big.

"Theater restaurants" such as Medieval Times

[quote] anyone remember the pacfic island room at the Fairmont (San Fran)? Good I loved that place. I think this maybe more last 90's though.

The Tonga Room.

R270 Your post reminded me of reading about a poster who ate the frosting off the Oregon Farms carrot cake whilst his parents were away on a trip... maybe that was you? Funny post. I love Carrot Cake, as well as that frosting.

Sadly I never got to try Pepperidge Farm's Croissant Pizzas; they sound compelling. I don't think we had those in the UK.

Banquet chicken pot pies. We would get these when the parents wanted to take a weekend trip and leave us alone (we were ages 11-13).

Those pot pies were good w/the double crust. When I see ppl (cooking shows) making a "pot pie" and only putting the top crust, that's so lame.

Anyway, those pot pies are more '70s, IME. We cooked them in the regular (huge) oven. IIRC, they took 45+ minutes to cook those little things. You really had to plan ahead.

Wine Coolers!

Better Cheddars which came out in 1982.

Stella D'oro Breakfast Treats

Jello Pudding Pops, brought to you by America's favorite sexual predator

[quote]My cheap ass trashy aunt Pat had a whole collection of plastic plates from Le Menu.

We used to save them also, to use in the microwave.

Jeno's Pizza Rolls (now Totinos)

Push-ups

I remember when sherbet was popular in the 80s. It fell out of favor during the 90s for some reason, and now it's the forgotten stepchild of the frozen dessert case. I loved it. I would make a float out of orange or pineapple sherbet and ginger ale.

R306- Sherbet was far more popular in the 1970's than it was in the 1980's.

The Roy Rogers chain

As an15 year old from Indiana on my first trip to NYC I first experienced croissants, Perrier, and Haagen Dazs. I felt very sophisticated when I went back home.

Ponderosa, Sizzler, Black Angus, the Keg

The Ground Round.

Strawberry Jello Salad

Mac Tonight

Rainbow jello cake

remember when little Caesars had the pizzas covered in the long paper sack. i think you could only order two because they were so cheap

[quote] [R306]- Sherbet was far more popular in the 1970's than it was in the 1980's.

Sherbet became known as "sorbet" in the '80s, thanks, in part, to Häagen Dazs.

Actually, R316, sherbet and sorbet differ somewhat. Sherbet has some milk content and sorbet doesn't.

Boston Market

Stopped eating there after seeing a dirty tampon on the floor.

R318 was it yours?

Kix cereal

I like to kick stretch and KICK!

[quote]Kix cereal

Kix was bigger in the 1950s, when it was being hawked by Captain Midnight, than it was in the '80s.

Kix we're better eaten right out of the box.

Boboli pizza crusts! Make your own pizzas! (Yes, I know they were developed in the 70s but not sold to General Mills until mid 80s and that's when they became really popular).

The one "junk food" my mom would allow us for dinner but we had to put a bunch of veggies on them. We had our own sausages made from pigs we raised...those pizzas were soooooo good.

Honeycombs dry was great

Bartles and Jaymes Wine Coolers.

I know I wasn't the only faggot enjoying Strawberry Daiquiris! I haven't had one since the the 80s. Hmmm now I want one! LOL

Brandy Alexander anyone?

riunite so nice

Um...Brandy Alexxander r328 is really more 60s and 70s if we are being "purists" here. lol