S/O What is the unobjectionable meal to serve to guests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Air and a WASPy gin and tonic.

Are you people really hungry again? But you just ate! I wasn’t planning to serve anything again until we have a little grilled fish and a green bean at 7.

Grilled fish and a green bean is not a WASP menu.

A grilled minnow, a green bean and 3 glasses of wine with a few (dozen) top ups, and then not understanding why those of us drinking water are still hungry is the plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

Fish is never safe. No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something where you have options. You could easily do a sandwich spread where you can make your own sandwich if you need to have someone over for lunch, which I think is very odd when it’s a coworker and not a family member who you know well. But besides that, if you’re stuck with only one option, and for some reason, you can’t eat it, like my coworkers wife would never know that I have a red onion allergy and would be in their bathroom having diarrhea immediately, if they were just serving gazpacho, I would be screwed

I hate sandwiches.

But would you hate them if you had a choice of 5 different kinds of home baked bread to eat them on? And perfectly sliced deli meat?

PP here. With homemade bread I might be ok with it, tbh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

Fish is never safe. No way.

Totally agree unless you know your guests well. I would love that dinner but no one else in my family would eat it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Misdelivered ham
Boiled potatoes
3 spears of asparagus

It’s 2 thin spears per person, remember? And you forgot baked ziti.

(Though I admit I need a reference for the misdelivered ham)

And pasta salad. Let's not forget the pasta salad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

This sounds delicious.

NP. I hate dill.

I LOVE dill, but cooked salmon is the only seafood I won't eat. I like it raw or smoked, but roasted and cooked through I find vile. I would eat the rest of this dinner though and am a "choke it down til you vomit" go along type so I'd swallow the salmon too with a smile, but yah. Cooked salmon is the worst the fish world has to offer.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

Fish is never safe. No way.

Why are people weirded out about fish?

[Anonymous]

At this point, I think you need to offer people some saltines and a glass of tepid water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

This sounds delicious.

NP. I hate dill.

I LOVE dill, but cooked salmon is the only seafood I won't eat. I like it raw or smoked, but roasted and cooked through I find vile. I would eat the rest of this dinner though and am a "choke it down til you vomit" go along type so I'd swallow the salmon too with a smile, but yah. Cooked salmon is the worst the fish world has to offer.

NP. You are blowing my mind right now. Salmon is my favorite! I’m surprised you like it raw or smoked but not cooked 🤔

That poster probably grew up in the tri-state area eating bagels and lox with cream cheese.

NP- I too like it raw or smoked. Cooked salmon is the least tasty way to prepare salmon.

You don't need to cook it to 180F. That will make it very dry. 135F Max.

[Anonymous]

Most of the time, if I am only cooking for a few people and it is very casual -

Italian -
- Homemade Focaccia and olive tapenade
- Tomato Mozzarella Basil salad
- Corkscrew pasta with sautéed veggies and home made Alfredo sauce/marinara
- Chicken in lemon and rosemary.

Depending on who is coming, I can add bacon to the pasta, or include a grilled eggplant instead of chicken etc. I also switch out the pasta to a chickpea pasta if someone eats gluten free food.


Indian -
- Spinach chaat or Paneer tikka or Chicken kebab
- Mixed vegetable rice pilaf
- Moong daal
- Fried okra, onion and tomato sabji
- Chicken curry or fish curry
- Garlic naan

I can make a cauliflower, potato and peas curry in place of chicken curry if a vegetarian is coming to dinner.

Thai -
- Fish cakes
- Mixed mushroom salad
- Panang curry with veggies and chicken or just veggies
- Pumpkin and cashews in red curry
- Rice

I can switch out the fish cakes with chives dumpling if a vegetarian guest comes

Mexican
- Fajita bar or mexican bowl
with - sautéed onions, squash, peppers, corn, chicken, fish, coriander lemon rice, salsa, chopped cilantro, lemons, mango salsa, sour cream, homemade taco gravy, guac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the time, if I am only cooking for a few people and it is very casual -

Italian -
- Homemade Focaccia and olive tapenade
- Tomato Mozzarella Basil salad
- Corkscrew pasta with sautéed veggies and home made Alfredo sauce/marinara
- Chicken in lemon and rosemary.

Depending on who is coming, I can add bacon to the pasta, or include a grilled eggplant instead of chicken etc. I also switch out the pasta to a chickpea pasta if someone eats gluten free food.


Indian -
- Spinach chaat or Paneer tikka or Chicken kebab
- Mixed vegetable rice pilaf
- Moong daal
- Fried okra, onion and tomato sabji
- Chicken curry or fish curry
- Garlic naan

I can make a cauliflower, potato and peas curry in place of chicken curry if a vegetarian is coming to dinner.

Thai -
- Fish cakes
- Mixed mushroom salad
- Panang curry with veggies and chicken or just veggies
- Pumpkin and cashews in red curry
- Rice

I can switch out the fish cakes with chives dumpling if a vegetarian guest comes

Mexican
- Fajita bar or mexican bowl
with - sautéed onions, squash, peppers, corn, chicken, fish, coriander lemon rice, salsa, chopped cilantro, lemons, mango salsa, sour cream, homemade taco gravy, guac.

Please explain how any of that is casual and why a dinner with "just a few guests" needs to have multiple separate entrees (e.g., 2 curries in the Thai menu, 3 in the Indian, and arguably 2 entrees in the Italian as well)?

This sounds nice, but this is an unreasonable level at which to set the bar for "unobjectionable."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

Fish is never safe. No way.

Why are people weirded out about fish?

I'm from the midwest and pretty much no one ate it. Fish sticks as a kid, drowned in tartar sauce; popcorn shrimp at red lobster; and surf and turf at a "fancy" place was pretty much the extent of it. No one ever actually ate a piece of fish. The thought of serving it to guests is still anathema to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

Fish is never safe. No way.

Why are people weirded out about fish?

I don’t know if people are weirded out about it or just don’t like it. Salmon is a much stronger flavor than something like Cod.

I eat fish so it’s fine with me. But many people truly don’t like the taste of any fish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At this point, I think you need to offer people some saltines and a glass of tepid water.

But I’m gluten-free by choice and would ponder the source of the water. Filtered through a Brita. When was the last time you changed the filter? And, please, no ice - it’s going to taste like cardboard with a moldy aftertaste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a dinner party with 4-6 guests, I make roasted salmon with dill, lemon orzo, steamed asparagus, a seasonal salad and bread and butter.

Fish is never safe. No way.

Why are people weirded out about fish?

I don’t know if people are weirded out about it or just don’t like it. Salmon is a much stronger flavor than something like Cod.

I eat fish so it’s fine with me. But many people truly don’t like the taste of any fish.

I guess. I also like anchovies on pizza or salad. Growing up, we ate fresh, locally caught trout. And, still, I'm not too fond of fishing to this day. I like eating it, though.