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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Roast chicken or if it’s summer I grill a chicken and shrimp on skewers.

I had some friends over with kids the same age as mine (3-6). The dad looked at my chicken skewers and said his kids wouldn’t eat that. I said- oh I made some just with chicken (not touching onion or any vegetable). He said his kids don’t eat chicken, just chicken nuggets. I really couldn’t believe it but we ran to the grocery store for some hot dogs for the kids. I really was trying for a kid friendly food. Frankly if your kids are that picky, you need to travel with a lunchbox of food. I had tons of sides as well as shrimp skewers.

I was born a picky eater and would have eaten chicken skewers. But my parents really pushed me hard to be able to eat beyond "kids foods". It semi-worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do we end up back at chicken salad? My go to company dinner is shawarma spiced broiled salmon over a warm salad of roasted corn, grape tomatoes, chopped cilantro, and a lemon vinaigrette. First serve drinks with a bowl of nuts, a bowl of olives, and maybe some marinated goat cheese (just chopped into pieces then scattered with chopped sage, fresh chopped garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper) with nice crackers. For dessert, some sliced strawberries soaked in a bit of Chianti, sugar, and a bit of lemon juice, over a slice of Angel food cake.

The shawarma is so overdone and it’s not even that good. Ugh, so sick of this suggestion in every damn food thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Arab so it’s always a variation of Arabic food- a lot of vegetarian and a chicken/meat option. Appetizers are often various spreads - hummus, babaghanoush, muhammara, labne, pita, olives, pickled veggies, spinach and cheese pies and maybe falafel. Dinner would be grapeleaves, an eggplant dish, or maybe a chicken shawarma or shish taok. Salads would be tabbouleh and fattoush. Dessert would be mint tea and Turkish coffee with knafeh and baklava and cookies.

I’m the one who said mezze. The food you described is what I was thinking. Delicious and something for everyone!

[Anonymous]

I would do chicken kebabs with tzatziki
Roasted potatoes
Greek salad

If kids are coming, I would add a fruit tray

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok I'll play. I'm a vegetarian and the cook of the family, but DH cooks meat. Most recent gathering was for pretty picky eaters (nothing spicy or strong flavors).

-Grilled sliced steak
-Roasted farm stand tomato, eggplant, garlic, mixed with white beans with homemade pesto on the side
-quinoa with caramelized onions
-home made focaccia, some plain, some with roasted onions

That all sounds delicious and I'd eat it all, but I have to LOL at this meal being for "pretty picky eaters." You'd be horrified if you met some of the people in my family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Arab so it’s always a variation of Arabic food- a lot of vegetarian and a chicken/meat option. Appetizers are often various spreads - hummus, babaghanoush, muhammara, labne, pita, olives, pickled veggies, spinach and cheese pies and maybe falafel. Dinner would be grapeleaves, an eggplant dish, or maybe a chicken shawarma or shish taok. Salads would be tabbouleh and fattoush. Dessert would be mint tea and Turkish coffee with knafeh and baklava and cookies.

Please invite me over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok I'll play. I'm a vegetarian and the cook of the family, but DH cooks meat. Most recent gathering was for pretty picky eaters (nothing spicy or strong flavors).

-Grilled sliced steak
-Roasted farm stand tomato, eggplant, garlic, mixed with white beans with homemade pesto on the side
-quinoa with caramelized onions
-home made focaccia, some plain, some with roasted onions

That all sounds delicious and I'd eat it all, but I have to LOL at this meal being for "pretty picky eaters." You'd be horrified if you met some of the people in my family.

Yep. I'm a picky eater and out of that I'd eat the steak and focaccia. If the quinoa didn't have onion or I could push the onion to the side I'd eat the quinoa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I know absolutely nothing about the guest's preferences or dietary restrictions:
- Green salad with lettuce and a variety of vegetables, chopped large enough that they can push whatever they don't like to the side
- Grilled chicken with a lemon-garlic-herb marinade
- Roasted new potatoes with parmesan
- Another vegetable such as roasted broccoli, steamed green beans, or grilled zucchini

I know you can't please everyone, but this avoids the biggest offenders (pork, seafood, nuts, etc) and hopefully offers enough variety that people can find something they like, even if they don't eat everything. I've never had anyone complain or go without eating anything.

If I know the people better, I love cooking fish or more complicated dishes, but I'm not going to try that unless I know they'll be OK with it.

This is pretty good except I would skip parmesan on potatoes for dairy insensitivity and assure no croutons on salad for gluten sensitivity/celiac.

The premise of the OP states that no one has any of these issues.

But we've learned from another PP that some people with allergies/sensitivities would rather get sick than tell their hosts about it

That's their weird problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baked potato bar. Taco bar. Salad bar.

Bar bar.

No, no, no. I would not be thrilled with any of these options. I’d prefer chicken salad!

Same. It's fine for feeding a group of hungry teen althetes but if I were invited to a dinner for adults and the offering was a baked potato or taco bar? WTF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I invite friends for dinner frequently. The meal is always some variation of animal protein (meat or seafood), starch, and a cooked vegetable. Sometimes also a salad. And sometimes two of the categories are combined, like for example beef bourguignon, which has both meat and vegetables. Obviously I’m mindful of specific dietary restrictions my guests have.

For all the commentary posted on DCUM, nobody has ever expressed any issues with this type of menu. People here are just complainers.

This is what I do. Nobody is going to complain about a roast and mashed potatoes.

OP here,


I have read plenty of posts where people complain that meat and potatoes is "too heavy" or that their in laws eat it in flyover country and how dreadful it is to visit them.

I'm happy to eat them any time, flyover country or not, but they are definitely something people complain about.

I’m the first PP on this chain. I agree and have seen people on here make these types of complaints about a meat and potatoes dinner, but I’ve never heard anyone do so in real life.

I had people over last week and made lemon chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots, and a green salad. Cheese, crackers, and a homemade fish dip to start. I tried to have enough things that if one or two items didn’t appeal (or were too heavy), there was enough else to eat. But no one declined the potatoes!

[Anonymous]

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?

[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.

This sounds delicious.

[Anonymous]

Misdelivered ham
Boiled potatoes
3 spears of asparagus

[Anonymous]

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)

[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?

I would eat the meat and bread separately.

Also this isnt cooking someone dinner, it’s going to a deli and buying a bunch of stuff and placing it on a table. Fine, but I would never serve that. I like to cook. —NP