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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=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.
[/quote]

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)?

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

No, this is not really unreasonable level of casual entertaining for us or our circles.   If we have unexpected guests come over, we add another entree and an appetizer or two to our usual daily meal for them.  Not only it helps to stretch the meal but it is more hospitable.  Normally our meals with guests will start with drinks and appetizers.  While people are chitchatting and hanging out we can easily add an entree, salad, sides.  There is always a gap between drinks/appetizers and entrees and that is ample time to make something more. Also, we are a culture that puts a lot of emphasis on food and hospitality. So, even when casual friends are visiting us to spend time with us, we will glam up the food and become creative.

Finally, I think that in my culture, we are socialized to entertain, food prep, cook daily etc, especially if kids or other family members are living with us. Most of us can cook from scratch and daily cooking is a way of life.

If we invite people to our home in a planned manner for any meal, we will have several appetizers and several entrees.  Invited friends do not get crap food in the name of "casual".  No one wants to eat that kind of dry toast meal and most people are eating quite well in their own homes, so I would be embarrassed to offer them anything less than that and vice versa.   [/quote]

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