Finding food to fit the theme of your party

Author Notes

Finding food to fit the theme of your party

Food, glorious food. Any good party simply isn’t worth going to if there aren’t at least some nibbles on offer, but the best social gatherings can often be the ones where the food is the most impressive thing there. Although traditional good cooking is a great addition to any get together, it’s often the food that goes above and beyond the norm that is enjoyed most and remembered well into the future.
Picking an interesting theme and creating food around it is a great way to make your night stand out. From the totally over-the-top to the weird and wacky, here are a few ideas to help you get your dinner party off to a flyer.

A trip to the jungle

Cheese sandwiches and sausage roles may be sufficient for many, but where’s the adventurousness in that? Going for something from a little further afield is guaranteed to get people talking, and make your party spread that little but more interesting than a handful of crisps and cocktail sausages.

Going a little but more exotic with a jungle theme is easy way to give your dinner the wow factor. As well as digging out some fake greenery and maybe adding in some jungle decorations like vines, you could also add a soundtrack, by playing wild animal and jungle sounds from your phone or CD player!

For the main course, you could always serve up foods like coconuts, yams and tropical dishes involving bananas and pineapples to get the flavour of the jungle, or you could always go for something a little more adventurous. A Cambodian delicacy of fried tarantulas
is actually really tasty, but of course you’ll have to shop around extensively to find Tarantulas that have been farmed, rather than heading down to the local pet shop. When it comes to dessert, you can find cakes in the shape of almost anything these days. Make sure you pick an animal that will strike some fear into your guests.

Get spooky

Although we’re quite a way of Halloween yet, there’s no harm in planning a Spooktacular feast for your guests well in advance! Halloween offers up plenty of great ideas for gruesome grub, and with a few easy tricks you can create some amazing treats!
With a bit of food colouring, pickled onions can be quickly turned into eyeballs, and a bit of jam on the end of a cocktail sausage makes the perfect severed finger. You’ll really want to focus on the decorations and drinks however, so make sure you’ve got plenty of cobwebs, creepy candles and a bloody punch. Just add some spirits (not those ones) and any kind of blackcurrant juice to get the right colour and consistency

Casino night

If you want to go a bit classier, then a casino night is a great way to keep the whole thing from descending into chaos. Full casino games are easy to hire or buy, with some companies even offering a croupier to make thingslook a bit more professional. Why not bake a cake that look like a roulette wheel, complete with chocolate poker chips.
Adding a few canapes and some champagne into the equation will make your living feel a bit more Las Vegas than Luton.

You could even take your themed food idea to the next step on your big day and the food on offer must match the occasion. One occasion the really requires you to go the extra mile is a wedding.Cakes can be made into any shape imaginable and one occasion that definitely requires a cake is a wedding.

Of course, there are many potential venues and themes for a wedding – recently, getting married in a casino has proved to be a particularly popular choice. There are a whole host of impressive casinos around the world that host weddings, partly to improve their revenue due to the increased competition posed by online casinos. 888 is a great online casino , and their engaging games can certainly be held partly responsible for the number of gamblers who are turning away from land-based casinos and playing online instead.

Football night

With the world cup just around the corner, plenty of people will be planning how they’re going to watch the big games, and more importantly who with! This is always a great opportunity to get friends around, or even just to mocktails . Instead of chucking some crisps and a few cans of lager on the table, ask everyone to come fully kitted up and put on a proper matchday spread!

Cook up some hot dogs, pukka pies and cheeseburgers, as well as cups of Bovril, and serve beer in plastic cups and not within sight of the pitch on TV. For afters, some football shaped cupcakes won’t go amiss!

Cocktails

If you can’t find an idea that sits well with your group of friends, or if you’re such a bad cook that you could burn a boiled egg, then a cocktail party is the easy answer for you. Making cocktails is easy-peasy, and all you need to do is raid the drinks cabinet. By going for the exotic stuff, like drinks served in a coconut shell, you can retain the novelty bit without it just turning into a session. If you’re not a big drinker, then mocktails are equally as tasty (if not better). In terms of food, a few nibbles craftily slid out of the packets and onto a plate will soak up the alcohol and ensure everyone leaves with a full belly.

Novelty food doesn’t have to be hard to do, and all you’ll need is a bit of preparation time and a few ideas. Pinterest is an absolute mine of crafty food ideas, so you don’t even need to come up with something unique! Just remember to cook everything thoroughly, and check for allergies before you whip up those peanut butter brownies!


—Muhammadqasim Butt