CRAZY BUFFET, AN ICE-BREAKING DINNER PARTY IDEA

Here's a dinner party idea we've had great fun with! You invite some friends and seat them at the table(s), the only place setting before them being a napkin. You announce that this is going to be a four-course dinner, and pass out menus. On card-stock paper we printed our menus to look like this:

Front

Inside

Each item is numbered, and you have your guests list by number in the right column their choices for the full four-course meal. Of course by this list your guests don't know what they're ordering; they can only guess. Be sure to write on each menu whose menu it is, then collect the menus and take them to the kitchen. It's important that your guests not see beforehand what foods you've prepared.

Then, serve the first course (using paper/plastic plates and cups, to save a lot of dishwashing) and watch the fun. One person might have meat and potatoes with only his hands to eat it with, while the person beside him has only a knife, a spoon and a pickle, mint and olive. After the first course, you take everything away, including utensils, leaving only the napkin, and serve the second course. 

By the end of the fourth course, you'll have happy, full and laughing guests, and upset, still-hungry ones. It's fun listening to all the comments throughout the meal. Then, when they think the dinner is over, you bring out all the food for them to help themselves (or invite them into the kitchen for a buffet). Don't tell them anytime during the four courses that you are going to do this.

Here is the key for the numbered items:

1. Pig's Panic:  Knife

2. Pusher:  Celery

3. Chicken in a Basket:  Boiled Egg in Cupcake Cup.

4. Twist:  Orange Jello

5. Scoop:  Spoon

6. Spare:  Spoon

7. Wedge:  Cheese Wedge

8. Pig's Delight:  Corn on the Cob

9. God's Gift to the Farmer:  Water

10. Some Little Gems:  Baked Beans

11. Brazilian Treat:  Coffee

12. Dutch Treat:  Meat and Potatoes

13. Popeye's Delight:  Olive

14. Square Deal and Bonus:  Cake and Ice Cream

15. Staff:  Bread

16. Helping Hand:  Fork

17. Chip Off the Old Block:  Toothpick

18. Big Squeeze:  Orange Juice

19. Square Soda:  Soda Cracker

20. Sweet & Sour:  Pickle and Mint

Have fun.

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