The Essential List of 90s Food: 30 of the Best 90s Food Trends

0
5430
90s Food
Reading Time: 8 minutes

90sfashion.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. See our disclosure here.

Last Updated on July 23, 2023

If there is something to miss from the 90s is the unhealthy but goodie weird food that we ate! We had Cheez balls, Kool-aid bursts, strips of gums, sour jelly candies, melty chocolate lava cakes, decorated Barbie toy cakes, and last but not least myriad salty foods that were so good you finished licking your fingers off!

If you are interested in more candy, you should check out this article on the sweets of the 90s. It focuses on all types of candy sweets. If a decorated cake is more your thing, view these 90s themed birthday cake ideas for some amazing 90s cake inspo. We’ve also dedicated another article to amazing drinks of the 90s we used to sip, and as if that wasn’t enough we also wrote another article about 90s snacks.

Feeling like you might want to have a bite? By the end of this list, you’ll definitely want to hit Amazon or the nearest supermarket to core some of these tasty treats! 

Salty Food

1. Stuffed Crust Pizza

Stuffed Crust Pizza

I don’t know about you, but to this day I am a huge fan of stuffed crust pizza. I mean, what is not to love in that little extra melty cheese? Normal pizzas are awesome, but this 1990s invention is just next-level.

2. Focaccia

Focaccia

I mean, I’d rather have pizza but focaccias are certainly a childhood staple that I cherish dearly. I remember serving tiny focaccias for my birthday parties as a kid, wasn’t that cool?

3. Tuna Mac and Cheese

Tuna Mac Cheese

For me, this is the ultimate comfort food since I was a child. It is super easy to make, and you tend to have all the ingredients already in your home. You just make the pasta and pop it in the oven with the tuna and cheese to its all melty but with that crunchy crust on top that is absolutely mouth-watering. Speaking of this is making me hungry, by the way!

4. Hot Pockets

Hot Pockets

Hot Pockets is an American brand of microwaveable turnovers, that generally have either cheese, meat, or vegetables. You basically store them in your freezer and heat them up real quick when you are feeling peckish. We had a ton of easy and quick microwaveable dishes like these in the 90s. It was one of the biggest trends in food!

5. Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad

You didn’t have to be Chinese to enjoy the Chinese chicken salad. This dish is actually not from China. It was invented in the United States. It got its name because many of the dressings used to eat it which are typically Asian. It was actually one of the healthiest trending foods if you didn’t go overboard with the dressing!

6. Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes

Crab cakes are an amazing option for a light meal, especially if they are homemade! These little crispy-on-the-outside savory bites are one of my favorite seafood dishes of the era. They can be spotted in many restaurants as an appetizer, and they are still very popular, especially in seaside towns. 

7. Doritos Casserole

Doritos Casserole

Some people love a good Doritos casserole, but I believe this is a great way to spoil the crunchiness of Doritos. I’d rather have mine on their own, right out of the bag instead of mixed up with fresh ingredients that will get them all mushy. However, the 90s had all kinds of weird inventions and this take on the traditional casserole was quite common!

8. Baked Brie

Baked Brie

This is one of my favorite ways to eat cheese, right along with barbequed provolone. I don’t remember having this one as a kid but my mom swears it was widely popular!

9. Eggo Waffle

Eggo Waffle

Anything that came prepared was a huge hit during the 90s, even something as easy to make as a waffle mixture. I won’t complain though, because thanks to Eggo waffles, having waffles for breakfast was super easy and they were scrumptious!

10. Bagel Bites

Bagel Bites Pizza Snacks

Bagel bites are actually something like tiny puffy mini pizzas, despite their name. I mean, we had pizza everything in those days. It was actually one of the most popular flavors for well… You name it!

I know that technically Bagel bites are a snack, but if you opened one of these, you just couldn’t stop till you emptied it out. After eating them all you’d be so stuffed no dinner was needed.

11. Pizza Rolls

Pizza Rolls

Speaking of pizza, another great invention of those nostalgic days is the pizza roll. It’s just like it sounds, a pizza rolled over to form a sort of cornucopia of tasty goodness! 

You could also add pepperoni or whatever other filling you loved, like in a regular pizza. Just stay far away from pineapple slices, you have got to draw the line somewhere.

12. Fla-Vor-Ice

Fla Vor Ice

I recently saw the new Dakota Johnson movie Cha-cha Real Smooth and they had these after a party on the kitchen counter. It made me so nostalgic about this little sherbet-like Fla-vor-ice.

13. Kid Cuisine

Kid Cuisine

Speaking of instant dinners, Kid Cuisine had it all. Even pudding! And of course, it came with pizza! 

14. Spaghetti-O’s

Spaghetti O's

Spaghetti O’s came out of a can but were delicious! If I had to describe them to somebody I would say they were like a cross between letter soup and mac and cheese. What do you think?

Snacks

15. Toaster Strudel

Toaster Strudel

Despite its popularity, I was never a fan of Toaster Strudel. Much like Pop Tarts, these were some of the worst snacks of the 90s due to their unhealthy ingredients. Basically, the crust is made out of flour, fat, and sugar and the filling is pure sugar. With no actual fruit inside, at all.

16. Dunkaroos

Cinnamon Graham Dunkaroos

Dunkaroos are a snack food from Betty Crocker, that was first launched in 1990. What is it? A package of cookies and frosting. The idea behind it is that the cookies are meant to be dunked into the frosting right before eating them. Each individual package contains 10 cookies so they don’t turn mushy if you don’t feel like eating the whole box!

17. Fruit by the Foot

Fruit by the Foot

These gum-like belts of fruit-flavored candy advertised themselves as “as good as fruit”. But the truth of the matter is that they resemble your typical sugar-filled candy more closely than any fruit I know!

18. Cheez Balls

Planters Cheez Balls

If you thought Cheez Balls were lost forever, fear not. This beloved staple fo our childhood is available again from Planters since 2019 and is now a regular product of their line.

19. Shark Bites

Shark Bites

This is one of those snacks that are lost in time. Despite still existing, the recipe and ingredients have been changed so the taste is no longer the one we remember. As the title says, these were little fruity snacks made in the shape of sharks. Quirky, huh?

20. 3D Doritos

3D Doritos

Ohh, Doritos! How I love thee! I am still a huge fan of these snacks! Especially the nacho cheese flavor. I could it a huge whole bag by my lonesome! Finger licking included.

21. Rice Krispies Treats Cereal

Rice Krispies Treats

We didn’t usually eat this at my place, but I remember having them at a friend’s house and they were delicious! The combination of crunchy rice cereal and chocolatey cover was absolutely amazing!

22. Yoplait Trix Yogurt

Trix Yoghurt

We usually had this one in the freezer, ready for the occasional afternoon munchies after school. According to my mom, it was healthier than having a Yoohoo or something like that. 

23. Lunchables

Lunchables

Lunchables was created at the end of the 80s, to satisfy the rising demand for easy quick dinners that could be prepped in a jiffy. The design of the package was based on the look of an American TV dinner and they were a ton of different flavors to choose from. Enough that you could vary them and eat Lunchables the whole week if need be and never tire of it.

24. Scooby-Doo Fruit Snacks

Scooby Doo Fruit Snacks

Scooby-Doo where are you?! Where you a fan of the Scooby cartoons? I sure was! Of course, like all things of the decade, if the fandom was big enough foods and drinks popped around everywhere. And Scooby-Doo was certainly big enough to warrant its own snack, particularly considering how much a big deal it was when Scooby got a treat snack in the show. 

Check Out: 23 of the Best 90s Cartoons we all Loved

25. Dinosaur Eggs Oatmeal

Quaker Dinosaur Eggs Instant Oatmeal

Dinosaur’s were big in the 90s, considering it was the time of Jurassic Park and other dinosaur cartoons. No wonder Quaker jumped on that wagon and made its oatmeal of “Dinosaur Eggs”.

26. String Thing

String thing

Strings of chewy goodness came out of this Betty Crocker box. If you weren’t careful, you could end up eating the whole thing. 

Desserts

27. Molten Lava Cake

Molten Lava

This is one of those inventions that remained popular through the years. It is quite loved by Instagrammers because of the very photogenic moment in which the inside juicy flavor spills outwards after the first cut. Also, it is super yummy!

28. Barbie Birthday Cake

Barbie Birthday Cake

Another trend that never dies is the Barbie-decorated cake. Of course, many 90s iconic cartoons and tv series have been used to decorate many a cake since, but Barbie continues to be a favorite of kids everywhere.

You May Like: How to Throw a Gorgeous 90s Bachelorette Party

29. Cosmic Brownies

Cosmic Brownies

How can brownies be even better? Such a difficult question was easily solved with candied sparkles in shiny colors. I know, the world has never been the same since.

30. Oreo Dirt Cups

Oreo Dirt Cups

Oreo’s where huge back int he day. But dirty cups joined together the already delicious Oreos with jelly worms and ice cream, I mean… It was addictive!

Read Next:

How to Throw a 90s Party

45 Infamous 90s Fads (How Many do You Remember?)

What to Wear to a 90s Party

Previous articleUltimate List of 35+ 90s Drinks We Sipped Up as Kids
Next article30+ of the Absolute Best 90s Snacks
Lorena Lombardo
Lorena Lombardo is a fashion designer specialized in trend forecasting and fashion journalism. She studied at the UAL (University of London), ORT (Universidad ORT Uruguay), and taken various courses about traditional craftsmanship while living in Tokyo. Some of her favorite memories during the 90s include wearing bucket hats and trying to copy Rachel’s hairstyle. Her absolute favorite show was Buffy: the Vampire Slayer but she was also a huge fan of Clueless because of its amazing fashion choices. Her top track of the decade is currently disputed between How soon is Now? by the Smiths and Here with me by Dido. Both also happen to be the opening songs for two great 90s shows: Charmed and Roswell. Coincidence? I think not!