These dishes used to be standard menu items.
Trends in food come and go, just as they do in fashion and music and home decor, and when dishes slip out of popularity they fade from view. People might make their oldie-but-goodie recipes at home, but we don't see menus-of-old in restaurants and cookbooks are always being updated with new trends. It's usually not until someone mentions a once-popular dish from decades ago that we say, "Oh yeah, what ever happened to that?"
For instance, if you're Gen X or older, you may remember French and Thousand Island dressings being offered as standard choices when you ordered a salad. Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find a restaurant that serves those dressings at all. Changes in nutrition research and health awareness affect these trends, as do pop culture and marketing pushes from various food industries. But sometimes foods just fade in popularity for no obvious reason.
Someone on Reddit asked people to share "a dish that was extremely popular or trendy on restaurant menus but then virtually disappeared," and it's a mouth-watering trip down nostalgia lane. Some of the dishes people named haven't entirely "disappeared" but they definitely aren't as ubiquitous as they once were on restaurant menus.
Which of these babies should we bring back?
Beef stroganoff
Beef stroganoff is a classic.Photo credit: Canva
It's a classic. Beef? Good. Mushrooms? Good. Pasta? Good. What's not to love about a dish of beef stroganoff on a cold winter's night? That's right. Nothing.
"Nobody serves beef stroganoff anymore."
"I was just in South America, it’s everywhere there, especially in Brazil. There are even stroganoff restaurants in the food courts at the mall."
"There’s a Russian restaurant near me that does it, but they only do it if you schedule it and have a party of 8 or more."
Blackened (and Cajun) everything
Mmmmm, charcoal.Photo credit: Canva
Yes, we really did burn meat to a crisp all over the country for a while there. Blackened chicken, blackened salmon, blackened shrimp—and throw a little kick in there to make it "Cajun." Nothing like some added carcinogens to really whet the appetite, am I right? (Though the Cajun part was pretty darn good.)
"I credit the original cajun gourmet, Justin Wilson for this. Late 80s/early 90s when more & more people were getting cable TV, he had a few different shows that reached coast to coast. Maybe not iconic, but he was pretty popular and inspired people to have a taste of the culture & cuisine he fondly promoted."
"Add a little... on-YAWN!"
"I gar-on-TEE!"
Pineapple upside-down cake
Pineapple upside down cake is soooo good when done well.Photo credit: Canva
Hello, sunshine! Sweet, sticky, yummy and pretty to boot. This is one that you really can't judge til you try. So much better than it sounds.
"In 6th grade home EC we made pineapple upside down cake. With jiffy cake mix and canned pineapple and even the v maraschino cherries. I made that on the regular though the 80s and 90s."
"Oh man, thanks for reminding me of this. I think I’m going to make one today. I made them all the time as a kid in the 70s and a young adult in the 80s. I haven’t had one in years!!"
"It's in my regular dessert rotation. I get requests from family, friends and colleagues for pineapple upside-down cake."
Potato skins
Tater skins. Yum.Photo credit: Canva
These were all the rage for a bit there. They can still be found sometimes, but potato skins—and baked potato bars—are not nearly as popular as they used to be. Potatoes have gone through the ringer many times when it comes to healthy vs. unhealthy, but few people would argue that they're not delicious when topped with some cheese and bacon.
"Potato skins were pretty big in the 80s."
"That's because they had baked potato appeal; 'cause they're made with potatoes and skins that are real!"
Try to eat a baked potato and you'll be stuffed by the end. i bet that's why they're rarely found on menus anymore."
Salad bars
Anybody miss salad bars?Photo credit: Canva
Ah, the salad bar. The pandemic really messed with this one. They used to be found in most grocery stores, and then pre-COVID there was a big boom of restaurants that were just enormous salad bars. Yet another thing the 'rona stole from us.
"Salad bars. In the 80s every restaurant had one, even some fast food burger places like Wendy’s."
"I love salad bars. I remember the Soup n' Salad chain. That was good."
"Salad bars were all the craze. Nice restaurants to Wendy’s. Salad bars everywhere!"
Quiche
Sheesh, quiche was popular.Photo credit: Canva
Ah, the French egg pie we all knew and loved. Maybe we still do, and maybe we make them at home, but quiches aren't the staple menu item at restaurants that they used to be.
"Quiche. Back in the 80’s."
"Quiche, In the late 70s and the 80s. Every fern bar restaurant like TGI Fridays featured quiche, and people were cooking quiche. The popularity of quiche even inspired the title of the book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. That book inspired the humorous meme of "Real Men Don’t (fill in the blank).'"
"I still make quiche once in awhile. It's ridiculously easy."
Sun-dried tomatoes and pesto
Is there anything more 90s than a sun-dried tomato and pesto pasta?Photo credit: Canva
Right around the time when we were all sudden super into Gregorian chants for like a year, sun-dried tomatoes were being put into everything. Pesto, too. Roasted peppers, too. It's like our collective inner Italian came out with flags a-flying.
"I can’t think of a specific dish but there was a period in the 90s when pesto was EVERYWHERE and so were roasted red peppers."
"Sun dried tomatoes were freaking EVERYWHERE for a while there."
"They even had sun dried tomatoes flavored potato chips."
Fondue
Fondue was all the rage in the 60s and 70s.Photo credit: Canva
There are fewer foods more fun than fondue, but you just don't see it much anymore—with one notable exception. The Melting Pot is an all-fondue restaurant chain, so fondue-lovers do have a place to go if they want to dip all the things in melted cheese (and then in chocolate for dessert).
"My mom told me about how after the 70’s she’s fine not touching fondue ever again. Everyone got a fondue pot for their wedding which they used precisely twice before it found its way into storage."
"People are talking about fondue in the '80s and '90s, but it got really popular in the 1960s. My family got a fondue pot then even tho we weren't very trendy food-wise. But being able to cook beef and melt cheese in it ticked all of my dad's boxes!"
"Hot pot is the new fondue."
What else should be added to this list?
Overwhelmed with emotion.
Stressed at the desk, seeking a moment of calm.
Storytime circle with kids and teachers in the classroom.
Anchors aweigh! 
Case in point, not case and point. 
I've been through the desert on a horse with free rein.
Buzz Off Get Away GIF 
"Toe the line" literally means put your toe on the line.
Lena Dunham as Hannah GIF by Girls 
A scene from the film Reality Bites. 
Carol Anne gets in touch with ghosts in the movie Poltergeist. 
Kurt Cobain, the patron saint of Gen X. 
Communications expert shares the 7-word phrase to shoot down anyone being disrespectful
Try this method next time someone says something rude.
A woman can't believe what she just heard.
Getting caught off guard by a rude comment from a coworker, family member, or total stranger can throw you for a loop. You immediately start wondering how you should respond. Should I insult the person right back or play it cool without stooping to their level? Everyone is going to be thrown by a disrespectful comment at some point, so it’s good to have a response in your back pocket for that moment when it comes.
Communications expert Jefferson Fisher provided a great response that we can all use recently on the Mel Robbins Podcast. Fisher is a Texas board-certified personal injury attorney and one of the most respected voices on argumentation and communication in the world. He is also the bestselling author of The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More.
How to respond to a rude or disrespectful comment
Fisher told Robbins that the first step in responding to the comment is nonverbal. You say nothing. “A lot of silence. So often, if you just wait 10 seconds that you're gonna add distance between what they said and how you're going to respond,” Fisher said. “They're saying this to get something out of you, cause in that moment, they're feeling something, whether it's a fear or an insecurity, whatever it is, you're not going to deliver on that same plane that they are.”
The next step is to let the rude person know that their behavior will not be tolerated in a confident manner.
“So somebody says something disrespectful, you give enough silence to make sure that it's a little awkward, and then you're going to say something to the effect of, ‘That's below my standard for a response.’ All of a sudden, you're now making it clear that what you just said was beneath me. And I don't respond to things that are beneath me in that way.”
Throw it back on them
If you prefer to put someone back on their heels instead of squelching the situation as Fisher recommends, John Bowe, a speech trainer, award-winning journalist, and author of I Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in the Age of DisconnectionI Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in the Age of Disconnection, says that you should respond with a question: “Do you really mean that?”
“Say it with outrage or dripping sarcasm, with raised eyebrows or deadpan calm. It doesn’t matter. This phrase is quietly disarming and deceptively powerful,” Bowe writes for CNBC. Bowe says the response does two great things for you. First, it gives them a chance to reconsider their words because most rude comments are said without thinking. “By responding with curiosity instead of defensiveness, you’re holding up a mirror. Often, that’s all it takes for the other person to walk back their offense,” he writes.
After the person is asked if they meant what they said, they can double down on their rude comment, but they are probably more likely to backpedal or apologize.
Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life that, unless you live under a rock, you’ll have to deal with people making rude comments. But the best thing you can do is to prepare yourself to confidently put someone in their place so they’ll think twice about ever being rude to you again.