House Party Checklist: Snacks, Mixers, Ice and Everything Else
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A complete house party checklist for Nepali hosts: snacks, drinks, mixers, ice, disposables and the small things that are easy to forget.
Every host has forgotten something. The bottle opener. Ice, in May. Forty paper plates and not a single spoon. The fix is a checklist you can reuse every time, ideally stuck inside a kitchen cupboard. Here is one to start from.
One week before
- Confirm the guest count, roughly
- Decide the menu: a full meal, or khaja and snacks
- Work out drinks using our guide to how much beer, whisky and wine to buy
- Check you have enough glasses, chairs and serving bowls
Snacks
Plan on two or three kinds of dry snacks plus one or two hot dishes.
- Chips and crisps, two or three flavours
- Bhujiya and namkeen, always the first bowl to empty
- Peanuts and roasted chana
- Nachos with salsa or cheese dip
- Something hot: sausages, momo, chicken chilli or frozen snacks you can fry
- Something sweet: chocolate, cake or mithai
Drinks
- Beer, spirits and wine, if you are serving alcohol (for guests aged 18 and over)
- Soft drinks and juice for everyone else
- Soda and tonic for mixing
- Mineral water, at least a litre per guest
- Ice, roughly 1 kg per guest. Buy more than you think.
- Lemons, and a jar of mint if you are making cocktails
Disposables and small things
This is the list that saves the evening.
- Paper plates, cups and spoons
- Tissues and napkins, from tissues & disposables
- Garbage bags, at least two large ones
- Bottle opener and a corkscrew if there is wine
- A big bucket or cooler for ice and beer
- Toothpicks for the snacks
- Mosquito repellent if you are sitting outside
The day before
- Clear space in the fridge and freezer
- Chill the beer and soft drinks
- Do as much food prep as possible: marinate the meat, chop the onions
On the day
- Get ice delivered in the afternoon, not the morning, so it doesn't melt
- Put out snacks just before guests arrive
- Keep one bag in the kitchen for empty bottles
After the party
Put the leftover snacks in airtight containers, wrap the cooked food and get it into the fridge within two hours. And keep the list: next time, you will add the one thing you forgot this time.
You can order nearly everything on this list in one go on Vhandar, from the chips to the garbage bags, and pick a delivery window that suits your afternoon. Happy hosting.
