Harold B. Lee Library

Food Dates

Examples of Food Dates in the Special Collections Archives:

Creative Dating: A BYU Tradition (FA 01 787)

Progressive Dinner Dates involve ordering different food items from multiple restaurants. These usually occur along streets where there are a row of fast food chain restaurants.

Elevator Dinner is a simple variation on dinner that occurs in an elevator. Amusement is derived mostly from the reactions of people who want to use the elevator.

Candle-lit dinner at a fast food restaurant brings a feeling of celebration to an inexpensive activity.

The genie is a roommate who consents to toss food over a hedge to a couple whenever they utter the phrase ‘I wish.’ The situation is more amusing if the wishes are improbable.

Creative Dating Customs  (FA 01 1347)

Candle lit dinner in the back of a truck or rented U-Haul can be nice if the view is overlooking the mountains.

Tinfoil dinners are nice after hiking in the mountains. Ghost stories and s’mores make them more fun than romantic.

A messy dinner can shock dates if it is done rarely. Using a disposable plastic table-cloth, utensils are drawn on but otherwise not provided for difficult finger foods like spaghetti and ice-cream.

To complicate an otherwise simple dinner, couples on a group date can be randomly assigned to use non-regular kitchen implements such as spatulas and whisks as eating utensils.

Dinner based on a letter instead of a theme can be delicious or disgusting depending on the creator. F is for fish, fondue, and fries. B is for broccoli, bananas and bacon.

Creative Dating And Folklore?  How Do They Relate? (FA 01 1368)

An ‘S’ themed date has Star Wars, skating, spaghetti, salad and sprite.

Food picked from nature is free, so some couples like to collect pinecones and pick out the nuts. Berry picking would also be appropriate, as there are a large number of edible berries on campus.

Dinner on a golf course is probably only possible if permission of the owners is obtained. But driving around on the golf-cart to get to the dinner location would be very posh.

Authentic BYU Date:  Folklore Research Project (FA 01 2122)

Some group dates have included a dinner where everyone’s hands are tied together. This either promotes cooperation or leaves the guests hungry and irritated. Afterwards, couples can compound any feelings of resentment by writing out embarrassing things for each other to do. The trick to this game is that the person who writes something out has to do whatever they wrote.

The Ritual of Creative Dating (FA 01 2285)

When eating colored candies, a group or couple may assign each color a topic, and for each piece eaten the person who ate it must talk about something related to that topic. For more OCD dates, a whole conversation could be had on each topic as the candies are eaten in proper color order.

Soup served out of carved out pumpkins is more thematically interesting than a pan.

If everyone is warned before-hand, a whip cream fight on a date can be a creative bit of excitement. As a spontaneous activity, it has potential to ruin someone’s day.

If trash bags are put over clothing and hair ties are provided, dates may possibly enjoy eating something messy with their hands tied behind their backs.