s.fowler

You go Capo! In our area there is an organization that gets *non-served* leftover food from area restaurants for the various shelters that serve the homeless etc...

Capo

Thanks, Sally! That disdain some restaurants, and people, have for taking home perfectly-good uneaten food is just another aspect of what <I>I</I> see as "food snobbery" and I would refuse to patronize any establishment that gave me an attitude about this.

s.fowler

Oh Capo! I'm still in love... *grin*

xxx

Just as a point of reference for those who have been told "you eat like a bird", a bird eats about 2-1/2 times its body weight each day (high amount of energy needed for flying I'm told).

DJ

To: xxx <BR>OK smartypants! I'm sure those of us that "eat like birds" don't eat 2.5 times our own weights, perhaps that of a large bird (not an eagle) but not our own weights. Go back to bed! <BR>Gotta love that anonymity.

Cindy

Hey xxx! I'll bet an ostrich doesn't eat 2.5 times its weight each day. So some of us eat like especially large ostrichs.

Amy

Funny stuff about the birds, folks! That particular cliche (eat like a bird) doesn't apply to me, but I'm with Capo in deploring wastefulness. This is not about being gauche or cheap; wasting food means wasting all the resources that go into its production. Philabundance and other such organizations do a great job of recycling unused food, but the amount of waste in the food service industry as a whole is horrifying. "Doggy bagging" obviously isn't going to solve this problem, but I can't believe that it's actually condemned by any of the conservation conscious. My original question was actually about whether it would cause difficulty (i.e. if the restaurants were not prepared for this) <BR>Now, people who pack a lunch in napkins from the breakfast buffet--that's tacky! (And yes, I have seen this in four star hotels.)

Bar

Kudos to Capo! Let's make a concerted effort to educate those Europeans about doggie bags and wasting food. We've paid for it, ergo, it's ours to take.

foodgod

In France, you're supposed to eat all of your dinner -- it's insulting to the cook to leave anything but the usual inedibles on your plate (if some "real food" is left, you will most likely be asked if something was wrong with it). So, I assume that taking it home implies that you're going to give it to your pet, which is even more insulting (you find it fit for your dog). <BR><BR>And the food is to be eaten when it is prepared -- reheating rarely (never, in French minds) brings out the flavor the second time. <BR><BR>

Barb

This reminds me of my own favorite seatmate on an airplane story. We were flying home from Paris to California and our seatmate was a Frenchman. Most of the time he was gone in search of a place to smoke as we were in non-smoking (this was in 1995) but as we got close to landing in the USA he returned and said he wanted to ask us a few things as he had never been in the US before and my husband is an American who speaks French well. My husband said this man asked if it was true that in America people are served *enormous portions* in restaurants and that they<BR>TAKE HOME FOOD(that's how he said it with wide eyes and great emphasis) from their plate that they did not eat. He found the answer hard to believe and he said "In France we would NEVER take home food even if we love the taste but hadn't been able to eat much for some reason". He also asked if it was true that American women *want* to be fat and if they join clubs so they can gain weight (he got that one a bit backwards). He siad with all the fat American women he sees traveling in Europe he and his friends thought Americans must think fat is sexy and *want* to be huge.

clairobscur

It's really not done here. I suppose, though, that most little restaurants like pizzerias which sell carry-away food will wrap your leftovers if asked, though. But in other places,not only they probably won't be equipped to wrap your food, but if you wrap it in your napkin, you'll probably appear as tacky and cheap as the person packing a lunch at a breakfast buffet you were talking about. Once again, it mostly fall down to what you're accustomed to. Anything which isn't done where you are will probably be looked down. There's no real logic (or at least it is well hidden and not obvious) in habbits and customs. Also, there's several way to look at a situation. For me, serving huge portions one will be unable to eat, or asking for them seems to make no sense and appear at first glance as a waste of food.<BR><BR>I've been taught not to eat between meals, not to ask for more food than I could eat, and to finish what I've been served, at home or elsewhere, and it seems to me to make perfect sense. Not eating between meals is more healthy, and when it's time to eat you're actually hungry and ready to appreciate a real meal, asking for more food than I could eat would be a waste of food or would oblige me to eat too much, and not eating everything would be rather impolite in someone's house (it's different in a restaurant)and is easily avoided if I respect the first and second steps. Once again, habbits, education, local customs....