Clean your plate

If at a restaurant and there is more food then belly space, I will always take the leftovers home for a late night snack or next meal. But that rarely happens.

If a guest, I'm careful to get only what I will eat, I would think it would be a sign of respect to the person cooking that you ate everything, sort of a stamp of approval.

Growing up, my grandmother used to tell me and my brother about the starving kids in Ethiopia and that we need to eat everything. To this day when eating around others I still like to proudly display my clean plate and state "Momma Would Be Proud!"

 

Doesn't really happen here, although leftovers do.

I won't throw food away at restaurants either, it goes home, no matter how "low-class" some people say it is. Is it more low-class to be so snotty you're wasteful or to be frugal enough to not waste what you paid for?

What happens at many restaurants is horrid. Even at churches. I got HIGHLY disturbed when I found out leftovers at a dinner couldn't be taken to a homeless shelter because of safety regulations. There was a bunch of yummy salad that had sat out to be served and a lot was left over and it wasn't allowed to be given to the shelter because of regulations. But it could be tossed.

And fresh veggies are such a rare things at shelters. GRRR

 

We bring home our leftovers as well! I'm with Gina, I paid for that food and just because I can't sit in a resturant chair long enough to finish what is usually twice my appetite, doesn't mean I should let it go to waste! I'll finish it off later on that evening or for lunch the next day. Two meals I don't have to cook!

At home, I serve the plates a good deal of the time. I pretty much know how much everyone will eat, so there isn't much left on the plates and what little there is goes to two pairs of big brown eyes or two pairs of sweet blue eyes (all with four legs). Leftovers, if it happens I cooked too much, go in the fridge or freezer for other meals or for lunches.

 

>Nowdays, I get sick at a restaurant, when I see all the food thrown away.

Then don't ever go on a cruise ship. Once was enough for me.

 

If I don't clean my plate at a restaurant, I take the leftovers home for later.

 

The waste was horrible. I heard one passenger tell another to fill her plate and throw away what she didn't want to eat.

 

Brings to mind those awful buffet eateries....so many people act like pigs at a trough....it is nauseating to watch, which is why I don't go to them, the kiddies display appalling manners all too often.

Whilst on a recent trip, our plates generally arrived with enough food to feed several starving persons.....again much too much. I was amazed that the men were able to get through the serve but all the ladies felt overwhelmed by the sizes. The ladies all wanted to have the dessert option and tended to ask for entree size serves. Dessert could be divided into two as a rule so that was okay

 

I was raised the same way, and to this day it bothers me to not "finish what I take". However now that I am a dad, I don't insist on the same from my children. I think that instilling in children the feeling that they must always finish their plates forms poor eating habits. If they are full, I would rather they stop eating. I do try and make sure they don't waste food, and appreciate how blessed they are to have enough to eat.

 

Yes, this is often a ridiculous situation; or many of those in one. In some cases the option is there to get a half-order, but in most cases that does not seem to be available. And I don't know where the notion comes from to overfill a plate, then leave 1/3 or 1/2 or it to be thrown out. I think, though I'm not sure, that the idea of 'leaving a little' of every item on the plate is based on the appearance that you had sufficient. so your host doesn't worry about it. In eastern countries that is traditinally demonstrated in another way [think Ben-Hur].

All-U-can-eat buffets are alright, but only if you don't do too much watching or thinking about them. It's repulsive to see people horde food onto a plate, whether they actually eat that much or not, in which case it usually has to be thrown out because some will take advantage of the "all..." part and gluttonize themselves there in the dining room and take another 2 meals' worth with them; therefore the rules are set that you do either dine-in or (maybe) take-out, but not both. And kids-- usually there is some little sign up saying children under 10 must be supervised at a buffet, but often they are not, and the restaurant is not going to do anything about it unless they act completely outrageously. Once I saw a boy about 7 spooning a bunch of hushpuppies onto his plate; one fell off and he picked it up with his hand and tossed it back into the buffet bunch. And most people are not careful at all about not touching the food; not if the hunk they want is located in the supply where they will have to reach and their hands may touch what they have to reach over. So much of this is just plain selfishness.

My dad was ridiculous in some of his ways about food at home and many other things. One of the few times he ever used the word "sin" was in the context of "Don't you know it's a sin to waste any food?" After my sister and I were old enough (or so our parents thought) to watch our 2 younger brothers and our grandmother didn't stay with us on weekdays any longer, our dad started having to work different hours, like 4 a.m. to noon, so my sister and I being in charge didn't last that long. But then he took over the cooking, and he always prepared fattening foods and way too much of them, keeping with his "it's a sin..." and complaining that we don't finish everything. But he literally would not listen-- not only was he so stubborn and unchangeable, he was almost deaf in one ear from a WWII injury, and even tring to talk to him could be a miserable experience, with his asking to repeat virtually everything cursing at us for mumbling. I know that the reason I so hate butter is because he would put butter on bread or rolls and put it back in the oven, then they would be saturated on the inside and hard on the outside. But if Archie Bunker had been born a Texas cotton farmer... with that description you would have my dad.

 

And I just realized I joined the 5000 Posts Club with the above rant.