I eat out a lot. I eat at home at times. I enjoy a good meal. I take that back. I love eating. I find food to be a delicious art form. I get distressed by people who eat just to address a biological, human need. I haveva difficult time eating with such people. To me a meal is to be enjoyed. I mean, if I am going to ingest calories it better be good. I don’t appreciate having to exercise to work off a mediocre or bad meal.
What makes a good meal entails more than just the taste, quality and look of the food itself. A good meal entails good conversation (even if you are eating by yourself), leisurely pacing and a sense of decorum. I am not talking about elbow placement. That’s just too Pretty Woman for me. You know what I mean? Anyway, for me it is important to do a few things at a meal with others.
First off, no one should start eating until everyone gets their food. I was taught you wait before taking a bite. Its rude and makes the person who doesn’t have their meal yet feel discarded. I have recently been at business lunches where the second the waitress placed the plate on the table, people just immediately dug in. I have been aghast. Not only am I used to waiting for everyone to be served but I also wish everyone Bon Appetite or Buen Provecho. Again, it is what I have bern taught.
I believe others have been similarly taught but somehow these good manners have gone out the window. Could be that people have too many things going on at once. Could be that the conversation is so awkward that eating helps justify the silence. It could be that people don’t eat a big enough breakfast and thus are starving and impatient. My question is don’t people feel awkward doing that (eating while not everyone has been served)? I don’t get it. But the world is weird and getting weirder as it keeps turning.
I’m off to enjoy a meal by myself. Hopefully, I’ll be good company.
Categories: Culture, food, Humor, Psychology, work
psychologistmimi 
When I have dinner with friends or family we always wait until everyone at the table has been served prior to taking the first bite. I was taught this when I was young and now I am 56 years old and still practice decorum at meal times. I hope to think this still honored.
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Hear hear! 🙂
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We have been in restaurants where one meal is taking longer to be cooked so they serve everyone else first. Not wanting to let their food to get cold I would say, “Please eat while your food is warm.” I fault the restaurant for not serving them all together but it happens. Otherwise even at the dinner table in my home my children wait until everyone is seated and served so we can begin together.
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that is true. It is a major pet peeve of mine when restaurants do not serve everyone at the same time and when they remove someplates befroe everyone is finished.
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I grew up in a home with lit candles every night and half a dozen full sets of cloth napkins to choose from. On the other hand, I grew up with liver and Brussels sprouts. Life is a balance.
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ah, lit candles. How awesome. Eek, indeed, on the brussels sprouts.
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I know. My mother wasn’t much of a cook–everything was unseasoned and sans sauce. Her idea of healthy eating. Brussels sprouts were served barely cooked with that horrible, cruciferous taste intact.
Later, I learned that if you carmelized them in a ton of oil and garlic, they became sweet little balls of crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside, addictive excuses for a vegetable side dish. It stinks up the whole house with garlic but, my god, they’re delicious.
This is basically the recipe, just do it on the stove in a frying pan, instead.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1890-roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-garlic
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thanks for sharing that I have heard others swear that brussels sprouts can be good. I will give that recipe a chance. I do love garlic a lot
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The last line cracked me up 😅
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lol. thanks. By the way, I did wait for myself… 😉
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gooooooooooooooooood
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great
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I completely agree with you!
When I go out with friends and we have lunch, it’s just a horrible feeling looking at someone who is eating while not everyone was served…
It’s awkward and unpleasant….needless to say somehow disrespectful…
But, I guess there are many reasons why people do that, and who are we to judge? 🙂
Let people do what they do. 🙂
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I must admit to “scarfing” or wolfing down my food mindlessly most of the time. However, the pudding you have pictured looks so delish, it might be one of the few tastes I would slow down enough to savor as I ate. Might this be related to the tapioca pudding cup I just ate for breakfast? I had intended to combine it with some fruit filled danish bites, but picked up the wrong package by mistake. This error meant that I did not enjoy eating the mistakenly selected blueberry mini-muffins as much as I would have if I had eaten them on their own. Muffins are another food that I can savor when I’m eating them, especially when served with a good cup of coffee.
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Im a very slow eater. I love food and savoring. Yum tapioca pudding! One thing i do scarf down is coffee!
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