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Any Port in a Storm :: Dockside Dining :: After Dinner :: Odd table behaviour
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AuthorTopic: Odd table behaviour (Read 3,642 times)
kerouac2
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Odd table behaviour
« Thread Started on Oct 12, 2009, 7:59pm »		[Quote]
I'm sure we've all see people who eat strangely, or perhaps we eat strangely ourselves.

This is not the strangest thing I've ever seen, but perhaps it can start a discussion on the subject.

My current houseguest seemed quite normal until tonight's dinner. I had already asked him as soon as he arrived if there was anything he did not eat. He said that he could not eat eggs or eggplant. I found the combination of the two a bit strange, but not a problem for me. I am not a fan of either.

However, tonight we had a roast chicken for dinner. I watched with dismay as he carefully removed every scrap of skin from the chicken, but that was not strange. There are lots of unfortunate people who do not know how to appreciate divinely roasted chicken skin. However, he then dismantled what was left to completely remove the bones.

Then he got up with his skin and bones to take them immediately to the rubbish and said "I know it's weird, but I can't eat if there are bones on my plate."

This was a first for me.
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bixaorellana
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #1 on Oct 12, 2009, 8:11pm »		[Quote]
Let me say at the outset that I'm pretty intolerant of other people's food foibles. Be childishly self-indulgent in your own house, but in public or in the homes of others, pretend to be a grownup.

(And yes, I realize you're his uncle, so not really an "other", so there's more leeway)

I prefer not to have bones, fat, etc. on my plate when I'm eating, but you'd have to share a house with me to know this. I am also likely to completely cut up my meat when at home, rather than one piece at a time, which is what I do in public. My salads are always prepared in bite-sized pieces, and I use a spoon to eat them, rather than a fork. (y'all don't tell anybody, this stuff, okay?)
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kimby
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #2 on Oct 12, 2009, 9:51pm »		[Quote]
Kerouac, wouldn't YOU rather not have to push around a pile of bones and chicken skin - or be tempted to eat the skin when you know it's not good for you - to get at the good stuff?

Your guest got to enjoy the truly edible parts of the meal on a plate with no rubbish. Odd? Maybe. But I get it. Presentation makes the meal.

Does anyone else, when presented with a pile of potato chips or french fries (crisps or chips for you foreigners) eat the little misshapen ones first, saving the pristine pile of perfectly formed ones for last?
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spindrift
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #3 on Oct 12, 2009, 10:21pm »		[Quote]
Kimby - no I don't do that!

Kerouac....perhaps your nephew can't bear to be reminded by bones and skin that this was a dear little LIVING chicken not so long ago....

This has happened to me fairly recently. I want to stop at the meat counter and buy red raw meat but I cannot bear the sight of it all heaped together and spread out in great lumps. The slaughterhouse and what goes on there turns me away. Most of the time.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #4 on Oct 12, 2009, 10:52pm »		[Quote]
I'd have been inclined to fetch the skin out of the trash...

Most people in France I know eat the skin, and most people in the US I know don't. Guess who is leaner? (We are as usual somewhere in between).

But agree with spindrift. I suspect nephew is used to just eating "chicken breast", those weird white blobs of once-living tofu sold in many a restaurant and supermarket.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #5 on Oct 13, 2009, 12:26am »		[Quote]
It sure seems to me that the more "reduced fat" "lite" "sugar free" "fat free" "diet" artificial crap people eat, the fatter they get. I suspect those industrial products/food replacements do not perform quite as advertised.
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bixaorellana
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #6 on Oct 13, 2009, 12:53am »		[Quote]
The next time you're in the supermarket, pick up a low-fat product and read the ingredients. The fat seems to be replaced by sugar.
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casimira
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #7 on Oct 13, 2009, 1:25am »		[Quote]
It sounds just like the OP suggests to me. Even reminds me a little bit of some of the eating disorder clients I worked with. Ritualized like eating behaviors,some are most peculiar.
(I am not suggesting your guest has an eating disorder).
My odd table behavior has to do with always having to leave something on the plate.
Something for the gods... ::)
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hwinpp
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #8 on Oct 13, 2009, 2:51am »		[Quote]

Oct 13, 2009, 1:25am, casimira wrote:

My odd table behavior has to do with always having to leave something on the plate.
Something for the gods... ::)


Mine is the exact opposite. Not believing much in gods I leave nuthin' for nobody ::)

Hey Jack, cut your nephew some slack. Doing what he did means he's comfortable in your home. A good thing.
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spindrift
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #9 on Oct 13, 2009, 9:20am »		[Quote]
Casi - I also leave something on the plate (but it's not as an offering). I suspect it's because I must prove to myself that I am not greedy.....not sure about this.
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casimira
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #10 on Oct 13, 2009, 9:39am »		[Quote]

Oct 13, 2009, 9:20am, spindrift wrote:
Casi - I also leave something on the plate (but it's not as an offering). I suspect it's because I must prove to myself that I am not greedy.....not sure about this.

The "for the gods" part of that was something Mr. C came up with years ago as a joke. I don't really know what it means,my having to leave something. Maybe what you said SD,don't know.
I like what you shared hw. That is a really good point.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #11 on Oct 13, 2009, 12:24pm »		[Quote]
At home my FiL eats with a little clay pot by his plate and as he is eating discards the spare bits (prawn shells, fish bones, bits of gristle) into it as he can't stand having the random bits on his plate. He doesnt do it when eating out but I put a bowl out for him when he comes here as I now he is more comfortable like that and I want him to feel at home.

But generally I am irritated by people's food weirdness, like Bixa said if its not at home just be polite and get the hell on with it. I am unlikely to responsible for my actions if I am eating and someone says "eeeeeeeew what is that/how can you eat that"

Kimby, when I eat chips (french fries) I do the total opposite and eat all the perfect ones first and save all the funny little ones for last!
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #12 on Oct 13, 2009, 12:41pm »		[Quote]
We have a friend who has been a guest at our table on many occasions. Beginning fairly recently, he concludes the meal by gathering the little crumbs at his place setting, sweeping them into a cupped hand, then dropping them on the floor.

We think it's odd, but amusing.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #13 on Oct 13, 2009, 12:46pm »		[Quote]
Well it made me laugh! But then I don't have to clear it up ;D ;D
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #14 on Oct 13, 2009, 12:52pm »		[Quote]
Most peculiar Don C. I love this thread. So quirky.
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kerouac2
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #15 on Oct 13, 2009, 2:06pm »		[Quote]
I was always told that the reason that one is supposed to leave a bit of food on the plate when eating as a guest is to show the host that you have had enough food.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #16 on Oct 13, 2009, 2:19pm »		[Quote]
I have heard the phrase: leaving something for Mr Manners. This is much the same as Kerouac suggests. I think it better to finish everything to show you enjoyed it.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #17 on Oct 13, 2009, 3:35pm »		[Quote]
I'm with you, Tilly, on the rudeness of commenting negatively on what someone else is eating.

DonCuevas -- he drops it on the floor?! I can see compulsively gathering the crumbs, but the floor? It must be an unconscious action, especially since you say it's something new.

After I grew up I encountered people who subscribed to the bizarre belief that leaving something on the plate is somehow polite. I totally agree with Baz -- that the reverse is polite. Leaving something sort of suggests that you didn't really like it, but gagged down as much as you could out of courtesy. Anyway, if you are committed to leaving something, how do you know the right amount to leave?

A family member of mine consistently serves herself too much, even in her own house. Seeing her scrape pointlessly wasted good food into the garbage makes me want to smack her.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #18 on Oct 13, 2009, 3:59pm »		[Quote]
What if it's all your own cooking and then you leave it?
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kerouac2
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #19 on Oct 13, 2009, 4:49pm »		[Quote]

Oct 13, 2009, 3:35pm, bixaorellana wrote:

DonCuevas -- he drops it on the floor?! I can see compulsively gathering the crumbs, but the floor? It must be an unconscious action, especially since you say it's something new.


My mother did that when she had to stay with me. Swish, right down on the floor of my apartment. But she had a medical excuse.

When I went to a Chinese wedding in Singapore, there was dish after dish of exquisite food, far more than any normal person can eat without exploding. There are twelve courses. We did our best, however.

The very last course, which is actually course 13, is a big dish of plain steamed rice. Each guest takes a small serving and then just takes one bite from it. This is supposed to indicate that the banquet was exquisite and that it is impossible to eat more.

I can imagine what an Adam Sandler movie could do with this tradition.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #20 on Oct 14, 2009, 4:29am »		[Quote]
I find dropping the crumbs on the floor better than dropping the crumbs in your mouth ::)
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #21 on Oct 14, 2009, 12:59pm »		[Quote]
OK, now its confession time. I have a thing about certain foods touching.

If I have an English breakfast in a cafe and there are baked beans touching my fried egg I have to try very hard not to just cry. I have to cut around the bit of egg with beans on. I love egg and I love bean, but TOUCHING???? If ketchup ever touched my fried egg I'd probably just implode.

Now you know.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #22 on Oct 14, 2009, 1:14pm »		[Quote]
I could live (begrudgingly) with the beans cozying up to the egg, however, I couldn't carry on with my meal if ketchup were to touch even the same plate on which my egg was sitting (I only eat ketchup on chips - and even, then, not on them but lightly dipped as I eat them and ONLY if they're frozen chips - real chips require only s&v or mayonnaise if they're REALLY good ).

Just the thought of my little brother's habit of mixing ketchup in with his soft yolk is enough to give me nightmares.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #23 on Oct 14, 2009, 1:35pm »		[Quote]

Quote:
Just the thought of my little brother's habit of mixing ketchup in with his soft yolk is enough to give me nightmares.


I actually shuddered reading that.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #24 on Oct 14, 2009, 4:30pm »		[Quote]
As I child, I couldn't stand certain runny items touching other things on the plate, but I seem to be over that, except when I have a food abomination Denny's breakfast and the maple syrup gets on the bacon or the sausages.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #25 on Oct 14, 2009, 4:55pm »		[Quote]
Is the syrup at Denny's (have never been to one) really maple? I'd have thought what we call "sirop de poteau" (telephone-pole syrup, which has never seen a living maple).

Yes, the ketchup and soft yolk is really repulsive.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #26 on Oct 14, 2009, 4:59pm »		[Quote]
I used to get shudders and queasiness if I heard or (worse) saw someone chop their eggs into a runny mess.
Like: "CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP!" in quick succession.

On another note, I hate to have utensils pointed at me. If someone gestures towards me with a fork or knife while talking, it provokes homicidal feelings in me.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #27 on Oct 14, 2009, 5:08pm »		[Quote]

Oct 14, 2009, 4:55pm, lagatta wrote:
Is the syrup at Denny's (have never been to one) really maple? I'd have thought what we call "sirop de poteau" (telephone-pole syrup, which has never seen a living maple).


No, the syrup in such places is just called "pancake syrup" with either the grand claim of containing 1% maple syrup or else just artificial maple flavoring.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #28 on Oct 14, 2009, 5:13pm »		[Quote]
I have always found the idea of having pancakes and their attendant syrup on the same plate as eggs to be odd and nasty.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #29 on Oct 14, 2009, 5:49pm »		[Quote]
What about ketchup on the pancakes?
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