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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 3,634 times)
bixaorellana
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #90 on Jan 28, 2010, 3:33am »		[Quote]
I always try for the exit row seat. There's more leg room and no little kids. And of course I lie like a rug when they ask if I'm willing to assist others.
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fumobici
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #91 on Jan 28, 2010, 8:28pm »		[Quote]
Look at that bixa, 9,999 posts!

I can it seems never get an exit row seat booking online as I now do as a matter of course. They are always taken by the time I buy my ticket. I would be more than willing to help any every way I possibly could if the plane crashed in a fiery ball. Honest.
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kerouac2
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #92 on Jan 28, 2010, 8:42pm »		[Quote]
Frankly, I don't think exit row seats are assigned ahead of time, which is one of the reasons that they are not available when you are trying to select a seat yourself.
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bixaorellana
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #93 on Jan 29, 2010, 5:54pm »		[Quote]
That's correct. Neither the exit row seats nor the front bulkhead seats are assigned. That is why I always ask when I check in if I can have my seat changed. That polite little request almost always garners me a much nicer seat than what is on my ticket. I was even bumped up to first class once!
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kerouac2
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #94 on Jan 29, 2010, 5:58pm »		[Quote]
I think they need to take a look at the passenger before assigning such seats. They don't want Jethro Blubberbuddy to book an exit row seat and then throw a fit when they try to explain that such a place is not appropriate for him.
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kerouac2
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #95 on Feb 19, 2010, 2:24pm »		[Quote]
When travelling recently, I had a few breakfast buffets and there were things like rolls with humongous and impractical tongs for picking them up. As far as I'm concerned, this is just an invitation to accidentally pitch stuff onto the floor, so I pick up rolls with my bare hands at the risk of disgusting any hygiene freak witnesses.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #96 on Feb 19, 2010, 3:07pm »		[Quote]
(As long as you only touch ONE roll, I'm OK with that K2. Just don't pick them up to inspect each one before making your selection.)
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gertie
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #97 on Mar 9, 2010, 1:40am »		[Quote]
I have a few food consumption oddities, but if I were visiting your home, you'd never know of them. First, I cannot abide any runny egg whites. I was so happy some years ago when a kindly waitress told me to ask for my eggs over medium which she said would indicate my preference for a slightly cooked yoke verses allowing some of the white near the yolk to remain runny. If I am at someone's home and they offer an eggy breakfast, I will either offer to cook the eggs, or ask for scrambled just to avoid this issue. If you stuck a sunny side up egg on my plate, I would somehow choke it down rather than offend.

My main food oddity has to do with carrots. If raw carrot sticks were on the menu in public, I would eat them quite normally from end to end. When alone and eating a carrot, which is a snack I quite enjoy, if I am not mindful of what I am doing, I will gnaw the outside off then consume the heart separately. It's something I started doing as a youngster, I really don't know what got it started, but the heart is always sweeter and more delicate. If you do it just right, the outside comes off in long pieces and the heart remains, looking like a thinner version of the original carrot, and I will consume it slowly, savoring each bite.

I don't really pay much attention to the food follies of others, except to say I despise people who must share their disdain for particular foods. That whole "Ewwww, I hate...." thing just sends me. My usual reply is "Good, more for me" and then to strike them from my list of eating companions.

My daughters have a few food foibles, but I always just dealt with that with you can take one bite, then you can make yourself a peanut butter and jelly, pick it out, or you can do without. Hubby actually has a couple of odd dislikes, too, but in company he and daughters simply avoid those foods if they can and eat politely if not. In the case of pasta, if I cook something with it, he will eat it, just not with gusto. I try to be kind and offer him some sort of alternative, perhaps a portion of left overs of something else, since he works hard and I think home should be a comfort to him.
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spindrift
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #98 on Mar 9, 2010, 1:23pm »		[Quote]
Kisses for you, gertie :-*
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #99 on Mar 10, 2010, 1:46am »		[Quote]
gertie, I used to eat my carrots like that too when I was young! I grew out of it, however, and had almost totally forgot about that habit. I don't really like carrots that much - too crunchy - and I'm lazy enough now that I just buy a bag of mini carrots when I want some.
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gertie
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #100 on Mar 11, 2010, 10:02am »		[Quote]
I love those mini carrots. I saw a show on where food comes from, and it turns out they just take full carrots and cut them up then pare off the skin and some of the outside into that shape, which to me makes them essentially peeled for you carrots. Since they came out I have started making my pot roast the lazy way. I use those carrots and the red potatoes that are so good with the skin on, so only require a good, quick scrub. I don't even peel most of the garlic anymore as my family loves to squish the roasted yummy garlic on thick slices of homemade bread and butter. I just crush a couple under my knife for spreading over the top of the beef.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #101 on Mar 23, 2010, 11:50am »		[Quote]
After buying a bag lunch from Dailymonop today, I realized how much I hate using plastic forks, spoons and knives. In fact, I have real silverware in my desk drawer, and I use that for eating whatever I bought. On the other hand, I don't mind plastic or paper cups and can even drink wine or champagne out of them without a second thought -- which is considered a total and utter abomination by most of the people I know.
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bixaorellana
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #102 on Mar 23, 2010, 3:56pm »		[Quote]
Huh -- I have the same hang-up about plastic utensils, and tolerance for plastic & paper cups. Drinking out of styrofoam is to be avoided if possible, though. The one thing I really, really cannot handle is wood, in the form of popsicle sticks or those little flat spoons that use to come with cup ice cream. Well, I'd never eat a popsicle anyway, as it might drip on my hand and make it sticky and then I would die.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #103 on Mar 23, 2010, 5:35pm »		[Quote]
You are right about styrofoam cups. But since I almost never drink hot beverages, I don't come across them often.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #104 on Mar 23, 2010, 7:14pm »		[Quote]
Kerouac! real silverware in your desk drawer? my mother sent me to boarding school with real (old) silver utensils with my name and number newly engraved upon it. 8-)
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bixaorellana
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #105 on Mar 23, 2010, 10:34pm »		[Quote]
One thing that is important to me in eating is for my food to come out "right". That is, for things that are nice together such as a bite of potato right after a bite of meat to work out correctly. And I get all the awkward stuff out of the way first. If I'm eating chicken for instance, I pull it off the bone, put it on my plate, then wash my hands before going to the table. With steak, I like for there to be at least a couple of perfect bites at the end. I believe Existentia mentioned her cake-eating method, which I share. It's all in service of delivering something perfect for the mouth to savor.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #106 on Mar 24, 2010, 1:53am »		[Quote]
I keep real silverware in my desk drawer too! Although mine is not engraved. >:( And I have a coffee mug and a normal glass for water. But I also have a real kitchen at my disposal at work, including a dishwasher, so that helps.

I was watching a coworker at lunch today and thought of something odd as I watched her cut her food, as I've seen others do this too. Why do some people anchor their fork in the part of the food that will not be cut off? This seems rather inefficient to me.

My mother would have said that they were ill-bred, but I just think its a waste of steps.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #107 on Mar 24, 2010, 8:45am »		[Quote]
People do that? And they're not in an institution? ;D

Meanwhile, I was just thinking how amusing it is when you are at a table with people who love to sop up gravy and sauce with their bread and also people who are repulsed by the idea. You can read the disgust on their faces as the others happily ignore them.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #108 on Mar 30, 2010, 2:58am »		[Quote]
I thought that's what bread is for. As for the disgusted ones, who cares?
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #109 on Mar 30, 2010, 8:18am »		[Quote]

Mar 23, 2010, 3:56pm, bixaorellana wrote:
The one thing I really, really cannot handle is wood, in the form of popsicle sticks or those little flat spoons that use to come with cup ice cream. Well, I'd never eat a popsicle anyway, as it might drip on my hand and make it sticky and then I would die.

bixa, are you an eldest child? We elders HATE to get our hands messy, and sticky is the worst kind of messy.

I, too, hated the flat wooden spoon-shaped ice cream paddles - the taste ruined the ice cream and the surface seemed splintery on my tongue.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #110 on Mar 30, 2010, 8:27am »		[Quote]

Mar 24, 2010, 1:53am, cristina wrote:
Why do some people anchor their fork in the part of the food that will not be cut off? This seems rather inefficient to me.
My mother would have said that they were ill-bred, but I just think its a waste of steps.

Maybe they were planning on cutting more than one piece off before putting one in their mouth?

If your fork is in the part that will be cut off, you can transfer it right to your mouth (especially if you use your tools like the Europeans do). But if you're cutting several pieces, you'd have to dis-engage the first piece to stab the next part you'd be cutting off.

As an American raised to hold the fork in the right hand, but also needing to use the knife in my right hand, I transfer the fork to the left, cut off several bites (minding the rule to never cut the whole piece of meat up at once), then switch hands and start forking it in.

I much prefer the simplicity of holding the fork upside down in the left hand like my Austrian grandfather did, spearing the meat that I'm cutting off and raising it right to my lips without having to play games with the silverware. But that doesn't come naturally to me. And I feel a bit self-conscious eating that way. Same as if I had both elbows on the table and was shovelling it in.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #111 on Mar 30, 2010, 9:04am »		[Quote]
What is interesting about the odd American method of eating is that it is one of the only times in the world that gives us left-handers an advantage over right-handers.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #112 on Mar 30, 2010, 9:47am »		[Quote]
Odd Table Behaviour - I don't like eating in the company of those who bolt their food.

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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #113 on Mar 31, 2010, 11:03am »		[Quote]
At my Asian lunch place, a sad mousy man carefully picked out each and every wonderful leaf of fresh basil from his pho. As this is the last thing they thrown on the pho before giving it to you, he could have easily asked them not to put any in the first place.

And the place does cater to odd behaviour, because they have a big basket of sliced baguette on the counter for people to help themselves if they want bread. Missing bread has always been the biggest complaint that I have heard in France about Asian restaurants.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #114 on Apr 2, 2010, 11:22am »		[Quote]
I yanked my leash out of the computer store at noon and had just enough time to pop into a fast food place.

I was sitting across from three freakishly tall Dutch girls, one of whom had bought a big mixed salad. She proceeded to pick off every little scrap of the large quantity of grated cheddar on top, and then instead of using the salad dressing, she coated her salad with 5 packages of ketchup. :-X

The other two girls seemed normal.
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Re: Odd table behavior
« Reply #115 on Apr 2, 2010, 12:24pm »		[Quote]

Mar 30, 2010, 9:04am, kerouac2 wrote:
What is interesting about the odd American method of eating is that it is one of the only times in the world that gives us left-handers an advantage over right-handers.

YES!!

We have a dear friend who has the annoying habit of using his fork at meal times to drive home a point during a discussion. When animated discussion arises,he becomes more and more demonstrative with his fork. We have talked to him about it on so many occasions and he can't seem to break it. At one dinner party that we gave I placed a spoon at the fork setting(no fork or knife).
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #116 on Apr 4, 2010, 12:58am »		[Quote]
Odd, I'm left-handed, in a country that wavers between the two usages (though hardcore European chez moi) and was sternly told that lefties HAD to use the European method.

I hate so-called baby-cut carrots. Like real tiny carrots, a rare spring gift. But I don't like cooked carrots at all anyway, and buy carrots to grate into salads.

What an odd Dutch girl, k2. I go to the Netherlands rather often for work, and have never seen that. I have of course experienced the fact that coat hooks and loops on trams are far, far too high for me. Why would that bother you? I thought you were tall.

While I wouldn't make a fuss, I don't really like plastic or paper cups for wine. My favourite wine vessel remains the proletarian glass tumblers traditionally used throughout Southern Europe and which I remember from childhood.
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #117 on Apr 4, 2010, 9:45am »		[Quote]
Even with all the gorgeous stem ware that is put out,our guests almost always go for the small crystal tumblers to drink wine from. I might as well just sell the stemware or give it to my nieces,it never gets used. :-/
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Don Cuevas
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #118 on Apr 6, 2010, 7:31pm »		[Quote]
I prefer not to drink coffee from a transparent glass mug. It loses flavor through the glass. Somehow, tea is o.k. in glass.
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bixaorellana
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Re: Odd table behaviour
« Reply #119 on Apr 6, 2010, 9:02pm »		[Quote]
!

I don't know if it loses flavor, but it's so horribly wrong that it distracts from any pleasure you might have taken in the coffee otherwise. Tea, too.

Really, a mug shouldn't be too big, too wide or too fiddly, and it should have a friendly shape.

Wrong: [image]     [image]

Right: [image]     [image]     [image]
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