Bogart and hog are good verbs for the behavio(u)r.
I was posting from work/my phone earlier and wasn’t in a position but can now add what I was reminded of re: English self portioning rudeness. This star studded 1943 War Department etiquette intro for US GIs in the UK. In particular is a clip (cued below) of a soldier invited to the home of a couple for a meal and cluelessly wolfs down days’ their of rations.
Wow.
I only knew the term “chowhound” from a board website where people asked for local restaurant recommendations and other people gave their recommendations. So I assumed “chowhound” meant people who searched for good food, just as a hound seeks out stuff. Like “foodie”.
As the one who brought up gannet in that thread, I’ll just say I knew it was a bird but had never heard of the British usage the OP asks about.
Yep! It comes from the iconic image of Humphrey Bogart with a lit cigarette in his mouth. He isn’t really smoking it, it’s just there burning. Don’t Bogart that joint, man!
I have fond memories of taking my kids to (mostly Chinese) buffets when they were an age where they could, with help, load their own plates. I was always embarrassed by the idea of them taking more than they could eat, so my plate would be mostly empty, allowing me to finish what they couldn’t. Oh, and they’d get crab legs, but I’d need to break them open.
We always left empty plates, but it was arranged to happen that way.
Sorry. “Carping.” I seem to be dipping into a bit of a manic phase where I let some of my inner monologue out. I apologize. I’ve muted the threads that have been irritating me.
Ha! That’s never happened to me! /S
That would involve standing up and walking unnecessarily. IME the folks with ginormous heaping plates tend to be … disinclined … to unnecessary motion.
My approach to buffets, brunches, etc., is the polar opposite: I take a small amount of a couple things, go eat them while they’re still sorta warm, then go do it again with different things. A serious dinner effort might consume 10 plates, while a typical hotel breakfast buffet takes 3 plates and a bowl. But any one of those plates was mostly empty when I started towards my table.
[John Pinette]
You go now! You here four hour!
[/John Pinette]
I forget which medieval name list I got this from. But back when your surname could be based on who your father was, or where you were from, it could also be a nickname based on personal traits.
If you were a glutton, they could call you John Loafbite.
There was recently a big screen gannet.
We always say - they’re piggish
Golden Corralers?
For this reason, many social events have servers who themselves put regulated portions on your plate as you move down the line so they don’t run out of the most popular foods. Some people have no shame or regard for others.
Hmm, most of the situations where i eat from a buffet, this wouldn’t work. There might be time to go back for seconds before the servers clean stuff up, but a lot of the better items will be gone or picked over. There surely isn’t time to go back 3 or 4 times. My strategy is to try to look at what’s available before i start putting food on my plate, so i can still grab some shrimp at the end without overloading my plate.
Hmm. I’d be surprised to see that at a commercial eatery of any description, be that swanky or modest. Which was the context I was thinking of.
What you describe could sure happen at a potluck or a wedding or a catered business lunch.
Although at the condo where I used to attend potlucks, the old dear ladies always prepared so silly much food that barely a third of the total was eaten by the end and even the most popular items still had a serving or two left.
I’d restrict that a little more because it’s still an issue if you are having a private event in the back room of a restaurant or a buffet wedding reception at a venue. If I book a 100 person event, there will be enough food for 100 people. Probably a few more - but if 30 people take two servings of chicken marsala then some people won’t get any. They don’t make enough for 150 in case there are a bunch of cafones (what Italian-Americans call these people) Where you don’t see it is at buffets that are open to the public that might turn a table over two or three (or more) times - casinos, cruise ships, Amish smorgasbord restaurants
Yeah.
A wedding is a great example of where the planners / budgeters make a guess as to consumption and when that’s gone it’s gone, period. Whether the event is in somebody’s back yard cooked by their Mom, or catered at a ritzy hotel, or at Bob’s Pizza Shack and Bait Shop. …
Hmmm. Those don’t look quite like anchovies on that pizza. :eek:
My own buffet experience is 90% hotels serving the public en masse. Plus “budget is no object” corporate sales booster “social” events. And the aforesaid overdone potlucks.
This discussion is making me think of the favorite restaurant of most of my relatives when I was a kid-- Duff’s Smorgasbord. Anybody else familiar with that one? The chain is mostly dead but apparently not entirely.