Do they still have that law that says the waitstaff can’t put down your next bottle or glass until you’ve [del]sculled [/del]finished the current one? Boy that was silly, it just made you drink faster.
I have suffered from a weight problem lately; a doctor told me that when I feel as though I’ve been served too much food to eat I should ask for a take-home container and finish the food another time. I’d just as soon not get an adverse reaction–after all, it’s doctor’s orders–and take the food out regardless of what someone might say. I have never been to Europe myself, much less eaten there.
Heh. One time, my family asked for a bag for our leftover ribs, for our two huge dogs. The waitress asked us if we really had dogs, and when she learned that yes, we did, she offered to get rib bones from other tables. I froze a lot of bones, and the dogs did enjoy them.
Back when soup bones were fairly cheap, I’d get a bunch of them, make stock, and then freeze the bones. They were mostly knucklebones, and the dogs also enjoyed those bones. Yes, I know that now it’s considered unhealthy for the dogs, but ours really, really appreciated getting a bone now and then.
Why are bones consdiered unhealthy for dogs?
Some bones can cause blockages which can result in pretty expensive and not always successful surgery to get them out. Knucklebones, hambones (although have had narrow nosed dogs needing to have those removed from their lower jaw when stuck) and raw ribs are generally ok but steak bones should definitely be avoided.
Not a vet, just work for one and seen it a bazillion times. Not worth it.
Raw bones are not but cooked bones can fracture and cause injuries in the mouth or digestive system.
Yeah in some places in the UK a doggy bag is still meant to be for dogs. They’ll just scrape everything into a bag rather than packing it nicely as if it was for human consumption.
To ‘take-away’ is the more specific nomenclature for that.
Can someone explain the Five Easy Pieces “hold it between your knees” comment?
It’s clear from context that the waitress takes it as a major insult. I’ve heard the joke about aspirin being a birth control pill if you just hold it between your knees, so my guess is that telling her to hold the chicken salad between her knees is some kind of sexual insult. Maybe it’s implying that she’s a frigid bitch who needs to get some? I haven’t quite figured out how that all comes together. Am I on the right track?
I think you’re overthinking it. A reference to a woman holding something between her knees is just vaguely sexual enough to be shocking in a conservative society.
But only once they spend a long time trying to understand what the hell you’re talking about. And I mean a very long time. Places which serve on-site and take away will have containers you can use, but a sit-down-only restaurant simply doesn’t have any. If you bring your own, they won’t just think you are out of your mind, they’ll wonder what the drugs you’re on are called and whether they’re so new they’re not illegal yet.
Getting used to the notion of “ok, American restaurants serve you at least twice as much food as you need, and they get angry if you try to split what they call a portion, but you can take 3/4 of it home in cheap tuppers” is a very common source of Culture Shock for Europeans jumping the puddle. As another Spaniard put it “I can see that being convenient if I was at home, but we’re in a hotel! What am I supposed to do with the leftovers in a hotel?”
Most restaurants allow you to share. There are a few that will charge extra for sharing. I don’t think there are any that will get angry.
That’s why there’s a mini-fridge in the hotel! And very often hotels on the beach and other very touristy locations have a full kitchen with a full-size refrigerator.
I was at a restaurant that utterly refused sharing. Offered to pay a plate fee, rejected. Absolutely refused, rudely. This was a local Italian joint, so not even some snobby fancy place. Weirdest thing ever.
Our party of 12 left several restaurants (on different nights) after being told people could not share. We were 12, we had to order 12 entrees.
Inland NJ isn’t my idea of a touristy location; we were there on business. The notion of a Spaniard going to the US for the beaches is now trying to give me a headache… it would be like a Colombian visiting France for the coffee. And we were in hotels, the kind where you do not get a kitchen (the ones with kitchens are called aparthotels in Spain, but for some reason they don’t seem to have a specific identifier in the US). A Sheraton, actually… lousy room service, too, I filed a complaint because in the two weeks I was there before the majority of the factory people arrived (including the 11 Spaniards) I’d asked for the same entree and drink three times and gotten three different things.
The US has some damn nice beaches. Though I will grant you that they probably are not near Trenton, NJ.
Yeah but your economy wasn’t based on renting sand to tourists by the square-handspan just a few decades ago. It’s still a big part of our economy.
The fact that there was one restaurant that forced you to order 12 entrees is a rare (but not unthinkable) occurrence. The fact that this happened to you several times is astonishing. Perhaps it’s a local thing in that part of New Jersey.
My point is that it’s quite common (although not universal) for hotel guests to have access to a refrigerator. When I go on trips, I certainly don’t plan to spend every single meal at a restaurant. I keep some food in my room, including leftovers.
I had similar experiences with smaller parties in Miami; not as radical, but we still needed to argue a lot in order to be able to share a salad (along with everybody’s “regular” entrees - this actually meant a larger total than no salad, so a larger tip), or for two people out of half a dozen to split a plare of baby back ribs.
Maybe those are unusual policies, but in the less radical cases they didn’t so much seem to be policies as a fear of getting a smaller tip.
And having a fridge isn’t much good if I don’t have a way to heat the food, cutlery, and all those other niceties which are more easily found at one’s home than in a hotel. Specially in one where the kitchen can’t make up its mind whether “a cocacola” means “a 200ml bottle”, “a cup with one rock” or “a glass of which 3/4 are occupied by crushed ice”.
Yeah, but that’s not what your comment implied. The US has some pretty great destination beaches (Hawaii anyone?), even if it’s not the basis of our economy.
And France has some great coffee. Sorry if the comment was unclear, would it make more sense if I said it seems to me similar to someone from Florida going to the beach in Maine? I did visit a lovely beach in Maine, Crescent Beach I think it was called, but “going to the beach” isn’t exactly what comes to mind as “the main reason for a Spaniard to go Elsewhere”. “Going to surf”, yes; “going to scuba”, yes; “going on a beach honeymoon”, yes. Going to the beach, we do it here.
I wonder what kind of places you folks are going to. I’ve never been in a restaurant that argued over sharing (except buffet-style restuarants, that is). I can see that perhaps the fancier the restaurant, the more likely it is. Maybe you went to a bunch of high-end eateries, I don’t know. (I know you’ll contradict that, of course! :))
A hotel with a fridge is likely to have a microwave oven adjacent to it. And when you take food home, most of the time you can ask the restaurant to supply plastic dinnerware.
Personally, I carry that kind of stuff in my luggage. If I’m on a trip, I know I’m going to be spending some time eating in my room. Why not be prepared?
Well, I’ve never seen anyone ask for a beverage to be packed up to go, not unless it was a carry out order in the first place.