Is it that Europeans see eating out as a signal of luxury and asking to take the rest of the food home somehow diminishes that perception ("oh look they must be poor if they are taking that left-over steak home..." kind of attitude). In other words are Europeans just afraid of looking bad, poor or stingy in front of others in a restaurant and Americans just don't care?
What if portion size wasn't a problem? Image that Europeans served same sized portions as Americans, would you take your leftovers home to be heated up for lunch then?
> In other words are Europeans just afraid of looking bad, poor or stingy in front of others in a restaurant and Americans just don't care?
I don't care what people think, but restaurants that don't do takeaway simply don't have containers to take food home. I've been to 10 restaurants this month, and none did takeaway.
Besides, a half-eaten reheated meal doesn't sound very appetizing. The sauce will have congealed or soaked up by the food, the pastry gotten soggy, etc. etc.
I asked for "a doggy bag for this pizza please" and got the response "will foil do?" and it did just fine. We use foil to wrap stuff for the fridge quite regularly if it doesn't fit in a tupperware (reusable rubberised plastic food storage box). Of course if it's soup or whatever you're probably not going to get it to take away.
Perhaps take your own tupperware with you, I'd love to see that.
Sadly I so rarely get to eat out that I tend to finish everything so I'm not likely to be taking a tupperware any time soon.
Fatigue with the particular dish (I don't want to eat the same thing within a day or two anyway), a mostly irrational "ick" hygiene factor, not wanting to carry food around (it's less common to be parked close to where you're eating in the UK), a lingering (though lessened) elitist attitude to the practice, and a fear of it being considered an unusual request.
Different cultures engage in slightly odd behaviors (such as the prevalence of stick shift cars in the UK) often because people are, en masse, afraid of being unusual and making a change. If restaurants made taking stuff home an obvious and acceptable policy, I'd probably deliberately eat only half the meal and do it from time to time.
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> though I still wouldn't ever do it myself)
Why do you think that is?
Is it that Europeans see eating out as a signal of luxury and asking to take the rest of the food home somehow diminishes that perception ("oh look they must be poor if they are taking that left-over steak home..." kind of attitude). In other words are Europeans just afraid of looking bad, poor or stingy in front of others in a restaurant and Americans just don't care?
What if portion size wasn't a problem? Image that Europeans served same sized portions as Americans, would you take your leftovers home to be heated up for lunch then?
> In other words are Europeans just afraid of looking bad, poor or stingy in front of others in a restaurant and Americans just don't care?
I don't care what people think, but restaurants that don't do takeaway simply don't have containers to take food home. I've been to 10 restaurants this month, and none did takeaway.
Besides, a half-eaten reheated meal doesn't sound very appetizing. The sauce will have congealed or soaked up by the food, the pastry gotten soggy, etc. etc.
I asked for "a doggy bag for this pizza please" and got the response "will foil do?" and it did just fine. We use foil to wrap stuff for the fridge quite regularly if it doesn't fit in a tupperware (reusable rubberised plastic food storage box). Of course if it's soup or whatever you're probably not going to get it to take away.
Perhaps take your own tupperware with you, I'd love to see that.
Sadly I so rarely get to eat out that I tend to finish everything so I'm not likely to be taking a tupperware any time soon.
Duh, you're right, any restaurant would have aluminium foil. I bet the question would surprise them though.
Perhaps you could use surprise negotiating tactics -
You: "can I have a mop bucket to take my food home in please?"
Waiter: "perhaps if we just wrapped it in foil ...?"
I eat fairly simply, so leftovers are usually the best tasting thing in my fridge!
Why do you think that is?
A handful of reasons, I think.
Fatigue with the particular dish (I don't want to eat the same thing within a day or two anyway), a mostly irrational "ick" hygiene factor, not wanting to carry food around (it's less common to be parked close to where you're eating in the UK), a lingering (though lessened) elitist attitude to the practice, and a fear of it being considered an unusual request.
Different cultures engage in slightly odd behaviors (such as the prevalence of stick shift cars in the UK) often because people are, en masse, afraid of being unusual and making a change. If restaurants made taking stuff home an obvious and acceptable policy, I'd probably deliberately eat only half the meal and do it from time to time.