Eating out late after midnight

[JadeShing]

From where I am (Hong Kong), it seems like a traditional thing for younger people to be seen out on the streets late at night past midnight eating full meals which are usually dinner type items. Now I have heard a lot of different things about how it's not healthy and all but I'd like to see what other people think and do in their parts of the world? For us, it is just, we are hungry and then we must eat...

[Chris Hennes]

I wish I lived in a city where anything was even OPEN after midnight: in these parts the vast majority of restaurants close at 11pm. If I want food after that I'm often in the position of enjoying Fourthmeal. I'd guess that any negative health consequences of eating late at night are dubious at best, but having not read the studies (or even heard of them) I can't say for sure, of course.

[weinoo]

I don't know about it not being healthy; what I do know is that lying down after a meal is not the greatest thing if you have the symptoms of GERD.

[heidih]

In Los Angeles the clubs have the ever popular bacon wrapped hot dog carts, and the food trucks are around quite late. The 24 hour classics like Denny's have been picking up the after party folks forever. I am just guessing that the takers after midnight are not the older folks with GERD, but rather the cast iron stomachs of the youth.

[Jaymes]

I spent some time in Spain and decided they've got the latest late-night going-out culture I've ever seen. Even old folks are out arm-in-arm laughing and strolling along the sidewalks at 1am or so. Although they do seem to head in before the young ones go for churros y chocolate along about dawn.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Jaymes (log)

[dcarch]

There is breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in most cultures.

In Hongkong, and China, there is one more meal known as 宵夜 (xiao ye).

dcarch

[onrushpam]

I fondly remember a bar that was open until 2 AM, back in my days doing summer theater... One of the costumers also waitressed there. They did a GREAT steak sandwich... Not like a Philly steak, but a thinish-cut ribeye, thrown on the screaming hot flat top until just past raw, with a good char on the outside. Said steak was flopped onto a piece of garlic-buttered Texas Toast, so the juices would soak into the bread. Topped with grilled onions and mushrooms. It hit the spot often at 1 AM!

Those days are long gone... I can't imagine eating that in the wee-hours these days.

[DeliciouslyLekker]

I miss eating out at night. My parents, aunts,uncles, cousins, kids etc. would often have a meal and drinks at 1am..sometimes even 3 am. We'd have Indian-style bread with curries, fried noodles, tandoori chicken, claypot lou shi fun and whatever else anyone wanted.

Where I am in The Netherlands, after clubbing, you either grab a kebab, fries and recently, there's this wok place (bad Chinese food in cardboard containers) which opens til about 3-4am on Friday & Saturday.

It's probably unhealthy but then again, if you live in Asia, you generally don't drink on a regular basis so that kinda evens that out, I guess! Here in NL, we probably go through 2-3 bottles a wine a week between the 2 of us (and that's excluding clubbing). I never drunk anything back home except at weddings (and even then, not much) or when out with friends (also never to the dying puking terrible hangover stage).

[judiu]

Oh, my! Close the Manhattan bar at 2 AM, head back to NJ and hit White Castle for sliders... The BEST!

[sheepish]

Buenos Aires does midnight eating like nowhere else I've been to. We arrived late and thought we'd try and get something to eat at around 10:30pm. We assumed the half empty asado restaurant was winding down, although oddly a lot of families with small (under 7) children. When we left at around midnight there were queues outside to get in. Mendoza seems pretty similar. For several reasons, including food, the country I'd most like to revisit.

[barbarataylor]

yes, it is bot healthy and usually I don't do it, but sometimes when you've been somewhere out and you are so hungry you have no choice. In my country we have only fast foods open after midnight, but you can't see it very often and they are at the central places of the cities.

[patrickamory]

The Korean BBQ places near me in Manhattan are open 24-7.