People Dining Out are Strange

[Lisa Shock]

BTW, just before the 'lemonade incident' videos like THIS were making news online. I remember thinking about sanitation as well as cheapness at the time. So, it might be tasty, but, those lemon slices/wedges may have been handled with bare hands by several people who practice questionable hygiene.

[liuzhou]

It may also be a cultural thing. Shortly I after I moved to China, a friend and I went to a small hole-in-the-wall type restaurant for lunch. I made my choice but she said she preferred something else and disappeared. She soon returned carrying a bowl of "something else" which she had bought from a neighbouring restaurant, sat down and proceeded to eat it (using the first restaurant's chopsticks. I was shocked.

 

It is perfectly acceptable in these small restaurants to bring food or drink from home or elsewhere to supplement the restaurant's menu and they don't even blink if you ask for a plate or bowl to serve the stuff you brought in. It is very common to bring your own drinks and use the restaurant's glassware.

 

I've even seen this in in larger, more upmarket places, though less often.

 

It's a bit like you fancy Chinese food tonight but your partner wants Italian. No problem. Your partner gets takeaway Italian and you both eat in the Chinese restaurant. It still shocks me, but less so.

[Tri2Cook]

4 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

those lemon slices/wedges may have been handled with bare hands

I'd change "may have been" to "most likely were"... and it worries me not at all. I'm not saying I specifically want someone with bad hygiene practices touching my food or drink but I know it happens and the only way I can be sure it doesn't is to never eat anything I didn't prepare myself. So I choose not to worry about it. I figure it's probably no more risky than when I eat fruits and berries right off the plants while out foraging.

[IowaDee]

I really thought I had this memory buried but this thread made it pop to the surface.  There is a Chinese restaurant in a near-by town that features a buffet.  It had been two or three years since we had been there so we were looking forward to going.  We made our way down the rows of good smelling food and were soon sitting, enjoying our meal.  I noticed a woman making her choices but in a strange way.

She actually reached into the serving pans with her fingers and pulled out morsels to taste. I could almost read her thoughts...."Oh a nice cube of pineapple, just a nibble of that mushroom...and that General Tso's looks so tasty that I must try it"  I think it was the smacking of her lips as she sucked off the sweet and sour sauce that got me the most.  While all this was going on. the employees jut stood and watched her.  All I know is that we have never been back and I tend to size up people who are in the buffet line ahead of me.

[gfron1]

Liuzhou reminded me of a guy who brought a date to our place and sat outside in our fenced beer garden. Soon a small group of their mutual friends had gathered to sit with them and they were all enjoying beers except for the guy who was on his date. A bit later, the Domino's delivery driver walked up with a stack of pizzas for the table. I wouldn't have known except one of the gathering group was so embarrassed that they came in and told me what had happened and that he, nor any of his friends were eating the pizza because they knew how poor form this was. The group shortly after took off.

 

Being a small town, my server ran into the guy's date just a few days later and said hi. The woman apologized profusely for the pizzas, and my server found out it was a first date, and the last.

[Shelby]

14 hours ago, haresfur said:

One of my father's many strange but pretty innocent ones:

 

He took us to a pre-Christmas special, more or less Victorian, meal in the upstairs of a beautiful old stone restaurant. The kind of affair where they sing the food in with carols, etc. The halls were decked with holly and the long wood tables had runners down the middle with ribbons and holly and scattered with decorative nuts.

 

As we conversed, waiting for the meal to be served, he almost absent-mindedly proceeded to crack the walnuts loudly against each other and nibble on the nut-meat. Hey, they shouldn't put appetizers out if they don't want you to eat them, right?

 

I'm impressed that he could get the nuts open without a cracker!  Must have strong hands.

[Arey]

The only problem I can see with what he did was that  if he ate all the nuts as an appetizer there wouldn't have been nuts to have with the port traditionally served at the end of a Victorian banquet.  Of course, if the port wasn't passed around at the end of the dinner, then there was no problem.

[Toliver]

On 1/16/2016 at 5:00 PM, BeeZee said:

I'll fess up, but this happened when I was a broke college student. There was a Roy Rogers fast food burger place within walking distance of our freshman dorm. I went with a friend who would purchase a meal...and make a "ghetto salad" from the fixin's bar (lettuce, tomato, mayo+catsup = dressing).

This.

I ate lunch with a friend at a Fuddrucker's and she made a large salad from the burger fixin's. I thought it was odd back then and still think it odd to this day. And I've never taken her back to Fuddrucker's.