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What time do you eat Dinner?


MetsFan5

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My husband’s brother was in town from CA recently and we met him for dinner. He was a bit shocked that we made 7:45pm reservations on a week night, but since he was still on CA time he was fine with it. 

 

  We don’t have kids and my husband commutes to NYC so the earliest we tend to eat is 7:30 and we often eat dinner at 10pm. Ususally we eat at 9pm. 

 

  I’m curious as to what time others have dinner and why. 

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typically whenever I feel like it

 

it's 11:21 pm Pacific time right now and I'm about to have leftover spareribs in tomato sauce and leftover braised green beans

 

blood oranges for dessert

 

I prefer eating late whenever possible - but change to earlier times usually on the weekend when I have dinner with B.

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I kind of remember this question arising here before, but perhaps not on a dedicated topic.

 

As for me, between 7 and 8 is usual as a start time. Sometimes later. That doesn't tie in with my friends, so when I eat out in company, it tends to be earlier. Just last night, we started at 6:30. But then restaurants in China often close by 9 or 10. If I turn up at a restaurant at 8pm, there will be little of the menu left.

 

There is a custom here of eating the main meal around 5:30 to 6, but then snacking later (9-10) when people get hungry again.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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@liuzhou that schedule appeals to me. I get hungry again later because I am a night owl but I tend to have a cup of broth or something simple. 

 

I think a lot of when people eat is due to where they live/ the types of industries they work in and if they have children and the ages of the children when applicable. 

 

  

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24 minutes ago, MetsFan5 said:

@liuzhou that schedule appeals to me. I get hungry again later because I am a night owl but I tend to have a cup of broth or something simple. 

 

I think a lot of when people eat is due to where they live/ the types of industries they work in and if they have children and the ages of the children when applicable. 

 

  

 

There are also huge cultural differences. I can look at Europe and see Germany, Italy, France etc all eating at different times. Climate also plays a part . I live in semi-tropical south China and here we eat much later than say, Beijing up north nearer to the frozen wastelands of Siberia!

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Last night it was almost 1am. That was very unusual for me. Usually I tend to eat later 10pm is a good average. If I have had a large lunch I may not eat a meal again until the following breakfast/lunch. I prefer later eating should I go out to eat, but generally I'll go with whatever fits in with others, especially if they have young families. I also tend to eat often on a whim with no plan whatsoever. Considering I'm obsessed with food I couldn't plan a round of toast.

I should add I live alone and have to consider only myself.

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Yes, I live alone now too and eat whenever the mood strikes. It's nice in some ways, but I miss eating with my husband. When he lived here instead of the nursing home where he has to be now, I had to have dinner ready on a rigid and earlier schedule when he was still working construction. They start early! Then when he "retired" (just quit working without any income) he started drinking heavily and demanded dinner whenever convenient for him. Sometimes late, sometimes early. This was so not fun for me. : -(  Many is the dinner that languished while he continued drinking or I just ate by myself while the food was at its peak.

 

So in some ways, although I don't like eating alone, I like being able to cook what I want, when I'm hungry and feel like it. I made tuna and peas with caramelized onions in white sauce over toast with a Caesar salad tonight and ate at about 8:PM, which is early for me now, left to my own devices. Sometimes I eat as late as midnight. It depends entirely on when I get hungry. While there are so many downsides to living alone, being able to eat exactly what you want when you want it is not one of them, for sure. You don't have to worry about something being too spicy or whatever when you don't have anyone to please but yourself. I'd still trade some considerations/constraints for the right dining companion though. It just would never be my husband again. He wants to come home so badly too, but that is not to be. He's too disabled to live here again. Technically, so am I, but my condition is temporary and I will come back to fitness and negotiating stairs and such. 

 

Yes, people who are on work schedules or have children need a rigid meal time, usually quite early. Thanks for making me realize that I am blessed for having the freedom to eat whenever I please. I definitely need to focus on the positives in my life right now.

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> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

Yes, I live alone now too and eat whenever the mood strikes. It's nice in some ways, but I miss eating with my husband. When he lived here instead of the nursing home where he has to be now, I had to have dinner ready on a rigid and earlier schedule when he was still working construction. They start early! Then when he "retired" (just quit working without any income) he started drinking heavily and demanded dinner whenever convenient for him. Sometimes late, sometimes early. This was so not fun for me. : -(  Many is the dinner that languished while he continued drinking or I just ate by myself while the food was at its peak.

 

So in some ways, although I don't like eating alone, I like being able to cook what I want, when I'm hungry and feel like it. I made tuna and peas with caramelized onions in white sauce over toast with a Caesar salad tonight and ate at about 8:PM, which is early for me now, left to my own devices. Sometimes I eat as late as midnight. It depends entirely on when I get hungry. While there are so many downsides to living alone, being able to eat exactly what you want when you want it is not one of them, for sure. You don't have to worry about something being too spicy or whatever when you don't have anyone to please but yourself. I'd still trade some considerations/constraints for the right dining companion though. It just would never be my husband again. He wants to come home so badly too, but that is not to be. He's too disabled to live here again. Technically, so am I, but my condition is temporary and I will come back to fitness and negotiating stairs and such. 

 

Yes, people who are on work schedules or have children need a rigid meal time, usually quite early. Thanks for making me realize that I am blessed for having the freedom to eat whenever I please. I definitely need to focus on the positives in my life right now.

 

Well funny enough. When I began living alone some ten or so years ago now I learnt early on to get a bit selfish with my time. I executed long winded meals and menu to please entirely myself. When my ex and I were together we rarely ate before 9pm. Now alone as you do, it is when or if the fancy takes me. It's not healthy though but I'm so selfish with my time now I think I will always eat late and for the most part I like it this way. I am an owl person and useless in the mornings. I may have toast if anything at all but only if home and not working. 

The freedom to eat...aren't we lucky to be us.

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The Johnnybird is like @MetsFan5 - a night owl or, as I refer to him mostly vampire.  I, on the other hand, am an early bird.  Yesterday I ate my dinner about 530 pm.  John was out to dinner with some friends - their reservation was for 630 pm.  After he got home he had leftovers about 1 am.

When I got serious about losing weight I flipped the script and used that old adage by Adelle Davis  " Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper for dinner".  I did deviate from it a bit and ate my main meal at lunch time and then nothing but water or tea after 5 pm.  Two years later I had lost 60 lbs and have kept it off.

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Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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I have found that I sleep much better on an "empty" stomach (or I should say, mostly digested, I guess). Since I go to sleep pretty early (usually around 10:30 pm) that means my optimal dinner time is 6-6:30 p.m. During the week I generally don't eat an actual dinner, I have what most would consider a snack when I get home, which is usually around 7:00 p.m. I eat more for my mid-day meal during the week.

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"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" - Oscar Wilde

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We've adopted the Mexican system of a good breakfast (fruit, yogurt, granola, toast with avocado, sometimes oatmeal or eggs) and then our main meal of the day between 2-4 pm. A snack around 7-8 if I'm peckish. My husband normally eats something at night because he has a bigger appetite than I do. When we invite friends for a meal we often return to the usual schedule and try to eat around 7. It's not quite like "eat like a king at breakfast," but it's worked well for us.

 

Nancy in Pátzcuaro

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Formerly "Nancy in CO"

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12 hours ago, MetsFan5 said:

... I’m curious as to what time others have dinner and why. 

 

During the week, my husband doesn’t usually get home from work before 6pm. He usually eats light at breakfast and lunch, so is hungry and ready for his main meal of the day at dinner. I try to have dinner ready at around 7:00. This gives him time to have a drink and relax before we eat. On the weekends, it just depends on what we are doing, sometimes early, sometimes late, sometimes just snacking.

Edited by robirdstx (log)
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We eat at 6:30 for a variety of reasons.

 

As a diabetic I try to eat on a schedule.

 

It gives my DW time to relax after work before I serve dinner.**

 

If my DW eats a meal after, say 8:00, she will be dealing with serious heartburn instead of sleeping that night.

 

Having a consistent target of when to serve dinner helps me with planning and timing a given meal, since I don't have to try and remember when is dinnertime today.

 

** I cooked the family dinner when I was in high school and my father insisted on the meal being served as soon as he got home. Since he commuted on the freeway his arrival time wasn't consistent. That made timing difficult.

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Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

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Perhaps it would be interesting to know also what time you have breakfast, and lunch, not just  dinner. 

 

I don't eat breakfast. I don't think breakfast in our working culture makes sense. Rushing to work and eating all kinds of unhealthy food. There is no proof that breakfast is important for health.

 

I eat a light  lunch around 12:30. 

 

I eat a full dinner around 6:30.

 

I eat a full meal (second dinner?) around 12:00 just before I go to bed. 

 

This has given me good health and good energy all my life.

 

dcarch

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by dcarch (log)
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Light breakfast at 8:00, snack at 10:30, lunch at 12:00, snack at 3:30, very small snack at 5:30, dinner at 6:30, small dessert 9ish.  I've had to eat like this since I was in my early twenties - over 4 decades now.

Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

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We eat breakfast separately now and for me it circles around meds I have to take.  

Noon, well actually 12:30 is our main meal of the day.

 

And then supper, which is either a salad or a soup or a vegetable dish is at 6:00 pm

 

Not exciting but it suits us.  If we have overnight type guests, we usually revert to the more familiar light lunch and heavier dinner...but I don't really like it.

 

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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why do I keep hearing breakfast....second breakfast....elevenses....lunch......second lunch.........in my head

I usually eat some protein and fruit around 730 am most days....lunch is around noon.......maybe a small snack of fruit and protein again around 3 then dinner.

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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For me I eat something around 10:30 am which is usually a small bit of something leftover from dinner the night before.  

 

Then some cheese or something at like 1-2 in the afternoon.

 

Main meal is our evening meal...which, I guess should change but it's just how we roll.

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If it's just me around the house/office, it's driven entirely by my work schedule. If I'm working at a client's site, chances are I'll eat lunch out, and that frequently means just a snack around 6:30 or 7 for dinner. I generally try, unless I have to hit the road early, to eat a "healthy" breakfast with a protein and some fruit and whatever else I find handy, around 7:30 or 8, after I've had my first cup of coffee and gotten used to the idea of being alive. I tend toward a later lunch -- 1 to 1:30 or so.

 

 

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Don't ask. Eat it.

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