Post dinner party doggie-bags

Post by **nakatago** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:42 am

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Yep, I remember them. Purely cultural difference. Our western moms always told us to finish everything on our plate (because there's starving children in Africa - for the life of me, I could never figure out why my eating everything would help that problem though) whereas Asian culture demands that the guest is satiated and cannot eat another bite.

As a child, I was taught to finish everything on my plate because of the children starving in Africa.* As a young adult, I was taught to make sure there is more than enough food being served.

*we brought upon ourselves to just quip, "we'll FedEx the leftovers to Ethiopa then."

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:50 am

nakatago wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:Yep, I remember them. Purely cultural difference. Our western moms always told us to finish everything on our plate (because there's starving children in Africa - for the life of me, I could never figure out why my eating everything would help that problem though) whereas Asian culture demands that the guest is satiated and cannot eat another bite.
As a child, I was taught to finish everything on my plate because of the children starving in Africa.* As a young adult, I was taught to make sure there is more than enough food being served.

*we brought upon ourselves to just quip, "we'll FedEx the leftovers to Ethiopa then."

Which reminds me.......

What do you call an Ethiopian walking a dog?

Post by **nakatago** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:53 am

sundaymorningstaple wrote:
Which reminds me.......

What do you call an Ethiopian walking a dog?

A vegetarian.

What do Ethiopians take to a funeral?

*with pre-emptive apologies to Ethiopians everywhere.

ecureilx · Post by **ecureilx** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:49 am

nakatago wrote: *we brought upon ourselves to just quip, "we'll FedEx the leftovers to Ethiopa then."

If you live in some area, your food would have become pagX2

.. no kidding, that was the answer of a friend's niece when her aunt told her off for not finishing the food .. in .. .....

See, there is some benefit to not finishing your food

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:06 pm

nakatago wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:
Which reminds me.......

What do you call an Ethiopian walking a dog?
A vegetarian.

What do Ethiopians take to a funeral?

*with pre-emptive apologies to Ethiopians everywhere.

That one is baaaaad! Knife & fork!

What do you call an Ethiopian walking 3 dogs?

nutnut · Post by **nutnut** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 1:46 pm

Guys, less of the jokes!!!

Anyway, coming back to the point of penny pinchers, look at the kids queuing for their free Starbucks last week for a donation to Salvation Army, where a lot of people were witnessed to have given only a few cents if anything at all! This is disgraceful and shameful behaviour!

I had a doggy bag yesterday from a kids party! We chucked the food, but the wife kept the boxes cause she doesn't have enough apparently! Oh, and we got a box of cake (which was very nice, so the kids got that!)

the lynx · Post by **the lynx** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 1:58 pm

I remembered how my mother made me play piano non-stop for hours as a punishment for not finishing an entire bowl of herbal chicken soup she made. (I was probably six or seven that time)

I still cringe whenever I see a piano. And you guys can guess how clean my plate is after that.

boffenl · Post by **boffenl** » Mon, 12 Dec 2011 4:56 pm

Worst was when my Singaporean Chinese boss made me pack up the leftovers at a big event we hosted at the American Chamber. Then we served it to the students the next day as a "surprise". It was a HUGE amount of food and it would have all been wasted. But it did make me feel queezy, then I remembered my mom did the same thing after my bridal shower, wedding dinner, baby shower and baptism lunch. This wrapping up left-over corsses all cultures.

You should have seen my mom when the last restaurant declined to wrap the buffet food saying that they would be liable if someone got ill eating it. Uh, duh!

earthfriendly · Post by **earthfriendly** » Tue, 13 Dec 2011 3:50 am

beppi wrote: I am teasing my wife that the complete inability to judge the correct amount of food is a "genetic defect".

That must be it. A genetic defect! No matter how hard I try, I could never get the right amount of food. To make it even harder, families do not always RSVP with headcount in their responses. Time and time again I told myself I would only serve half the amount of what I calculated and if we ran out, just order delivery pizza. I could never bring myself to do it.

Just because I offer doesn't mean the other person has to say "yes". I posed the question to the forum as I am curious how others feel about the issue. I don't think I will accept the doggie bag if I have no use for it. It just amounts to another form of wastage.

beppi · Post by **beppi** » Tue, 13 Dec 2011 5:31 am

I had one of my cultural experiences when I was new in Singapore (many moons ago) and arranged a potluck party at my place.
Not a good idea!
Every single Singaporean I invited called to ask how many people are coming - and then brought enough food FOR ALL OF THEM!!!
I think we ate leftovers for a week ...

Superglide · Post by **Superglide** » Tue, 13 Dec 2011 7:38 pm

JR8 wrote:
evehow wrote:Thank you for your generalisation that Singaporeans are penny-pinching people.

In no other country on earth would you see pedestrian and traffic chaos just to get a 10c coupon off a curry-puff.

In no other country would every piece of fruit and vegetable have been handled 500 times in search of the 'best' one.

In no other country would someone choose a piece of say broccoli, and then spend 5 minutes tearing off the tiny leaves from the stem before check-out just so it cost 1 cent less.

I could go on...

QED.

Time to leave the country, I'd say. If you cannot even understand graciousness and a good host, you are definitely in the wrong place.

But then again, maybe it is not the country you live in, maybe it is you.

poodlek · Post by **poodlek** » Tue, 13 Dec 2011 8:13 pm

beppi wrote:I had one of my cultural experiences when I was new in Singapore (many moons ago) and arranged a potluck party at my place.
Not a good idea!
Every single Singaporean I invited called to ask how many people are coming - and then brought enough food FOR ALL OF THEM!!!
I think we ate leftovers for a week ...

Geez. I'm going to a pot luck on Saturday night...if I only bring a reasonable amount of food, am I going to look like a chump??

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Tue, 13 Dec 2011 8:21 pm

Superglide wrote: Time to leave the country, I'd say.

Bwahahha....

Superglide wrote: If you cannot even understand graciousness and a good host, you are definitely in the wrong place.

I don't equate giving people doggy-bags as being a 'good host', as I have explained I find it rather strange, and hence posed the OP. Neither do I (or Lee Kuan Yew) associate Singaporeans with graciousness.

Superglide wrote: But then again, maybe it is not the country you live in, maybe it is you.

Which of the three quoted random points I made to the uptight local, that SMS +1'd do you disagree with?

the lynx · Post by **the lynx** » Tue, 13 Dec 2011 8:36 pm

poodlek wrote: Geez. I'm going to a pot luck on Saturday night...if I only bring a reasonable amount of food, am I going to look like a chump??

No worries. I think you'll be doing the whole world a favour by not being part of statistics for contributing to "aiya, how ah? got extra food la!" situation

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Tue, 13 Dec 2011 9:12 pm

the lynx wrote:
poodlek wrote: Geez. I'm going to a pot luck on Saturday night...if I only bring a reasonable amount of food, am I going to look like a chump??
No worries. I think you'll be doing the whole world a favour by not being part of statistics for contributing to "aiya, how ah? got extra food la!" situation

Got to agree. When we have a pot-luck situation people do not seem to bring more than asked of them. That said the sum total still seems to be too much

SINGAPORE EXPATS FORUM
Singapore Expat Forum and Message Board for Expats in Singapore & Expatriates Relocating to Singapore

Post dinner party doggie-bags

Who is online