Eating habits (spam very slightly, and hold the mayo)

[fable]

Over the last month I started writing for a new magazine, which seemed pleased with the results. It was nice, because the magazine market has been drastically shrinking in the US over the last couple of years. As a result, some nice paychecks began arriving, and my wife suggested we celebrate at a very expensive Sunday buffet in Philly. The kind of place where there are no pre-steamed hot plates holding dried-out entrees, but only white-hatted chefs serving a large selection of meats including beef wellington, and so many lamb chops that Waverly would have cried.

This got me thinking, a dangerous course of action which, had my wife caught it, would have been stopped on the spot. I was considering other ages and places where people ate to repletion--indeed, beyond; indulging in a grotesque parody of this Sunday buffet, consuming bizarre and exotic fare for hours on end. Then...well, in Ancient Rome, they invented the vomitorium, a place where you could induce vomiting (yes, the term came from that use), and return for more; while in Louis XIV's Versailles, the fine lords and ladies had recourse to a range of emetics to serve the same purpose. (You never rejected a plate at one of the Sun King's meals. To do so was tantamount to rejecting him, and that meant social disaster, and possible loss of income.)

It's fascinating stuff. Eating customs, I mean, and not just among the elite, or (as in our case) the celebrating idiots who should know better. What are the eating customs like in your culture, among the various classes? How do you eat, yourself? What do you enjoy, dislike, and dislike, in the way of food?

[Phantom Lord]

I like simple yet high quality food, which basically forces me prepare my food for myself and friends or to rely on my friends or mother / grandmother cooking abilities. My favorite type of food is northern italian (piemontese) because it's the quality of ingredients and not the complexity of preparation that makes it good. A simple slice of pane rusticale with prosciutto crudo puts most restaurant meals to shame IMHO, as well as a good steak (preferably from Argentina) with home made french fries (made out of fresh potatoes ...) does.

[Tybaltus]

Well....My eating habits-while I live with my family for now (Not old enough yet to own a house-Im only 18) but I chose not to eat with them. For some reason, I love to eat on my own. As far as food is concerned, I hate fancy foods. The higher the price is on the food, the worse it seems to get. But the lower the price, is not necessarily better, as I dont like fast food at all. As far as eating customs of other classes-I wouldnt know, I dont pay attention to what the other classes do.

[Yshania]

Hmmm...customs? as in not lighting your cigar until you have toasted the Queen?

Re foods I like, well I am one for simple foods, if it is pizza or pasta it has to be vegetarian, otherwise I like simple meat and veg

[fable]

What about for breakfast? For lunch? For dinner?

Is your main meal your lunch meal, or dinner? When do you eat dinner?

How large a meal is typical in your area? Is it normal to nap after your meal in your culture, or not?

This is a general request, not aimed at any one person.

[Minerva]

I love food. I eat quite well balanced, though admittedly less vegetables since I begen to live myself away from home. Can't be bothered to cook so many dishes for one person.

It it difficult to pick my favourite, as there are so many, but I have to say I don't like *stereotypical* American food, ie. hamburgers, hot dogs. (No, I'm not spamming here). Mind you, I do eat them occasionally, but it rarely happens (I can't remember when the last time I had a hot dog. Must be 5 years ago, at least).

I work in a restaurant twice a week, so I often get left overs for my dinner, such as roast beef with veges and potatoes followed by lemon castard. Yesterday, it was left over from grand buffet of cold fish (salmon and trout) and meat (beef, pork, and turkey) with different kinds of salad.

I don't eat breakfast much: I survive on coffee, and possibly a chocolate croissant or toast. Lunch is salad plates, soup or sandwich, whether I'm working at home or in the Institute. Dinner, therfore is my main meal. I had grilled salmon with couscous and young spinach salad today.

When I'm going home, we always have meal together as long as it's possible.

[wiwimu]

i love chinese food ..and that's because i am chinese.
And usually in chinese families, we have 3 dishes and a soup.

i love dim sum. Very nice baos and small dishes.

At home we usually eat bread for breakfast or cereals (due to western influence) But traditionally, We eat porriage for breakfast or bean curd pudding with soya bean milk.

Lunch is usually noodles with mince meat mushrooms and preserved vegetables fried together.

and dinner is like i've said 3 dishes and a soup (but now my mum doesn't cook as much)
We do eat pizza but not very often....

I have heard of the vomitorium...but eating and puking doesn't sound very tasty...
and i have heard of gossips on models soaking cotton wool with olive oil and just eating that to feel full and lose weight..
Though that must be really dangerous coz i didn't think cotton could not be digested or passed out.....sigh......

[Tybaltus]

Originally posted by fable
What about for breakfast? For lunch? For dinner?

Is your main meal your lunch meal, or dinner? When do you eat dinner?

How large a meal is typical in your area? Is it normal to nap after your meal in your culture, or not?

This is a general request, not aimed at any one person.

What do I like for:
Breakfast: Omlet is good. My mom makes a great spanish omlet.
Lunch: Pizza is good.
Dinner: Could be almost anything typical. Spanish food, Italian food, whatever...

My main meal is dinner. I sometimes go days where dinner is the only meal. Ive done that twice this week...

How large is my meal? Well a couple spoonfulls of vegetables, a side, and the main meat meal. Cant really describe it better than that.

Nap? Absolutely not. Other than yesterday, I havent napped in the last 3 months, yesterday I did for some reason-I didnt have caffine that day I guess.

[Bloodstalker]

I do NOT do breakfast. at all.

Lunch for me consists of wherever I can stop to get a bite to eat at the moment, usually fast food.

Dinner, well, I like beef. any type of beef. I am not much of a veg eater. I don't usually eat a lot at any meal.


Fav meal....4 fried chickens, and a coke

[Aqua-chan]

For breakfast, I *try* to set a good example for the youngyuns by eating fruits and healthy cereals. Unfortunatly, they always pull out the chocolate stuff and dump sugar on top. That is breakfast around here.

Lunch is when I pull out the peanut butter and tortillas. Wierd combination, but somehow I found out that they like Peanut Butter Tortillas and (in some cases would rather prefer) Peanut Butter Hotdogs. I couldn't understand how they'd be able to down something so odd at lunch everyday, but with time, I eventually grew to like these interesting dishes as well.

Supper is usually t.v. dinners. I get the Healthy Choice, they get Kid Cuisine. Sometimes, I have to sacrafice some of my meal because the kids aren't full, and I really don't feel like getting up to micrwave another dinner just so half of it can get thrown out.

My eating habits revolve around my kids, plain and simple.

[HighLordDave]

I stopped eating breakfast in high school when I realised that I could get an extra ten minutes of sleep by cutting out the morning meal. I stopped eating lunch in college when I cut back on the meal plan to save money and began hoarding food after an all-you-can-eat dinner.

I lived on the single college guy diet (Totino's frozen pizza, Budget Gourmet microwave dinners, beer and store-brand cola) for six years of college until I got married. Now I still don't eat breakfast, but I eat lunch and dinner. I've put on over 30 pounds in the five years I've been married and I blame my wife for each of them.

Since my wife and I live basically on our own (her two older kids don't live at home and her youngest lives with his dad half of the time), we don't cook for ourselves much. It's fairly inexpensive for two people to eat out at either fast food places or cheap neighbourhood restaurants (Applebee's, Bennigan's, Bob Evan's or some local places) as it is to cook for ourselves, plus we don't have to wash any dishes.

I'll try just about any food once, although I don't particularly care for Thai, Mexican or Chinese food. My preference is for Japanese, Italian and seafood (mostly shellfish). Since West Virginia is about as far from the culinary center of the universe that anyone could possibly get, we don't get much by way of variety or ethnic foods, but I try to sample one of everything when we go away.

When on vacation, we have two basic rules about eating out. First, we don't eat at chain restaurants that are available at home. To me, this defeats the purpose of going on vacation; why go to San Diego only to eat at The Outback? I will admit that there are a few chains that I try to hit every time I see one; the Melting Pot fondue restaurant and the Cheesecake Factory are the two that immediately comes to mind, but otherwise my wife and I try and avoid franchises in favour of local places.

My other disclaimer is that I will go to fast food places if we're on the road and need to pick up something quick, especially if we're taking the kids somewhere. We like to drive on vacation, and it's easier to stop through the Burger King or McDonald's drive-thru on the way than it is to search for a local spot right off the interstate.

Second, I don't eat at the same place twice, no matter how good the food is. I like a lot of variety, so not only do I avoid going to the same restaurant on the same trip, but I try to avoid the same types of cuisine. My sole exception to this is sushi bars, which I try to pack in as many as possible.

For instance, when we went to Toronto last year, we went to an Italian pizza place (with a brick pizza oven), a fabulous Canadian cuisine restaurant at the top of the Dominion Tower, a wonderful hole-in-the-wall sushi bar, a Chinese dim sum restaurant, a Japanese steakhouse, and a seafood place on Lake Ontario. My wife ate lunch one day at an odd Thai-Hungarian fusion restaurant she said was very good (I wasn't with her that day; the conference bought my lunch).

I rationalise all of this eating out with the fact that I really don't have any other vices; I don't gamble, I don't smoke, I don't drink much and I don't play golf. The only other things which I spend a lot of money on is computer parts (once every two years or so) and books. I also haven't had a physical since high school and I'm never sick, so I haven't had anyone do any blood work and tell me how high my cholesterol is. I think when my friends start to have heart attacks I may change my diet, but otherwise I'll stick to my high-fat, high-carbohydrate, low-exercise lifestyle and eat to my heart's (and my stomach's) content.

@Bloodstalker:
How about some dry, white toast?

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I'm another person who won't eat breakfast. My mum (and, when I told her, Georgi ) used to hassle me about it sometimes, but I just don't get hungry until a few hours after I wake up.
Lunch will be something quick and easy to prepare if I'm at home, or a pie or something if I'm out (though Tamerlane has put me off hot dogs for a few weeks at least...cow faces ).
Dinner is my main meal, but I'll usually graze on whatever's in the fridge during the day. I rarely eat dessert, usually I just forget to get any.
Also, aside from mince and sausages, I really don't like eating red meat. Or most vegetables...

[Dottie]

My eating customs have for the last few years been rather chaotic. I've eaten whatever is available (usally pasta, noodles or bread) whenever im bored and have nothing else to do. Lately though some new friends keep forcing me out to restaurants, so now I eat there when they are bored and hungry.

[C Elegans]

@Dottie: LMAO

I like most food, my favorites include Thai/Malaysia, Arabic/Libanese, Greek, Italiand and Cayun and Japanese. I don't like the breakfast - lunch - dinner eating pattern, I prefer to have several smaller meals more often since I get hungry after about 3 hours, and don't like to eat a lot at one occation since I only get sleeply from large heavy meals.

My breakfast would typically include juice, sandwiches, yoghurt or perhaps an omelette, but I may also have noodles, pasta or yesterdays leftovers (if there are any, but if my hubby has cooked, which he occationaly does, he always do too much food).

If I go to work early, I will probably eat a sandwich or some fruit before lunch. For lunch I may have a cooked meal from any of the surprisingly good lunch restaurants, or I may have a sandwich or a potato with some topping. During the afternoon I will also have some fruit and perhaps a sandwich. Dinner I usually have with my husband or with friends, and we mostly eat out since I can't cook anything eatible, and the hubby can cook stuff that is barely eatable. Like HLD says, eating out when you 2 people is not very expensive, and there are plenty of simple but ok restaurants in the area where we live. Mostly we go for Thai, Italian, Japanese, Indian, Greek or crossover.

After dinner I usually don't eat anything more even if I stay up late, I clearly burn most energy earlier in the day. The metabolism, as you know, is not contant during the day, it fluctuates a lot depending on what you do, but it also fluctuates with time of the day even if we do the same thing. Most people have a slower metabolism during night time, especially between 2am-4am, even if they are awake.
Sometimes in the evening, especially if I'm reading, I eat snacks while reading. I don't know why, but I like to eat unhealthy stuff like crisps, candy, popcorn etc while I'm reading.

[Weasel]

I skip breakfast (Like HLD in high school)

Lunch, since I work out of town it is a different selection everyday. Most of the time it will be a small family owned business....something from there..like Philly Steak cheese

or if I'm in a rush... Hungry Howies subs.

Dinner is my main meal of the day. At home most of the time, but we have been known to go to a Chinese place and a Steak House.