Ping Larkin

Well, but what do you guys do at home with leftover food? Throw it all away? That would seem quite wasteful.

We have neighbors who throw every leftover away. It makes me sad, considering that some families in Africa don't know where tomorrow's meals are going to come from.

I suspect that is the _real_ deal. You carry away their trash problem. Personally (*) I try to eat only half and leave the rest. Taking it home only results in it residing in the refrigerator, forgotten, until it spoils and smells :-(

(*) Being just a wee bit rotund, and garnering more than half my calories from wine ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Here is one thing KFC is currently offering in Asia:-

In USD terms, that's the equivalent of $1.97 and the magic wand is making another of those breading-encrusted deep fried chicken patties appear for a modest 15-cent adder. They offer delivery too, in case you're too fat to waddle a few blocks. Total EUR 1.42 (tax included).

Looks like lots of mayo oozing out too..

But first, make an appointment with your cardiologist ...

I must admit that since the brats left the nest, the missus still cooks for four, so we end up eating half and freezing half for another day. Very little waste at all nowadays.

Next door neighbour adds their food waste to feed the two dogs they own.

But I do agree that an enormous amount of food is wasted nationally. You only have to look at the dumpsters at the back of the local supermarket ! Chock full of unsold foodstuff, just getting landfilled.

A good Bordeaux is hard to beat...

Nah, it's just the economics of the restaurant business. People think that getting twice as much food for 20% more money is a good deal, but it costs the restaurant maybe 10% more overall (including staff, rent, utilities, etc.). That leads either to waste, obesity, or doggie bags.

When I'm travelling on business, I usually stay at one of those suites places that have kitchens--getting the leftovers wrapped up means I only have to go to a restaurant every other day or so.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Except for things like roasts, my wife downsized fairly easily. Packages of chicken or hamburgers get split up and frozen before cooking. Steaks are bought sized for two. Ground meat is bought in sizes to cook, though a lot of those meals are either refrozen (e.g. spaghetti sauce, chili) or reheated.

Two schools of thought on that one.

Blame your local weenies. They landfill it because if they gave it away the liability would be enormous. It's not good enough for the buying public so "the poor" shouldn't be force to eat it, or so goes the "logic".

Its very wrong I agree ! When I was a rug rat, folks would go into the fields after the potato, pea and turnip harvest, and collect the food left on the ground. Probably without the farmers blessing. Today the farmer would simply plough the crop back into the ground and go collect the subsidy !

Packages? Euww.

I can proudly proclaim that we have never bought pre-pressed patties of any sort, it's all done from scratch.

It's not good for the dogs. We never do that, and now we've got three.

Yep, tort law is a huge problem in our country. But at least our food bank goes out and picks up stuff from stores where they can see that it won't sell by an expiration date. Plus fruits and vegetables from gardens of congregation members, and that's the best stuff you can get.

We get *fresh* (never frozen, unpackaged) patties made up with spices and such.. they're a great time saver.. good stuff like blue cheese in there.

Same with fresh already-marinated kebabs and lean boneless chicken breasts.

Just toss on the barbie.. or Jennair grill if it's too unpleasant outside. I'm not sure it isn't more economical than the Williams-Sonoma $rubs$ + plain meat from the butcher.

The frozen stuff in the fancy boxes isn't as good, but the pricier President's Choice types are not bad-- certainly handy for teenager feeding time if a hungry pack of them is prowling around.

Yes, we don't grow our own chickens. ;-) Hamburgers we buy in patties because the beef is better than we can buy otherwise and they cook and hold together better than home made.

The other school of thought is that dogs (not cats) have eaten human scraps since they were domesticated (likely the reason they were domesticated was that they hung around humans, eating their waste). Personally, I'm with you. The "cereals" today are much better for dogs.

Wait until weenie lawyer gets done with your parishioners.

US population has become bimodal. There are a small number of super fit guys who run every morning and the rest who walk to their car and use remote controls for everything else. I was at a conference with a US guy in the former category and when he got back from his run for breakfast his rotund compatriots had eaten absolutely *everything* from the breakfast buffet. The rest of the week he skipped his morning run.

If that is what it takes then yes. I recognise it would cause problems for the all you can eat business model.

Gross is the word that springs to mind.

Local food in Normandy around the coast is very good (as is the cider). Mont St Michel is overpriced and tasteless but worth seeing (not staying at). Avranche not far away is charming.

Regards, Martin Brown

Eating at KFC was by far the worst meal I ever had when I lived in Japan. I had to take one of our UK engineers there for comfort food to steady his nerves after an earthquake. He was staying in a tall central Tokyo hotel at the time. It wasn't that much of an earthquake either.

KFC is unusually popular in Japan at Xmas time as they have a slightly mangled idea of what a Christmas dinner should be.

Regards, Martin Brown

I couldn't agree more. The Calvados is nice too !

You haven't been around here on a Saturday morning. 80% of the runners are female.

I was at a conference with a US guy

What's gross bout asking a restaurant to package uneaten food? It's not much different from ordering take-out. We went to a neighborhood Thai place on Friday night and ordered three dishes ($30, including beer), about twice what we could eat, enjoyed the variety, took the rest home, and had it for lunch on Sunday. What's gross about that? It was great both times. Some things, like fried foods, just don't work leftover, but many things do. Confession: I like leftover half-hamburgers, if they're good ones.

That was cassoulet, of course. I never did learn to type, which is weird considering that I've done over a million lines of code by now.

Mont St Michel is amazing but, as you say, not the place to stay. I want to visit its twin off the Cornish coast, the Mount of St Michael, which was featured in the version of 12th Night, this one:

which is just about my favorite movie ever.

John

KFC is greasy and gross. Popeye's (which started in New Orleans) is the best fried chicken chain. Their chicken is Grade A and cooked right, and their sides - cajun fries, red beans and rice - are excellent.

But I can't rave over British cuisine. I did have some excellent Italian food in Oxford, in a place run by Italians, but that's about it. I'm not a fan of Indian food, so most meals in Britain were ordeals.

John

British home cooking can be amazing. My last birthday dinner was: Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, pan gravy, roasted potatoes, grilled root vegetables, with steamed 3-ginger pudding for dessert. My English grandmother would have made just about the same thing.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

As Mo says about cooking in the Northeast, everything on the plate is white or brown or grey. Sort of like the cars.

John