This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2461, Leftovers, Culture and Class.
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In today's episode we ask, do you take leftovers home from a restaurant?
Is this accepted in your culture? Plus, find out how to ask for a doggy bag in English.
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Hey there, Michelle. How's it going today?
Good, Lindsay. I am at my parents' house, so I'm in a different spot, but we're making it work.
How are you? Good. Michelle, is that the home that you grew up in your parents' house or is that another home they moved to later?
No, this is like an apartment that they moved to.
Got it. That they moved to. Like, I might be... maybe close to seven years ago.
So yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of, well, today we're talking about a really interesting topic.
Michelle, do you, often take leftovers home when you eat out at a restaurant?
I would say if there are leftovers, I will take them home pretty much every time.
The only time I won't is when it's, such a small amount that it's embarrassing to ask for a pass.
Or like bread or something that's sort of superfluous, right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, the other day I had bread leftovers and I felt so bad.
I didn't know what to do with it. I wouldn't, you know, so I just kind of held it.
You held it and walked out with the bread in your hand or something.
Yeah. Well, yeah. So, yeah. What about you?
Yeah, I'm all about leftovers, Michelle.
Some people think that the flavors actually get better the next day.
The one thing I can't do is cold leftovers.
Like I know a lot of people that like cold pizza. ask you.
I cannot do that. It makes me feel sick to my stomach, but I know a lot of people can.
Yeah, no, I need it to be warmed up. But as long as it's warmed up, I'm good.
I'm down with leftovers. Some things just aren't good as leftovers, like French fries.
Oh, yeah, they get kind of soggy. Yeah, they just get soggy.
And yeah, it's just not going to work. I mean, I suppose if you put them in the oven or the toaster or something, you could.
But yeah, some things don't work as well as other leftovers.
Yeah, we should define what are leftovers, Michelle.
I mean, but first, before we get into that, though, let's remind our listeners what should our listeners do?
What should our listeners do? Make sure you hit the follow button wherever you're listening to All Ears English so you never miss anything from us.
So if you haven't already, wherever you're listening, just... hit the follow button excellent all right so what are leftovers michelle what are they yeah Leftovers are what is literally left over, right?
So you were at a restaurant. You ate, but maybe you still had a half of the meal or a quarter of the meal left, and then they are left over, and then you take them home.
Yeah. I wonder, our listeners are probably going to want to know, does the term also qualify if you just made a meal and didn't eat? eat it all.
What do you think, Michelle? Does that qualify as leftovers?
I was actually just going to say that. Yes.
Also that is leftovers. So yesterday I ate some leftovers.
So I ate some leftovers, but also to kind of supplement the leftovers, which is kind of I feel like that's a good word for talking about leftovers because sometimes you just have a little bit, but you need to make. something a little bit more so you could say to supplement so then we also had some salmon so yeah I love that.
Yeah. Some people will cook one meal and then plan to have leftovers, like to take into work or something or to school meal prep.
Right. The meal prep thing. Yes. Where are we going to with this episode?
This is going to be a cultural episode today, Michelle. yeah this is this is gonna be interesting i'm excited um so we're gonna we're kind of gonna do two things today We're going to talk about actual language that is used around leftovers with a restaurant specifically.
And then we're also going to talk about an article and some of the main points from the article and give our take on that.
So this is going to be very interesting.
But Lindsay, do you usually, are you, are you a member of the clean plate club?
So should you, should you clean? your plate do you know what have you ever heard that do you usually that's the clean plate club I haven't heard but I have definitely heard clean your plate and it's funny because I think the thinking has really changed on this throughout the generations.
So no, I'm not a member of the club. I don't feel like it's necessary.
But if you look at the way I was just talking to my father-in-law about this this past weekend, you know, he is in his mid 60s.
Right. And so when his parents were raising him in the 50s, They said, clean your plate.
You must clean your plate because they grew up.
I mean, the Great Depression, World War II, no money, no food.
But now, not for everyone, there's still food scarcity and food insecurity.
Don't get me wrong. In the US, it is a real thing, Michelle. a lot of people, at least in my world are not food and lacking food and, And so that's no longer really a thing that parents that I know are telling their kids.
What do you think, Michelle? You have kids.
Tell us what you... well what i've seen what i've seen is on a lot of um there's kind of this effort of like not forcing kids Right.
And trying to get them to follow their natural hunger cues.
And so if you're pushing the kid to you have to finish or you have to eat this.
The idea is that it can also cause some kind of psychological, you know, damage around the way they see food and like, having though you have to eat it or you have to like, yeah, it's, it's, There's so much to say about this.
It's very interesting, actually. But yeah, I don't force my kids to eat what they don't want, but I do try to... save what they don't eat right I love that yeah no that's a good approach yeah I think it's interesting it's how do you teach children to have that internal monitor I know in Japan they have this, or they used to, I'm not sure if this is still a thing, they used to say that they eat until they're 80% full.
And like, that's comfortable. You don't feel uncomfortable.
You feel good. You're full enough. but you're not stuffed like we get when we go to restaurants.
When you go to an American restaurant, you get this huge plate of food and For some reason, at least I'll speak from my own experience, you feel pressured to eat it all or something.
I don't know what that's about. Yeah. Well, also, I mean the problem with my kids when they don't finish something is then Dan and I go for it.
So then we're eating like, you know, a meal and a half basically because we're trying to eat what our kids won't eat or it's there and it looks good. be good and we're just going to eat it.
But that's not good either. Yeah, that's not good.
Yeah. Yeah, not good. So anyway, we're going to talk now about what are the things you can actually say.
So when you're at a restaurant, what is usually said?
So what... might you hear the waiter or waitress say to you that how could they ask you Yeah.
How could they ask you? So they might say, can I get you a box or can I get you a couple of boxes?
Now, most of the time these days, they'll bring you the box.
They used to take the leftovers back and package them up.
That's gone away. I don't know when that went away.
Some places, but mostly I find you're doing your own leftovers, right?
That's right. What would be something else they might say? you might hear them say would you like to take this to go or we love this phrase can i get you a doggy bag right can i get you a doggy bag and it has nothing to do with dogs um I don't know why.
Well, actually, actually, I do have a question for you.
Do you ever bring kefir, give kefir your leftovers?
Oh, no, he doesn't. Sometimes my partner will feed him yogurt and I get mad every time.
I don't feed him anything. He's a slim trim boy.
He needs to stay in shape. He eats his own food.
That's it. That's good. That's impressive.
Cause I know sometimes people will say, oh, I'm bringing the, I mean, I, cause I have a feeling that's where it actually comes from, but I don't know.
Like a bag to literally bring it home for. your dog, right?
Oh, I never thought of that. That's so interesting.
I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but it makes sense, right?
It makes sense. It makes sense. Yeah. So what can we say then?
What else do we need to know language-wise?
Sure. So yeah, I mean, just answer yes or no.
Or, you know, then they might, you know, if... if you know, they might say, how many boxes do you need and just tell them.
So, um, and, and if they, don't ask, they might be coming back to check on you and they might say something like, and I think we've talked about this, are you done with that or are you still working?
And that could also be a really good opportunity for you to then ask for the doggy bag or whatever you want to call it.
Yeah. I know we've covered this on another episode before.
There's the whole working. Why? Why? Why do we say, are you still working?
Are you still eating? It makes me wonder.
And I highly doubt that in Spanish or French people, You could use the word work and apply that to eating.
I doubt it. I would love to know from our listeners in different romance languages if that's the case.
I doubt it Michelle but it's hilarious it's so weird it is weird it is weird but I don't know that's just what we say so Now let's talk about how can you ask, right?
They come around and they ask you if you need anything else or whatever.
You could say something like, could we get some boxes?
Yeah, it's kind of just the flip of what the waiter or waitress has asked you, right? could we get this wrapped up?
We could say. And then of course, back to the doggy bag, would it be possible to get a doggy bag?
So. These are some ways that you can open the conversation and ask love it.
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Okay, Michelle, we are back from break. Let's talk a little bit.
The most interesting piece about this topic of leftovers is cultural opinions on taking food home from a restaurant and what that means about class. um about wealth uh where do we start here this is really interesting yeah i mean listen i don't know i'm I think, well, okay, I will say this.
Do you feel a little bit awkward asking for a box from a fancier restaurant?
Yes, I will answer. Yes, I do. I do. I do think there's an unwritten rule that I'm vaguely aware of, not because I go to fancy restaurants that much.
I don't know, just in my periphery, right?
I'm aware that when you go to the best restaurant in town. and you're spending a couple hundred dollars, you may not ask.
It may be kind of a faux pas. in American culture.
Do you agree? Which is so unfair. I agree, but I think I think that's unfair.
What are you supposed to just not eat it and then you're wasting it?
Or is that just kind of a Oh, I don't need to eat all of it.
I can go here tomorrow. I think it is. It's a... I don't like that.
It's weird. That makes me uncomfortable.
And I do think in American culture... 99% of restaurants, you could still ask, right?
You can break these rules in our culture.
There are some cultures where you can't break the rules, right?
But you can here. So you can ask. I'm sure they have bags and boxes, even in the fanciest places.
But yeah, I mean, they already give you there.
Very small portions. It feels a little different.
Yeah. The other time you can't. The other time is like if you go to a buffet.
Mm hmm. That's really kind of, you're not going to really ask for leftovers or take leftovers there or especially what if you're, I don't go to really a lot of all you can eat buffets, but you can't like pack your stuff.
Oh, my gosh. I was listening to the Wall Street Journal podcast about, was it Red Lobster?
I think it's Red Lobster. I don't want to get the brand name wrong.
They did this uh campaign do you eat there at all at red lobster i have but i haven't in a long time Um, maybe it was legal seafoods.
I don't know which one it was, but they did.
One of them did the bottomless shrimp campaign and they got, and customers would come in with buckets of stuff and just take bottomless shrimp and leave it didn't go well for the bottom line Yeah, yeah.
It is a faux pas to bring a box or after a box at a buffet because the idea is all you can eat in the restaurant.
Right. Exactly. Well, now that I don't know if we'll do a whole episode on this, but I guess it's just a brief thing to mention bottomless.
Right. A lot of times you'll hear these are bottomless shrimp.
You'll also hear bottomless brunch, right?
Like that means that you can have as much as you want.
So that's a good word. to know. Um, but let's get into, so one of the things was, Lindsay, I was telling you this story.
I mean, when I traveled in India, um, When I travel, it's harder to do leftovers, right?
You're usually going around all day. You don't wanna have the food with you.
You don't wanna get sick from eating food that's been out.
Yeah. So you're not going to carry it around generally.
And so When I was in India, we were eating with our tour guide and she was very nice and I was really enjoying the tour.
And then we got food with her and, you know, we couldn't finish it.
And it was hot food and it was meat. And it wasn't something that you're going to take around in the hot weather and everything.
But I didn't finish. she kind of yelled at me a little bit. because I guess the idea is that food scarcity is so real and she felt, oh no, you have to finish your food.
And I felt bad because normally I do get leftovers.
I don't like to waste food. But yeah, so that was kind of an uncomfortable moment.
Yeah, that's really interesting. Absolutely.
When we travel, we're hit with all sorts of different things. cultural values, ways of being polite or being impolite.
I think it's just so good to travel and to have these conversations to raise our awareness.
I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that one.
But also there was an article on the New York Times.
So this was on March 18th. by Alison Kruger and it was called is the doggy bad dead has that restauranteurs and big cities have noticed a somewhat surprising shift in diner behavior. behavior.
And what was she saying in the article itself, Michelle?
Are they saying that people are not using the doggy bag?
People are not taking leftovers home as much anymore.
Yeah, so it does talk about how people are seeing a lot more food being left behind.
And there's a lot of waste every year. at restaurants.
And kind of going to what you said, there is talk of one possibility being that now it's so easy to just... People order food, right?
You can just get it again. It's just there.
I mean, again, this is not for... of course there are people, you can't, not everyone, right?
Like, but if you are fortunate to be able to have the funds to get more food, okay you didn't finish your food there okay well tomorrow i can just order it on grubhub or so it's not it's not as big of a deal to leave things behind Interesting.
Interesting. And another thing they mentioned was going on dates.
If you're going on a date with someone and you have leftovers, then do you take them and people might feel a little uncomfortable taking them when you're on a date?
Yeah, no, that's a good question, right?
Because you wouldn't sit down in a first date and give all these intimate details about your financial situation, but in some ways, not necessarily.
But it can give information about, you know, like what is your financial situation, though not necessarily.
So fascinating, Michelle. There's a lot here.
Yeah. There is one other thing that I thought was very interesting was they were talking about the pandemic. and how people were, of course, not sharing food then, but now they do.
And sometimes they even mention how there's this question sometimes well like who takes the food You're going out and then people are sharing and it's like, who takes ownership of the food?
Oh, wow. Yeah. Lots of very interesting points, even around food just going bad, if you're not going home right away.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Some did say that leftovers are still very common.
So just those were just some of the things that I that I wanted to point out from the article.
Yeah. I mean, anytime we can look at how culture might be shifting.
Um, I know in the U S right now we have like major class, uh, clashes going on, kind of.
There's an underlying tension around class More than anything happening in the US right now, which we're all tracking, right?
We're seeing it happen. And there are little things we can look at that give evidence of this.
And even something as simple as leftovers might be in there.
Really fascinating, Michelle. Do we have time for a role play?
I don't know. Do we? I don't know either.
Let's do one of these role plays, Michelle.
Which one do you want to do? Let's go for number two.
Okay. So here you are the waitress and I am the customer.
Okay. All right. Here we go. Are you done with that or are you still working?
I'm done, thanks. Would it be possible to get a doggy bag?
Absolutely. I'll bring out a couple boxes.
Thanks. Excellent. So we just showed you here in this role play that I asked as the waitress, are you done with that or are you still working?
Again, there's that weird use of the word to work. meaning eating, right?
Or working on it. Are you still working on that?
You might hear working on it. Yeah, you could say that as well.
And then I said, I'm done, thanks. And then I used this.
I said, would it be possible to get a doggy bag?
Excellent. So we see just a few of those vocabulary words.
Michelle, what's another episode our listeners could go to?
Where could they go? Yeah. Check out episode 2455 was should you poke fun at someone's niche interests?
Really good stuff there. Yeah. And just as a takeaway, this has been fascinating because we're not just talking about restaurants, ordering and leftovers.
We're actually talking about culture and and politeness and class and food insecurity, really deeper issues, which are Your listeners could use this as a model to get into a great conversation and connection with someone to talk about each other's countries.
Right. Absolutely. Because I would you know, I wish we had a whole panel of listeners on this conversation so we could hear their opinions and how it is.
This is a really, I mean, this is just a very universal topic.
And so to hear how it could vary between areas of the world, between classes, So interesting.
Really good stuff, guys. If you love our style of connection, not perfection, hit the follow button right now or the subscribe if you're on YouTube.
Okay, Michelle, good stuff today. I'll see you back here very soon.
Have a good week. All right. Bye, guys. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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