Sharing food

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I am not a fan of "everyone order something different and we'll all share". It isn't that I don't want a combination plate, I just want to keep my plate neat. When I sit down I arrange whatever is in front of me. Then when my meal comes, I arrange everything on my plate. This is how I enjoy a meal. I don't want people throwing food on my plate as fast as they can so they can start eating.

Who's on my team and doesn't share?

I'm 100% with you on that one... especially with desserts.

I don't mind sharing. I'm not bothered about how my food looks on the plate, as it soon gets eaten and mushed together in your stomach anyway. As long as it is cooked properly and tastes good, I don't mind.

I have never even encountered this phenomenon. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

I don't like meal sharing at all - in fact, I don't really like eating meals in company, full stop. I prefer to know exactly what I'm going to be eating and how much of it before I have the first mouthful, and to be able to wolf it down as fast as I can. I have a very "functional" attitude to eating in general - I don't mind trying different things, but it doesn't excite me at all, and I'm perfectly content to eat the same usual foods every day. Trying to be sociable at the same time as eating is too much multi-tasking for me, and always seems like a bit of an odd thing to want to do.

I enjoy a social meal now and then, if the people are nice and I feel good around them.

If I'm eating out, and it's Chinese, Indian, or Ethiopian, where the tradition is many dishes and everyone has some, I can do that and it's fine - but then the food comes in a large bowl or platter with serving utensils, and everyone helps themselves, same as one would do at a family dinner at home (pass the peas).

I will not do the plate sharing, food sharing, everyone takes food off my plate thing with people. It feels like a boundary invasion. It's too intimate. I don't want to be that intimate with anyone but my nearest dearest.

At lunch with work colleagues I actually stuck my hand over my plate to force someone pushy to leave my food alone. They got huffy, and I just looked at them* and said, "I do not like it. AT ALL. When people do that. Do not do that. Thank you."

*actually I gave them what an old flame used to call The Laser Glare Of Death. Apparently I glare pretty well when the need arises.

At a Chinese restaurant that's the only way to do it with a group. That's how we always did Chinese restaurants when I was growing up. The same number of dishes as people at the table. But everybody gets served some of each dish. Just the way its always done.

But at any other kind of restaurant...its just not the custom. You just eat your own dish. Once in a while you might get into "try some of mine, so I can try some of yours". Which is fine. But its not the norm. I dunno. Don't mind it when folks do that. But it is not the norm in my experience.

Do you give lessons? I'll swap you for "The Million Yard Stare Of Incomprehension".

If anyone tries to pinch food from my plate, the first image that comes to mind is a fork in the back their hand!

Agreement with Plastic and Madame Weatherwax, if I'm at a restaurant where shared dishes are the custom I can cope - so long as the shared dishes are in the middle, and each person serves herself from those onto her own plate, which is then left alone by others.

I'm able to share with MisterChess or either of the Chesslings, but they're well aware that I'll get them a bite on request and they don't stick forks or fingers into my table setting. MisterChess thinks it's adorable, and the Chesslings grew up with me so they don't think it's odd - they just think it's Mom.

I expect in a situation where others suggested this kind of culinary mayhem I'd say "That sounds like fun, but I really just want <insert name of my chosen dish here>. You guys go on and share amongst yourselves, though, don't mind me!" Then I'd sharpen up my fork and prepare to jab any trespassers. You know, adorably.

Im picky and vegan so if my family eats all my food i probably cant eat theirs. My brother used to come home from sports sometimes and eat all my nice plain food, when he couldve ate anything else in the whole fridge but that was all i could eat. Also if i planned to eat an order of fries and my mom steals some i have no idea how much of the fries ive actually consumed and i hate that. Now i could be hungry earlier than planned, what if theres no me food around?

Sharing food with me just does not work. I have food allergies (eggs, alcohol, etc.) that I have to be careful of. Many people feel the need to needle me about this issue and tend to say that their food will not cause me any problems. This is why I hate any type of potluck gathering, as I often cannot figure out what is in the different foods. If I do not know what is exactly in there, it is not going on my plate. This made my family reunions not so much fun when I was younger, as I got guff for being a picky eater. My mother would fix me a special item for me to have during the meal portion.

I have been forced to go to a departmental potluck before and the only thing I ate there was the food items that I brought (submarine sandwiches and chips). People commented how rude I was to not try their strange ethnic dishes, but I do not want to risk being sick over eating their food. I really wish that they would get very sick over a food item and maybe they will start to understand what I deal with on a daily basis. I have learned to restrict what I eat to only things that I can actually eat.

Here are some articles you can post on the bulletin board in your break room, QuantumChemist: the victims in these stories were three, thirty-eight, and sixteen years old, respectively, and died from being fed dairy and peanuts.

I'm sorry that people think you're rude for refusing to eat potentially allergenic food; but it's far more rude for them to be willing to sicken or kill you with it... *sigh*

http://abcnews.go.com/US/toddler-dairy- ... d=51037967

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36360111

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/03/1 ... o-lawsuit/

Love it

Keep away from me lamb bhuna - ha!

I'm fine with sharing if people ask for my permission before they take anything from my plate, but not really otherwise, especially if the thing I ordered is the only thing I can or want to eat. However, if the food is something like a box of onion rings and no one has a plate and just take one at the time when they feel like it then it's fine with me to share... as long as there aren't many people eating from it. I don't want to be the rude person who ate all of a certain food that was meant for everybody, but when there's a lot of people it's harder to make sure that everyone gets their fair share.

And yes, someone not eating something is not always about being picky. I can't handle certain textures and usually avoid food that has it. I don't usually bother explaining the problem since most of the time when I do people won't believe me. Another problem is the fact that I'm lactose intolerant and have to be very careful about the amount of lactose I get (my body can handle a little, but for examble milk that's not lactose free is strictly off limits for me.) The annoying thing is that even when people know what is some of them still get offended if I don't eat what they have to offer... apparently I should put my own health in danger just so that they could feel like they're good hosts.

I'm okay with sharing only if it's by my own initiative - which is an extremely rare occurrence in and of itself. My mother is always asking either me or my brother for a bite of something, which I do usually agree to eventually, albeit reluctantly.