Wasting food it makes me so angry!

[aledale]

it is the same for my wife ..... it seems that she is afraid to die for hunger...

[ttthailand]

Make the rules before you arrive and everyone knows. My rule... For lunch everyone gets to order one item each and we all share, rice is also given to all. For dinner everyone gets to order one item and we all decide on the big dish, like a hole fish. Those who picked the dish gets it pushed their way if there is lots remaining. Any leftovers get taken home to eat another day or get fed to dogs.

I have had dates in the past who order three things and eat little and It nerves me but I let it pass. I some times shame them after seeing what is delivered by making a statement like " wow, I hope you can eat all that".

Another idea is to give them some money and go eat alone at another restaurant and let them fend for themselves.

Or.... All you can eat places.

[fred Kubasa]

The writers comment pretty much mirror my lifestyle. A plate turned into Ma with food remaining risked capital punishment ! I take doggie bags home from almost all restaurant meals, ( course, no dog ), and constantly admonish my Thai wife re

for cooking for 12 while just the 2 of us are dining, ( I eat leftovers except for Thai food ! ).

[Shiver]

Nothing compared to the fossil fuels wasted on surfing the net

I must admit i sometimes do feel guilty about my wood fired computer.

Tut! A responsible Netizen would have already had the SomTam4Fuel conversion kit installed to make good use of the uneaten dishes. It is estimated that for every group of 3-4 that order 10-12 dishes and don't eat them, then if you have one of these devices it would reduce both the carbon and methane fart footprint by muchly percent (and that comes from the Thailand Authority for Statistics, so you can take it to the [food] bank).

Edited May 28, 2015 by Shiver

[pgrahmm]

Most Thai gals cook well and are curious tastes....They are great samplers - I've watched at social/family get togethers....

If they are sampling on your dime even better.....

You have a pattern established now - it's going to be hard to break.....get the left overs boxed as a subtle start to get them thinking about waste.....If it goes to waste after it gets home time to tell the wife you don't like eating with people that waste food....then you have a reason to pass or police....

You pay - your policies....

[GlutinousMaximus]

I'm with the OP on this.

The thing I find hard to reconcile is that for a (supposedly) deeply Buddhist country, they give so little consideration to the unnecessary pain and suffering they've inflicted on the animals and/or fish that have died for their meal and have been wasted. They don't seem to consider that there's potential 'barp' (de-merit) accruing from their actions.

[LINEtoOyvind66]

I you go out eating make it clear that they have to pay their food self if they order to much, and if they pay self, then it is not your problem.

You are not alone. Everyone have the same experiance.

[tezzainoz]

I used to have the same problem but found the solution

I put a 1000 baht into a jar and tell them what ever is left they can keep after we pay the check bin

Now they eat half the amount the used to

[pbonline]

Change family..

[billd766]

Sorry OP but I'm not the family dustbin.

If there are leftovers, give them to the soi dogs.

In return I get their appreciation.

As about restaurants, I let everybody order what they want and I don't wash their dishes afterwards.

But everyone to his own as they say.......

So your saying it's ok to order more than you can eat and just waste it?

Nobody in my family wastes food. If there is too much to eat at that meal, it gets saved and used at the next meal. If it still doesn't get eaten then it goes for cat food. If they don't eat it there is alwys the dog that comes in the night to clear the plate.

If we eat at a restaurant and there is food left we take it away with us in "doggie bags" then it gets eaten as above.

[Gillyflower]

I was a child during the war and a very fussy eater. My mother used to say 'think of all those starving children in England'. One day I retaliated by telling her to send it to them. I got a nice little paddling for that. My mother spent her life sending food parcels to her family in England, so for me it was logic.

[Borzandy]

"Why can't some people cook the amount of food they can eat?" because you are the payer.

[BaldPlumber]

Those of us who grew up during the war, with severe rationing of food, are acutely sensitive to food wastage. The same consideration does not apply to people who have never known food shortages.

I was born just after WW2 and I remember rationing even into the 1950's with my sister and myself having our own ration books and we had to clean our plates before we could get down from the table.

What makes me angry is the amount of food that Supermarkets in the UK throw away every day more so than the odd titbit the average Thai family doesn't eat.

In any case it doesn't get wasted. Whatever, it either ends up inside the dogs or cats and the pigs have the rest - no big deal.

Good point. France has just introduced new laws outlawing the spoiling or destroying of edible food that cannot be sold. All countries should follow suit.

[BaldPlumber]

I was a child during the war and a very fussy eater. My mother used to say 'think of all those starving children in England'. One day I retaliated by telling her to send it to them. I got a nice little paddling for that. My mother spent her life sending food parcels to her family in England, so for me it was logic.

Kylie Minogue was once pulled up in a London restaurant for leaving most of her food.

When told to think of the millions of starving Ethiopians who could have had that meal her response was "OK name three of them"

True.

[pbonline]

Don't understand falang´s who buys this in letting the rest of the family take charge.

Pore stupidity is what it is, stop complaining and get e new gf and tell her from beginning I pay I say.

[Tchooptip]

When we go to a restaurant I order for me, my wife for her, many time they gave me a dish more on top of everything, what is that, I did not order that! I did for you my wife says...with a knowing glance to the waiter, why is she doing that many times I don't know? Does any one experiences the same?

Edited May 28, 2015 by Tchooptip

[peterb17]

To the OP don't worry about it.

You arrive in the Kingdom, decide to marry into a family with whom you have no shared cultural capital , history, life experiences, education etc etc. Their beliefs in superstitions , religion and family values mean you might as well be marrying aliens from the planet Zog.

So go with the flow, don't let things stress you out, see living here as an adventure and simply do not expect the locals to change to your western values and norms.

And as many have said- feed the Soi dogs, they don't ask to be born and you can make a bit of merit by taking care of them .

[smotherb]

Sorry OP but I'm not the family dustbin.

If there are leftovers, give them to the soi dogs.

In return I get their appreciation.

As about restaurants, I let everybody order what they want and I don't wash their dishes afterwards.

But everyone to his own as they say.......

So your saying it's ok to order more than you can eat and just waste it?

Restaurant food is generally not wasted--either the customer takes it home, or the farmer comes around to fetch it for his pigs. If you are really that concerned, tell your in-laws to pay for it themselves--that would either cut down on what they order, or show you they just don't care.

[4u2mad]

Those of us who grew up during the war, with severe rationing of food, are acutely sensitive to food wastage. The same consideration does not apply to people who have never known food shortages.

You mean that 'war' with the Japanese? lasted 9hrs I believe? Then the Thais "invited" them in. So Thailand was never 'occupied'

[4u2mad]

Those of us who grew up during the war, with severe rationing of food, are acutely sensitive to food wastage. The same consideration does not apply to people who have never known food shortages.

I was born just after WW2 and I remember rationing even into the 1950's with my sister and myself having our own ration books and we had to clean our plates before we could get down from the table.

What makes me angry is the amount of food that Supermarkets in the UK throw away every day more so than the odd titbit the average Thai family doesn't eat.

In any case it doesn't get wasted. Whatever, it either ends up inside the dogs or cats and the pigs have the rest - no big deal.

You may have missed this, but the French government has just passed a law making it illegal for supermarkets to dump food. The poor are probably eating better than yer average working class Brit!

[Guitar God]

The opposite here, sure my wife orders more than she can eat but she brings it home and (usually) eats it before it goes bad.

I went to a restaurant with her and some friends and they thought it was funny that I left so much on the chicken bones. One of her friends finished them off and it looked like a dog had cleaned off the bones. Sorry, I don't eat cartilage or chicken kneecaps.

[4u2mad]

Blimey, 4 pages and still going! obviously a subject dear to TVM hearts!

My way out? give SWMBO 500bht to treat the family at the Korean BBQ. Tell her to invite a certain couple - the husband is a farang, We make tracks for the local steak house an a few shandys. She calls when they are thro eating, takes hours.

You enjoy yourself darling?

Krup khun maak, Tiruk

OK, we will do the same next week?

Yes please

All parties full and happy

[elgordo38]

Sorry OP but I'm not the family dustbin.

If there are leftovers, give them to the soi dogs.

In return I get their appreciation.

As about restaurants, I let everybody order what they want and I don't wash their dishes afterwards.

But everyone to his own as they say.......

Giving food to soi dogs only makes a big problem that much worse. In this case they may bite the hand that feeds them. I know this gentleman's handling of food waste is a bit extreme but give him credit for trying. Unfortunately he is among the minority that is trying to solve this problem. It is a fact that if we took all the food in the world that is wasted there would be enough to feed the starving masses. Make a New Years resolution (its still a ways off gives you time to think) try and be part of the solution not the problem. Come down off of your pedestal.

[timmyp]

I am also bewildered and disgusted by the amount of food I see people tossing out. I went to a fundraiser for a Karen village up in rural Chiang Mai last January (5 hours by 4-wheel through mountain forest roads), and I couldn't believe how much food got chucked out uneaten in front of a village where people have barely enough to get by. I wondered why we had loaded so much food onto the trucks to transport it out to the village if it was just to be thrown out.

I have noticed that when people leave their home countries and live in a new place, they become very attune to the bad habits of others in that new country, bad habits that they mostly tuned out in their home countries. That is to say, you become more aware of the stupid things that people do when you live in a land that is foreign to you. I think living in a foreign culture also causes you to question your own behavior, and become a better person.

I am from the U.S. where waste is rampant. But I'll bet the Americans living in Thailand are much more careful about not being wasteful than those who haven't lef the U.S., simply because the experience living outside the has made them more self-aware.

[SoiBiker]

It is a common reaction from poor people who now have money,[Yours],they order far too much,eyes bigger than stomach,but usually i find they graze on it until it is mostly gone,this is akin to 'panic eating' a phenomenom,i observed with illegal Rumanian immagrants in the uk,they would go and stuff a foot long baguette,chips ,sausage, down in record time at lunch,all the while scanning around them like wild animals,after lunch the were useless for an hour or so,no matter how hard i thrashed the devils with my cat o nine tails.

Similar behaviour can be seen in those for whom sex was in short supply before they came to Thailand.

[HerbalEd]

Often in Asia leaving lots of left-over uneaten food on the table is a sign of opulence. Makes the poor man feel rich and the rich man feel richer.

Anyway, with your Thai family it's not their money being wasted so why should they care?

[Gandtee]

I noticed a family recently at the next table partaking of the buffet breakfast. When they departed they left plates piled high with food. It just seems to be a matter of greed!

[HenryC]

Once again, it's about face and perceptions. Over ordering to show how much money they have, or how much money they can extort out of you. Different story if they were paying.

I agree, tell them you are not paying for what is not eaten.

Fortunately my Mrs isn't like that but I have know many that are!!

[SoiBiker]

I noticed a family recently at the next table partaking of the buffet breakfast. When they departed they left plates piled high with food. It just seems to be a matter of greed!

There's a reason why so many all you can eat places here charge extra for food you order and don't consume.

[billd766]

When we go to a restaurant I order for me, my wife for her, many time they gave me a dish more on top of everything, what is that, I did not order that! I did for you my wife says...with a knowing glance to the waiter, why is she doing that many times I don't know? Does any one experiences the same?

No.