Can I actually say 'doggy bag'?
cicada
restaurant? Is "Can I have a doggy bag" good when I actually don't
have a dog and it's actually intended for myself?
Leslie Danks
You can if you're a dog.
--
Les
Barbara Bailey
241919...@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
> How do you say when you want take the left-over food home at a
> restaurant? Is "Can I have a doggy bag" good when I actually don't
> have a dog and it's actually intended for myself?
>
It's fine, but a lot of places now use lidded styrofoam containers, and
call them "go-boxes" or "to-go boxes"
J. J. Lodder
the Omrud
Apart from pizza restaurants, this would be considered strange behaviour
in the UK. Probably because we don't get such huge portions in
restaurants that it's worth taking what's left home. Most restaurants
wouldn't have suitable containers to hand.
Indeed, I can't remember the last time I left any food at the end of a
meal in a UK restaurant - we usually manage to eat what we're given.
--
David
James Silverton
In the US, those who feel that "doggy bag" is inaccurate or undignified
can say, "I'd like to take this home" and usually expect it to be placed
in a foam container.
--
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
LFS
Some of us have smaller appetites. In the UK I have, on occasion, been
asked if I would like to take the remainder of a meal home with me but
the only time that I actually did was at the Waterside in Bray where
Madame Roux insisted that I take home the remaining petit fours. I doubt
whether this was in any way normal practice for that establishment but
one of my dining companions had impressed her greatly by telling her how
to remove tomato soup stains from very fancy wallpaper - the day before
they had had a party of oiks who had indulged in a food fight (Can you
imagine that? In such a posh place? For those who haven't heard of it:
http://www.waterside-inn.co.uk/)
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email)
Purl Gurl
> cicada wrote:
"Conservatives to obese Britons: "Monitor yourselves!" (Fat chance?)"
Meanwhile, Britons have become notorious throughout
Europe for excessive drinking....
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry_id=29580
--
Purl Gurl
--
So many are stumped by what slips right off the top of my mind
like a man's bad fitting hairpiece.
Sara Lorimer
You could, and the waiter would understand that it's for you, but it's
_very_ informal. I ask "can I get this to go, please?" instead.
--
SML, near Seattle
lovelylisting.com
Mike Barnes
>cicada wrote:
>> How do you say when you want take the left-over food home at a
>> restaurant? Is "Can I have a doggy bag" good when I actually don't
>> have a dog and it's actually intended for myself?
>
>Apart from pizza restaurants, this would be considered strange
>behaviour in the UK. Probably because we don't get such huge portions
>in restaurants that it's worth taking what's left home. Most
>restaurants wouldn't have suitable containers to hand.
I'm not so sure about that last part. Many places, especially Indian and
Chinese, also do a take-away service. So containers should be available,
and over-ordering is not that difficult or rare. On the other hand I go
to only one pizza place in the UK and I don't think I've ever seen
anyone taking food away.
>Indeed, I can't remember the last time I left any food at the end of a
>meal in a UK restaurant - we usually manage to eat what we're given.
I'd say largely that's true, though sometimes a little gets left. But
not enough to be worth taking home.
--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England
Martin Crossley
> cicada <ryin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> How do you say when you want take the left-over food home at a
>> restaurant? Is "Can I have a doggy bag" good when I actually don't
>> have a dog and it's actually intended for myself?
>
> You could, and the waiter would understand that it's for you, but it's
> _very_ informal. I ask "can I get this to go, please?" instead.
I've heard of steak so (ahem) lightly-cooked that a good vet'd have it up
and running, but that sounds like flogging a dead horse.
Django Cat
>>How do you say when you want take the left-over food home at a
>>restaurant? Is "Can I have a doggy bag" good when I actually don't
>>have a dog and it's actually intended for myself?
>
>Apart from pizza restaurants, this would be considered strange behaviour in
>the UK.
>
Well, we went out for a meal with our next-door neighbour, B, a while back.
'Next-door neighbour' need qualifying; B's actually an academic based in San
Francisco and only comes back to her UK house for a few weeks every year.
Although she's a Brit she's been based in the US 30 years or more and sounds
and acts like a native Californian.
We took her to the pub in the next village for dinner, where B asked for a
doggy bag for her modestly-sized steak as she didn't want to finish it. Far
from the culture bump I was expecting, nobody batted an eyelid and our waitress
took the plates with a smile and brought the food back neatly wrapped in foil
and with no fuss at all. She got a generous tip, but I still had the feeling
it was a request they were quite used to and didn’t see as any big deal.
DC
--
R H Draney
>
>In the US, those who feel that "doggy bag" is inaccurate or undignified
>can say, "I'd like to take this home" and usually expect it to be placed
>in a foam container.
Or in nicer places, wrapped in foil that has been formed into the shape of a
swan....r
--
Evelyn Wood just looks at the pictures.
Django Cat
>
PS And her exact words were 'can I have a doggy bag?'
D
--
Sara Lorimer
> I've heard of steak so (ahem) lightly-cooked
That was a wise decision you made there.
> that a good vet'd have it up
> and running, but that sounds like flogging a dead horse.
Hatunen
When I was a quite young man after WW2 one didn't take leftover
food home from restaurants, at least not in my home town area.
But at some point a diner, left with a rather large piece of
meat, might tell the waiter/waitress that his dog at home would
love the leftover steak and could he have a bag or something to
take it home in. Everyone realized the dog wouldn't get anything
but the bone and it became something of a joke, asking for a
"doggy bag", wink, wink. Pretty soon some restaurants had bags
printed up with a dog on them.
Before long people were taking home more than leftover steak, but
bags didn't work well with pasta or part of an enchilada so
restaurants started supplying polyfoam boxes, but if you ask for
a "doggy bag" everyone knows what you want and you will receive
whatever container the places uses. More than one chain, such as
Macaroni Grill, supplies round aluminum "pie pans" with a lid
with printed instructions on how to place the pan in an oven and
what temperature to heat it at.
Visiting European friends and relatives sometimes express mild
shock at the size of American restaurant meals. In fact, when I
go to a Mexican restaurant here in Tucson I fully expect to get
two or three meals out of my order.
--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hat...@cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
the Omrud
> In alt.usage.english, the Omrud wrote:
>> cicada wrote:
>>> How do you say when you want take the left-over food home at a
>>> restaurant? Is "Can I have a doggy bag" good when I actually don't
>>> have a dog and it's actually intended for myself?
>> Apart from pizza restaurants, this would be considered strange
>> behaviour in the UK. Probably because we don't get such huge portions
>> in restaurants that it's worth taking what's left home. Most
>> restaurants wouldn't have suitable containers to hand.
>
> I'm not so sure about that last part. Many places, especially Indian and
> Chinese, also do a take-away service. So containers should be available,
> and over-ordering is not that difficult or rare. On the other hand I go
> to only one pizza place in the UK and I don't think I've ever seen
> anyone taking food away.
I was distraught to find that my favourite pizza restaurant (Pizzeria
Italia on Deansgate) has closed after more than 30 years in the centre
of Manchester. I first went there in 1975 and I've been going fairly
frequently ever since. It became the unofficial restaurant of my choir
in the cathedral - on concert days there would be a score or more of us
eating there between rehearsal and concert.
There was a sign on the door from the receivers last week - seems that
they must have got into financial difficulties.
--
David
tinwhistler
> cicada <ryinm...@gmail.com> wrote in news:027de805-1a25-4060-9617-
> 2419196ed...@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
>
> > How do you say when you want take the left-over food home at a
> > restaurant? Is "Can I have a doggy bag" good when I actually don't
> > have a dog and it's actually intended for myself?
>
> It's fine, but a lot of places now use lidded styrofoam containers, and
> call them "go-boxes" or "to-go boxes"
The excerpt below from Wikipedia's entry for LEFTOVERS would have us
think that DOGGY BAG is still the common term:
...Leftovers from a restaurant meal may either be left behind to be
discarded by the restaurant, or taken away by the diner for later
consumption. In order to take the food away, the diner may make a
request for it to be packaged. The container used for such leftovers
is commonly called a doggie bag or doggy bag; the name comes from the
euphemistic pretense that the food will be given to the diner's pet,
rather than eaten by a person.[5] Doggy bags are most common in
restaurants that offer a take-out food service as well as sit-down
meals, and their prevalence as an accepted social custom varies widely
by location. In some countries people would frown upon a diner asking
for a doggy bag. Some cultures regard the leaving of some uneaten
food by dining guests as a symbol of satisfaction with the meal, while
others consider this to be rude.[citation needed] In some cultures, it
is polite to leave a half-bite on the plate in the manner of a
libation.[citation needed] It also serves the purpose of indicating
that the food provided by the host was sufficient in quantity. Wiping
one's plate clean can indicate the opposite (though can also be a sign
of satisfaction with the meal), while leaving more food uneaten may be
interpreted as a dislike to the food; both are potential signs of
impoliteness to one's hosts.
[end excerpt]
What the excerpt mainly suggests to me is the risky business one gets
into in eating at a restaurant in a foreign country and not knowing
precisely the local customs. So, if you complimented the proprietor
of a Hong Kong restaurant about the chow, he might say it actually was
pug -- that would NOT be a time to ask for a doggy bag.
--
Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego
Jerry Friedman
> James Silverton filted:
>
>
>
> >In the US, those who feel that "doggy bag" is inaccurate or undignified
> >can say, "I'd like to take this home" and usually expect it to be placed
> >in a foam container.
>
> Or in nicer places, wrapped in foil that has been formed into the shape of a
> swan....r
Or in less nice places, you get handed the foam container so you can
put the food in it yourself.
--
Jerry Friedman
Frank ess
One-for-two on that the last twice I indicated a desire to share or
indulge later. The actual response in one of them:
"Doggy bag? You want a clamshell?" I didn't know, but said I did, and
it was correct.
--
Frank ess
John Varela
(in article
<052bce2a-6951-4eb0...@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>):
We prefer that, so we know that the particular parts of the plate that
we want have been saved, and we know we got our own food. One time I
brought home some leftover pasta and sausage and when I opened it for
lunch the next day I discovered I had someone else's salad.
--
John Varela
Trade NEW lamps for OLD for email.
Robin Bignall
It was a surprise to me on my first visit to the States in 1969. A
vegetarian colleague and I went for dinner in "Mom's Pizza House --
Biggest Pizza in 50 Miles" near the IBM plant in Poughkeepsie. He
ordered a the smallest pizza on the menu, tomato, cheese and mushroom
topping, and when it came it was about 18 inches in diameter. He
managed about a third of it and complained to the waitress that she'd
brought him a family-sized one. She pointed to a pile of trays that
were each about a yard in diameter and told him they were the family
size. We thought she was joking until a mom, a pop and two teenage
children at an adjacent table munched their way through one of these
monsters and then had dessert after.
--
Robin
(BrE)
Herts, England
Dan McGrath
> > Chinese, also do a take-away service. So containers should be available,
> > and over-ordering is not that difficult or****. On the other hand I go
Sorry, there is no such word as "rare".
- Dan
--
Daniel G. McGrath
Binghamton, New York
R H Draney
>
>On Sep 2, 5:15 pm, the Omrud <usenet.om...@gEXPUNGEmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > Chinese, also do a take-away service. So containers should be available,
>> > and over-ordering is not that difficult or****. On the other hand I go
>
>Sorry, there is no such word as "rare".
In Japanese, it's an infix that converts a verb to the passive voice....r