What do you do in a restaurant that you never do..... [moved from General Chowhounding board]

[lilmomma]

at home?

When I am in a restaurant, I allow myself to eat bread and butter til I am so full I have to take my ENTIRE entree home.

[corneygirl]

I rarely eat dessert at home and I never, ever put cream in my coffee. Except in a restaurant. After dinner. When I get that cute little pitcher of real cream. And it swirls like paisleys, I just love that.

[ttoommyy]

"When I get that cute little pitcher of real cream. And it swirls like paisleys, I just love that."

Very poetic!

[lsmutko]

Wear shoes.

[Bill Hunt]

Hm-m, I have thought about this thread, and have but one answer - TIP.

Hunt

[WhatsEatingYou]

I can agree with OP, at a restaurant I eat multiple pieces of bread with butter or oil while at home I won't do that before a meal. My reason is that at home I am trying to be low carb, eat my food not empty calories, but at a restaruant its there, it looks appetizing, and I'm hungry.
Also at restaurants I have no problem drinking tap water, but at home I would never!

[kengk]

Since we are on bread: sometimes at a restaurant I will wish I had my own bread to eat instead of what they have supplied. Very, very rarely, I will be sad that theirs is better.

I read somewhere that Lionel Poilane took his own bread with him to the finest restaurants in Paris. Have no idea if it's really true or not.

[CookieLee]

We take bread to Summer Shack, a Jasper White restaurant. The bread is that bad. And, you need good bread if you're having mussels! I've even commented to the hostess, but they haven't improved their bread.

I will go on a bread binge if 1. it's good bread, 2. and if it's good butter or evoo. I'm not a fan of the hummus spread that some places serve. My weakness above all - the rolls at Bertucci's!

[ttoommyy]

I never, ever drink water with dinner at home but drink glass after glass at a restaurant. Dont ask me why.

[mamachef]

Why, though? :)

[emmekin]

My theory is that the restaurant food invariably has more salt..so perhaps thats why you tend to drink more water.

[ttoommyy]

I don't think so emmekin. I salt my food pretty much like restaurants do at home. I start drinking the water from the minute I sit down in a restaurant. I think it is because it is there in front of me and they keep refilling it. Simple as that. Water will never be the first thing I reach for at home though, since we weren't really a family of water-drinkers while I was growing up.

[buttertart]

It's just nice, in the glasses with ice and all, and you don't have to get it yourself.

[goodhealthgourmet]

leave the cooking & cleaning to someone else.

[linguafood]

I don't understand this post at all. Do you not have bread and butter at home that you need to go *out* to a restaurant to eat it there? And then take the entree home?

Do you not cook your own entrees when you *don't* go out to a restaurant?

I don't get it. Care to explain?

[thegforceny]

I think she means she doesn't overindulge in bread and butter to an obscene extent. (sounds bizarre to me too)

[linguafood]

Still don't get it. Perhaps the OP will chime in at a later point and clarify.

[wyogal]

The OP apparently doesn't "allow" herself to indulge in that much bread and butter at home. That's all. Probably because the bread might be warm, crusty rolls and she doesn't always have that on hand at home.

[linguafood]

I love how everyone's interpreting the OP's motives, while the OP herself remains silent.

I guess I don't see the appeal of going to a restaurant only to OD on bread & butter and taking the entree home.

I go to restaurants to eat food other people prepared well or at least better than I could at home. I could have warm bread and copious amounts of butter at home any ole day of the week (if I "allowed" myself, that is).

[wyogal]

Good for you.

[mamachef]

I have to agree with Lingua, wyo. As I said downthread, stuffing myself like that before the meal would seriously decrease my enjoyment of the evening out.

[wyogal]

But, as I understand it, it's not about what we think of what she does, it's just something she does at a restaurant and not at home, then goes on to ask what it is we do. To each their own.

[mamachef]

I guess you're right that I responded more to the thread than the OP. I just didn't understand the point of the whole thing.
Interestingly enough, your last phrase? I used it downthread in a longer version about an hour ago. How funny.

[wyogal]

:-)

[thegforceny]

I love how fascinated you are by a pretty easily understood post!

Get your bread and butter on, my man!

[linguafood]

The little fascinating things in life ARE my bread and butter, man.

[Harters]

A meal without bread isnt really a meal.

[linguafood]

I respectfully disagree, Mr. H. I've made plenty of wonderfully delicious and satisfying meals that didn't see a crumb near them '-)

That said -- if a restaurant bakes a particularly swell loaf or has something unusual to offer, I say bring on the butter. I do generally stop myself from overindulging, because -- as mentioned upthread - it's not the main event for me.

[mamachef]

I agree, but if you're stuffing yourself to the point that you can't enjoy your entree? Pointless expedition, IMO. As Lingua said, I can have warm fresh bread in a heartbeat, and good butter to slather on it, too. I could have bread 6 times a day and blow up to the size of a manatee, but I don't, and I guess I don't understand why the OP stuffs herself in a manner that, to me, would decrease my enjoyment of the evening out
I dunno, Harters. Each to their own, said the old lady as she kissed her cow.
.

[Harters]

I eat, mamachef, but do not stuff. At least not at home. And, usually, not in a restaurant either. Except last week, in an Italian place in London where I was presented with a basket full of grissini, focaccia, raisin bread and something else. Oh, yes, I cleared that. And the brushetta I ordered for a starter. And my main course. Restraint did rear its ugly head as I passed on dessert.

[mamachef]

I knew you had it in you, good man!! Really good breadsticks might be my one exception to all mah ladida generalizing, Harters. Those and some sweet butter? What a nice beverage sponge, too. :)

[goodhealthgourmet]

then apparently i haven't eaten a meal in 5 years.

[mamachef]

Um. Lingua is very, very far from a man, thegforceny.

[buttertart]

Or to put it a bit differently, very seldom very far from a man.

[goodhealthgourmet]

ha!

[mamachef]

Oh no you ditten. Ok, yes you did.

[kubasd]

Love it!

[DuchessNukem]

I can't speak for the OP but I think I get the gist.

Bread is Kryptonite for my husband: any decent bread in the house is eaten ASAP. So he asks me to avoid buying/baking super-tasty breads; he'll use those awful "sandwich thins" if he needs to bread something up. Controls calories and overeating. (I've argued for restraint, small portions, freezing half a loaf, etc., I assure you I've advanced every salient point that you're planning to suggest lol.)

So when faced with a bread basket out, during a festive dinner, he will go to town. Combine this with the fact that we celebrate how many meals we can make from resto leftovers (I am a Level 5 Certified RFR -- Restaurant Food Resuscitator) -- then the OP makes more sense. I think she's probably exaggerating a tad, I bet she tastes her entree. But I do understand. :)

[linguafood]

Thanks, that does make a bit more sense (tho it's remarkable the OP never bothered to clarify, so we're still left with interpretations by other folks).

[lilmomma]

OMG!!! I can finally post a reply. I was having trouble with my computer because I have windows 7 or some such thing. That is why you have not heard from me....

Anyway, the truth of the matter is is that I let myself indulge to my heart's content at a restaurant if they have amazing bread and butter. Especially when its warm and crusty!

Yes Duchess, I do taste my entree. But, if there is good bread and butter, I am perfectly content to eat that as my meal and take the entree home!

[viperlush]

Been there, done that. Except for fish, I tend to prefer bringing my entree home. App, bread, taste of entree and dessert is my norm when the bread/butter are amazing. Especially when the server keeps the basket full and leaves the bread plates on the table.

[linguafood]

Thanks for the clarification. Warm, crusty & amazing bread.... I totally get that '-)

[jamieeats]

eat dessert!

[SteveRB]

Use chopsticks.

[beevod]

Eat.

[calliope_nh]

Drink with a straw ( sometimes) though I usually take it out of the glass.

[kengk]

Look sadly at a denuded steak bone and decide that it would be uncouth to pick it up and gnaw it.

[viperlush]

Ask to bring it home "for the dog".

[julesrules]

This is one reason I will not order lamb chops in a restaurant. Love me some lamb fat!

[kengk]

Oh, I'm picking up the lamb chop bone.

[CookieLee]

Aw, kengyk, go for it! My spouse and I split a t-bone, just so I can have that pleasure!

[wyogal]

be served.

[Bada Bing]

Sit while eating?

[LA Buckeye Fan]

I don't tip my server at home :)