Do you do shared plates?

rascal

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I'm seeing more and more shared plates on menus lately, three options at the joint we went to last night. I've never been one for sharing, I guess growing up poor we didn't share? It's been slowly creeping in, along with tapas etc. I get asked if I want to share plates all the time with dinner club. Everyone now knows I don't share so I don't get asked. I will however share an entree of pate, because the portion we get is normally enough for two anyway. But never a main shared. I suppose it's a talking point if you are sharing, two women in our dinner club group are single and they always share.
Do yo like sharing plates?

Russ
 
No, absolutely not, because every single time I've gone against my better judgment and allowed myself to be coerced into it, the sharer ordered something I didn't want, and got all of their meal and half of mine.

I'm a firm believer in, "You order your food, and I'll order mine." That way, everybody's responsible for their own choices.

Along the same lines, I don't like it when people graze off my plate. We had a woman who used to work on our team, and she was awful for that. We'd all go out to lunch, maybe she'd order a sandwich with a side salad, I'd order one with chips/crisps, and maybe another with fries, and she'd just nonchalantly reach over and grab one or two while talking, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

The one exception, of course, is my wife. She can share anything I have, she doesn't need to ask, except for French fries. No one touches my fries unless they want to lose a finger. Not my wife, not my mother, and not even my dog, so you know I'm serious if I'm excluding my dog.

Note: there is no smiley emoji after that last sentence, because I ain't kidding. Stay. Off. Mah fries!:ninja:
 
No, absolutely not, because every single time I've gone against my better judgment and allowed myself to be coerced into it, the sharer ordered something I didn't want, and got all of their meal and half of mine.

I'm a firm believer in, "You order your food, and I'll order mine." That way, everybody's responsible for their own choices.

Along the same lines, I don't like it when people graze off my plate. We had a woman who used to work on our team, and she was awful for that. We'd all go out to lunch, maybe she'd order a sandwich with a side salad, I'd order one with chips/crisps, and maybe another with fries, and she'd just nonchalantly reach over and grab one or two while talking, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

The one exception, of course, is my wife. She can share anything I have, she doesn't need to ask, except for French fries. No one touches my fries unless they want to lose a finger. Not my wife, not my mother, and not even my dog, so you know I'm serious if I'm excluding my dog.

Note: there is no smiley emoji after that last sentence, because I ain't kidding. Stay. Off. Mah fries!:ninja:

Lol, you made me think about my friends wife, she's very tiny, and diabetic. She always orders something small, then ask me while looking at me saying man that fish looks beautiful. I always say, you should have ordered it! I used to give her a bit to try but then I realised she got to try a bit off three or four plates. She gets a cheap meal, but not from me,lol.

Russ
 
I used to go with my wife and close friends to retaurants and just order appetizers, and make a meal out of sharing them.

My wife and I shared our entrees all the time. We'd agree on two entrees, and eat off each other's plates. We always shared deserts.

One of the best meals I ever had was in Paris at this hole-in-the-wall place that served one "dish of the day," family style. It was my first coq au vin. There were about six of us, and they brought this crock to the table, and bowls and tableware, and bottles of wine.

In college, I found a place in tiny Krum Texas called The Clay Pot Eatery. They did the same thing. You called in to morning to see what they were cooking for lunch (lunch only), then made reservations if you liked the day's choice.

So, yes, I like to share food. TR and Russ, it only works if you are with others who share food enough to get the unwritten rules, and everyone at the table is there for the same reason. It is not something you spring on anyone when you get to the restaurant.

CD
 
One place I always share is in Indian restaurants and I think that is quite common in the UK. Everyone orders one or two dishes and then there is rice, naan bread, chutneys, pappadum etc. Everything is always served in individual (usually stainless steel) dishes with serving spoons and everyone helps themselves. There is always far too much food!
 
Thais tend to share.

When you sit down at a table in a bar that serves food the first thing the staff do is bring each guest an empty plate, a fork and a spoon. If you then order food each dish arrives and is positioned in the centre of the table. If you only order drinks then the plates are removed.

38369


If the restaurant is in a village then the ordered dish arrives on one plate with the number of spoons to match the number of eaters.
 
Another related aspect (possibly) - I don't like buffets all that much, or the idea of eating a bunch of different things at one sitting.

I'm a starter-entree-with-two-sides-dessert kind of person. Dipping out bits of three or four mains would just confuse me. :)
 
I also want to expand on sharing with my wife - we don't share food in the way others have mentioned, I think. We wouldn't order two dishes we both wanted, and then trade halves.

When I mentioned that MrsTasty was the exception to my no-shares rule, I meant that if I have an entree that she likes the look of, she's more than welcome to taste it, in case she wants to order it next time. Neither one of us would expect the other to offer up half their meal in exchange for the other's half.

Somewhat related, there'll be times where she can't make up her mind as to what she wants, and I'm generally easier to please than she is, so she might be stuck between pork ribs or a chicken sandwich, and I'll tell her that we can order both, she can see what they look like when they arrive, have a taste of both, choose one, and I'll eat the other.

The last "sharing" experience we had, we met my brother and his bully of a wife for bar snacks and drinks a couple of years ago, and she said, "Let's all order appetizers and then share them!" - didn't ask, just told everyone that's what was happening (which is absolutely her style).

My wife and I, being thoughtful people, actually asked if our choices met everyone's approval, which they did, and my brother left their choices to her. Then, when it came time to order, she ordered our appetizers for us and then ordered two things that neither MrsTasty nor I would eat, and she knew that, because after she ordered them, she made a joke about ordering things we didn't like. I ended up going back up and ordering a club sandwich for my wife and I to split.

Out of my appetizer of six fried cheese sticks, we each had one, and the same for the six hot wings we ordered.

The next time we met, she said the same thing, and I said, "Oh, no way in hell we're doing that again, we'll order our own food, thanks!"

There are restaurants around here that serve family-style, meaning you order one or two things and they bring it out in large portions in serving dishes, set the table, and you plate it yourself, like at home. Those don't work that well for two people, because it's way too much food. When we used to visit Amish Country in Pennsylvania with my in-laws, they liked that.
 
TR, I love family-style restaurants, as mentioned before, but you are right about being too much food for two people. Seems you need at least four, and may still take some leftovers home.

CD
 
TR, I love family-style restaurants, as mentioned before, but you are right about being too much food for two people. Seems you need at least four, and may still take some leftovers home.

CD
Something like those, I think, are a little different than actually sharing two entrees between two people. I don't mind family-style that much, we have Buca Italian family-style restaurants here, and we get that catered in for lunch at work. I can grab one serving of one entree and that's that.

I guess it's just my personality. I hardly ever look at a menu and want more than one thing. It's not that nothing else looks good, it's just that I'm a one-entree guy, so when I look at a menu, I'm looking for one thing, and when I find that thing, that's what I want and that's what I get, and I'm happy. Having to then hand over half of it for half of something else I don't even want is annoying.

MrsTasty will almost always be indecisive. She can never figure out what she wants. :)
 
One place I always share is in Indian restaurants and I think that is quite common in the UK. Everyone orders one or two dishes and then there is rice, naan bread, chutneys, pappadum etc. Everything is always served in individual (usually stainless steel) dishes with serving spoons and everyone helps themselves. There is always far too much food!

Lol, if we go out to Indian, we order almost 100% of the time, a shared platter of 4 onion bhajees 2 lamb tandoori cutlets 2 chicken skewers .2 lamb skewers. Wife has the cutlets to herself as she loves these, but we share the rest.
Mains, me always butter chicken and her malai kofta. We don't share. She gets a garlic naan I order a keema naan. If I'm hungry (remember I only have 1 meal most days) I will order a side of either aloo gobi or mushroom sabji. We are normally too full for dessert.

Russ
 
Something like those, I think, are a little different than actually sharing two entrees between two people. I don't mind family-style that much, we have Buca Italian family-style restaurants here, and we get that catered in for lunch at work. I can grab one serving of one entree and that's that.

I guess it's just my personality. I hardly ever look at a menu and want more than one thing. It's not that nothing else looks good, it's just that I'm a one-entree guy, so when I look at a menu, I'm looking for one thing, and when I find that thing, that's what I want and that's what I get, and I'm happy. Having to then hand over half of it for half of something else I don't even want is annoying.

MrsTasty will almost always be indecisive. She can never figure out what she wants. :)

TastyReuben i started this thread because your remark about stabbing your wife in the hand if she tried to get your fries,lmao. I'm kinda like that with my curries,lol.

Russ
 
When we eat out it is usually at a "white linen" restaurant. I try to get George to share with me - 1 appetizer, 1 salad, 1 entre. If the entre is not very heavy we can share a desert. We both leave the restaurant pleasantly full but not over stuffed or feeling so full that we need wheel chairs to exit the restaurant.

George has struggled with obesity his entire life. Even after Bariatric Surgery he is obese. If there is food on his plate he will force himself to eat it.

Sharing is a good thing. He eats out more often than not because of his job. I have talked to him about ordering an appetizer with a side salad and veggies instead of a full entre. That falls on deaf ears. Buffets, plate lunches, "all you can eat" are the nemesis of people with chronic weight issues.

A big YES on sharing.
 
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