Eating customs in other countries?

[JAS_OH1]

I don't follow eating rules in our country, that's for sure. I ran across an article in Food and Wine about eating customs in Italy I found interesting. I have no idea if it's accurate or not, MypinchofItaly could tell us if it's true or not.

The 11 Food and Drink Rules That Italians Live By

For a lot of people in the US, breakfast is around 6-6:30 a.m. except for on weekends (could be as late as 10 a.m.), lunch is generally anywhere between 11-2 (12-1 being the most common), happy hour between 4-7, and dinner anywhere from 6-8 (weekends may vary). Yeah we are way off these "norms" in my house, although that was pretty close to how we did it when my kids were all still living at home.

Since we have such a diverse group here, maybe others can shed light on what's considered "normal" in their countries or regions?

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

A lot of the Italian way of doing things sounds very similar to Spain.

In the UK I’d say breakfast time varies wildly but for nine-fivers it’s around the 7-8am mark.
Lunch is usually 1pm but can be any time from 12-2pm
The evening meal varies a lot depending on if there are children to feed or the person has other activities or just prefers to eat later so that can be anywhere from 6-9pm.

 

[karadekoolaid]

The times I have been to Italy (and it was a while ago, so things may have changed), breakfast was light, sweet, just something to break the fast. The same goes for Mexico, I might say. A sweet pastry and a coffee.
Lunch (in Italy) was always a leisurely affair, and we always went to restaurants where there were loads of Italians.Generally speaking, we say "I'll have what they're having".
In Venezuela, people get up really, really early, because not everyone has a car, public transport is appalling (and scarce) and many workers live miles from their workplace. They'll get up at 4-4.30am, grab an arepa , and off to work. Working hours are from 8am - 5pm; lunch is 12-1pm. Dinner is when they get home, which is probably 7.30 - 8.30pm.
Weekends are quite a different thing. Late breakfast and then lunch, which might be anything between 2.30 - 5 pm. Typically, lunch will be a BBQ, a sancocho (if you're at the beach) or something similar.
In the evenings, dinner will be anything from 8pm - 10pm.
One of the favourite Venezuelan things to eat is called a pasapalo; similar to the Spanish tapas concept. If you're invited to a party or a wedding, then you'll get served pasapalos all evening until about 11pm, when there will be a main course served. Sometimes, it's just pasapalos; and there's an unwritten catering rule that you should allow 25-30 per person.
In my parent's house, breakfast was 7-7.30am, lunch at 12m, and dinner at 5.30pm. I wouldn't fit in with any of that these days.

 

[The Velvet Curtain]

I think in most countrues eating times and habits have always been dictated by sunrise and sunset times and the heat of the day.

 

[badjak]

Here breakfast is often skipped I think.
Lunch at work between 12.00 and 14.00
Dinner around 18 or 19, depending on sunset
Note thats more for the rural population than for people in town.

In the Netherlands, for our family, it was quick grab of something before jumping on your bicycle to go to school, not forgetting to put your sandwiches that you made the evening before in your school bag.
Sandwiches during school break. First break was 20 minutes, 2nd break 40 min.
Dinner around 18 or 19.

 

[Windigo]

In the Netherlands the eating habits are a bit different between generations. The elderly often have breakfast early in the morning, between 6 and 7, and then have a hot meal with soup as a starter for lunch. They eat sandwiches at the end of the afternoon, often between 17 and 18 o clock.

The younger generations eat breakfast between 7 and 8 usually before work or school, then have another sandwich meal at noon (between 12 and 13 o clock) and dinner between 18 and 19 o clock.

Aside from that a lot of places still have a coffee break with a biscuit or if it's someone's birthday a slice of cake between 10 and 11 in the morning. There's also a general snack time around 16 o clock for most younger generations, which was so common one of the most well known commercial slogans of the 90's was ' 4 o clock cup a soup' (4 uur cup a soup).

In the Netherlands it's uncommon to invite guests you have around in the afternoon for dinner, it's a cue to leave in general when the host says 'I should start cooking dinner'. Unless you're explicitely invited, expect to leave. Many countries consider this unhospitable, but in the Netherlands frugality has always won out over hospitality. I blame Calvinism.
And I also don't do that, my guests are always welcome to stay over for dinner. But that's my Indonesian blood.

Speaking about Indonesian food culture: there is no set time for any meal. There's always rice available, and you just eat when you're hungry. Everyone is also always welcome to join in on dinner or whatever. So given that I do stick to meal times, I'm pretty Dutch by habits!

 

[badjak]

We were opposite to the general Dutch rule, most likely also because of the Indonesian connection.
If we had guests that were still around at 16 or 17.00 and they wanted to leave before dinner, my dad would chirp "you can't go now, I'm now counting on you for dinner"
After that, we had to figure put how to extend a meal for 4 to a meal of 6 or 8

(My dad was born and raised in Indonesia, although not Indonesian)

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

We were opposite to the general Dutch rule, most likely also because of the Indonesian connection.
If we had guests that were still around at 16 or 17.00 and they wanted to leave before dinner, my dad would chirp "you can't go now, I'm now counting on you for dinner"
After that, we had to figure put how to extend a meal for 4 to a meal of 6 or 8

(My dad was born and raised in Indonesia, although not Indonesian)

Forgive my ignorance but what is the Indonesian connection?

 

[TastyReuben]

Let’s see…growing up, breakfast was pretty early, starting around 6:30AM, more or less. Lunch (what we called dinner) was between 11:30AM-12:30PM, and supper was roughly between 5:30PM-6:30PM.

Breakfast was always a home-cooked feast of eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, biscuits & gravy at a minimum. Lunch at home was also a full meal, typically something like pork chops, fried or mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and supper would be similar - some sort of meaty main dish and then some vegetables and bread. Potatoes every meal.

That held pretty much true seven days a week, as even at school, lunch was held in three overlapping shifts over the noon hour.

Now, during the week, I have a bowl of cereal at 8:30AM on the dot, usually a sandwich or some leftovers at noon, and then whatever I’m cooking for supper we have between 5:30PM-6PM. There are usually snacks in between and before we go to bed - piece of fruit during the day, a cookie or a bit of cake before going to bed.

Weekends are completely different. A hot cooked breakfast served between 9:30AM-10AM, usually something like salami, cheese, and crackers at around 1:30PM or so, and then whatever we’re having for supper pushed back to maybe 6PM.