Genesia said:

Shyra said:

Years ago, I used to work in a "secretary pool." I made a spinach quiche and brought a piece to work to have for lunch. We had a little oven in one of the labs, so I heated the quiche in that. Well, when the aroma hit the office, everyone and their mother was asking "What's that smelling so damn good?!" I had to share my one little piece of quiche with 5 other bitches because they just HAD to taste whatever it was that was smelling so good. That's when I learned that if you have a winning recipe for something, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!

Wait - what?! You let them stick their forks into your food?!

HELL NO!! I cut little pieces from my piece and put it on napkins. Anyone touches my food loses it at the elbow!

Shyra said:

Genesia said:

Wait - what?! You let them stick their forks into your food?!

HELL NO!! I cut little pieces from my piece and put it on napkins. Anyone touches my food loses it at the elbow!

Genesia said:

RenHoek said:

I'd bring HUGE blocks of TOFU...

nothing more...

And I'd be gagging for the rest of the day.

The visual impact alone would be priceless...

"Oh Look... someone brought Tofu and forks..."

RenHoek said:

Genesia said:

And I'd be gagging for the rest of the day.

The visual impact alone would be priceless...

"Oh Look... someone brought Tofu and forks..."

At first I thought you were referring to the visual image of Genesia gagging.

PunkMistress said:

RenHoek said:

The visual impact alone would be priceless...

"Oh Look... someone brought Tofu and forks..."

At first I thought you were referring to the visual image of Genesia gagging.

to have her off to one side hurlin' could only make the party better...

... -------->

RenHoek said:

Genesia said:

And I'd be gagging for the rest of the day.

The visual impact alone would be priceless...

"Oh Look... someone brought Tofu and forks..."

I live in Wisconsin. They'd think it was cheese.

Genesia said:

RenHoek said:

The visual impact alone would be priceless...

"Oh Look... someone brought Tofu and forks..."

I live in Wisconsin. They'd think it was cheese.

BTW...a co-worker of mine visited her childhood home in Wisconsin last fall and brought back a bag of cheese curds.

We don't have those here.

...and YES, we all reached into the bag with our bare, unwashed hands!

PurpleJedi said:

Genesia said:

I live in Wisconsin. They'd think it was cheese.

BTW...a co-worker of mine visited her childhood home in Wisconsin last fall and brought back a bag of cheese curds.

We don't have those here.

...and YES, we all reached into the bag with our bare, unwashed hands!

Unfortunately, if the curds traveled, you didn't get them at their very best. Curds should be eaten when they're fresh enough to squeak on your teeth.

Where I used to work they had charity potlucks, where you would bring in food, thus allowing you to fix yourself a plate of food (at least everyone who brought food). The people that didn't bring food would pay 2 bucks to load up a plate. All money raised went to charity (They only make like 100 bucks but the idea was to get people motivated to push charitable donations for that given charity.)

I never participated, because anything that needed to be refrigerated was kept at or near room temperature . Basically botulism served up with a smile-No Thank You. Not to mention flies landing on everything!!

Any who, anytime we had a smaller office party with co-workers, I would always bring the best deserts from a gourmet bakery. Not cheap, but oh so good.

What I don't like is when I go to a restaurant with a few people and someone suggests that we order a bunch of dishes and then share everything (everybody except me always loooooves that idea). Here's why I don't like it:

1) The others usually pick one or more dishes that I would never have picked

2) If you're not fast enough all the good food will be gone

3) If you're fast enough, someone will give you a dirty look for taking the food they wanted

4) If you're a big eater like me, you will feel bad about eating more than everybody else and then be forced to split the bill evenly just because everybody always insists on that

5) Some people are slobs and use the spoon from one dish in another one and make a mess

I really just want to order and pay for my own food and then focus on enjoying the company instead.

chocolate1 said:

I'm not big on them either.

There are just some people whose cooking I would never eat!

And OMG! I hate the coworkers who bring in 1/2 a cake or dish that was left over from a weekend party. So after your guests have finished picking over it, you brought it in for us to scavenge?

I agree with Shyra: I usually contribute, but rarely partake (unless it's store-bought or I know the person who made it well enough).

Say WHAT?

Ottensen said:

chocolate1 said:

I'm not big on them either.

There are just some people whose cooking I would never eat!

And OMG! I hate the coworkers who bring in 1/2 a cake or dish that was left over from a weekend party. So after your guests have finished picking over it, you brought it in for us to scavenge?

I agree with Shyra: I usually contribute, but rarely partake (unless it's store-bought or I know the person who made it well enough).

Say WHAT?

Yeah....

"This was left over from my son's bar mitzpah..."

OR

"Oh my God... we had so much food at the shower and.... "

chocolate1 said:

Ottensen said:

Say WHAT?

Yeah....

"This was left over from my son's bar mitzpah..."

OR

"Oh my God... we had so much food at the shower and.... "

I usually stay away from that stuff.

HOWEVER, one time a VP brought in half a chocolate cake from some fancy Jewish bakery in Brooklyn (I believe) that was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!

...maybe we can make an exception for chocolate leftovers???

retina said:

What I don't like is when I go to a restaurant with a few people and someone suggests that we order a bunch of dishes and then share everything (everybody except me always loooooves that idea). Here's why I don't like it:

1) The others usually pick one or more dishes that I would never have picked

2) If you're not fast enough all the good food will be gone

3) If you're fast enough, someone will give you a dirty look for taking the food they wanted

4) If you're a big eater like me, you will feel bad about eating more than everybody else and then be forced to split the bill evenly just because everybody always insists on that

5) Some people are slobs and use the spoon from one dish in another one and make a mess

I really just want to order and pay for my own food and then focus on enjoying the company instead.

Ooh, yeah, I hate this too. I stopped going out to eat tapas with friends because of it. I'm a vegetarian and so they'd order 1 or 2 veggie tapas and the rest seafood and meat. I'd have to share the veggie tapas with everyone while not eating the others yet be expected to split the bill evenly with everyone. I also hate doing that when some people are ordering $16 liquor/martinis and I'm drinking $6 beers.

jone70 said:

retina said:

What I don't like is when I go to a restaurant with a few people and someone suggests that we order a bunch of dishes and then share everything (everybody except me always loooooves that idea). Here's why I don't like it:

1) The others usually pick one or more dishes that I would never have picked

2) If you're not fast enough all the good food will be gone

3) If you're fast enough, someone will give you a dirty look for taking the food they wanted

4) If you're a big eater like me, you will feel bad about eating more than everybody else and then be forced to split the bill evenly just because everybody always insists on that

5) Some people are slobs and use the spoon from one dish in another one and make a mess

I really just want to order and pay for my own food and then focus on enjoying the company instead.

Ooh, yeah, I hate this too. I stopped going out to eat tapas with friends because of it. I'm a vegetarian and so they'd order 1 or 2 veggie tapas and the rest seafood and meat. I'd have to share the veggie tapas with everyone while not eating the others yet be expected to split the bill evenly with everyone. I also hate doing that when some people are ordering $16 liquor/martinis and I'm drinking $6 beers.

Exactly! There's bound to be some tension over the bill, even though everybody will pretend that it's not the case. Some people will eat/drink too much and not care, which is annoying to the rest. Others will happen to eat too much and feel bad because of it. Some might eat less than they would like out of fear of eating at other people's expense, etc etc. There's endless potential for bad vibes.

retina said:

jone70 said:

Ooh, yeah, I hate this too. I stopped going out to eat tapas with friends because of it. I'm a vegetarian and so they'd order 1 or 2 veggie tapas and the rest seafood and meat. I'd have to share the veggie tapas with everyone while not eating the others yet be expected to split the bill evenly with everyone. I also hate doing that when some people are ordering $16 liquor/martinis and I'm drinking $6 beers.

Exactly! There's bound to be some tension over the bill, even though everybody will pretend that it's not the case. Some people will eat/drink too much and not care, which is annoying to the rest. Others will happen to eat too much and feel bad because of it. Some might eat less than they would like out of fear of eating at other people's expense, etc etc. There's endless potential for bad vibes.

I should clarify, that if it's me and 2-3 close friends, I don't mind splitting a bill; but with larger groups (8-10+) I don't really like to do it. Most of the time in those situations the group includes friends of friends/acquaintances and that's when it gets annoying. Inevitably there is the person who orders steak/lobster/3 martinis, etc. and wants to split or conveniently has to leave before the bill and doesn't put in enough.

jone70 said:

retina said:

Exactly! There's bound to be some tension over the bill, even though everybody will pretend that it's not the case. Some people will eat/drink too much and not care, which is annoying to the rest. Others will happen to eat too much and feel bad because of it. Some might eat less than they would like out of fear of eating at other people's expense, etc etc. There's endless potential for bad vibes.

I should clarify, that if it's me and 2-3 close friends, I don't mind splitting a bill; but with larger groups (8-10+) I don't really like to do it. Most of the time in those situations the group includes friends of friends/acquaintances and that's when it gets annoying. Inevitably there is the person who orders steak/lobster/3 martinis, etc. and wants to split or conveniently has to leave before the bill and doesn't put in enough.

Yes!

I stopped going out with coworkers after work when I got stuck paying almost $50 and all I had was some wings and 2 ginger ales... while they were doing shots and eating major munchies.

One girl threw down a $20 and left early.

jone70 said:

retina said:

Exactly! There's bound to be some tension over the bill, even though everybody will pretend that it's not the case. Some people will eat/drink too much and not care, which is annoying to the rest. Others will happen to eat too much and feel bad because of it. Some might eat less than they would like out of fear of eating at other people's expense, etc etc. There's endless potential for bad vibes.

I should clarify, that if it's me and 2-3 close friends, I don't mind splitting a bill; but with larger groups (8-10+) I don't really like to do it. Most of the time in those situations the group includes friends of friends/acquaintances and that's when it gets annoying. Inevitably there is the person who orders steak/lobster/3 martinis, etc. and wants to split or conveniently has to leave before the bill and doesn't put in enough.

No need to clarify; what you wrote there more or less goes without saying. The more people involved - and the less you know them - the worse the situation gets.

Not long ago I agreed to order the banquet with a bunch of ladies from school at a Thai restaurant.

Normally I'm not one either, to agree to this, for same reasons stated above (though I'm no vegetarian, I don't really eat seafood, and EVERYONE and their dog orders prawn dishes left right and centre over here this is also why I don't like yum cha, frikkin prawn EVERYTHING )

so, the food starts coming, and it's one delicious dish after another

loads of stuff I've never tried before, things I never KNEW could be so good

AND turns out some of the others were picky eaters and I got to eat as much as I liked, and a couple of ladies left early and paid too much

but I think this was a once off

jone70 said:

retina said:

Exactly! There's bound to be some tension over the bill, even though everybody will pretend that it's not the case. Some people will eat/drink too much and not care, which is annoying to the rest. Others will happen to eat too much and feel bad because of it. Some might eat less than they would like out of fear of eating at other people's expense, etc etc. There's endless potential for bad vibes.

I should clarify, that if it's me and 2-3 close friends, I don't mind splitting a bill; but with larger groups (8-10+) I don't really like to do it. Most of the time in those situations the group includes friends of friends/acquaintances and that's when it gets annoying. Inevitably there is the person who orders steak/lobster/3 martinis, etc. and wants to split or conveniently has to leave before the bill and doesn't put in enough.

Last year our office organized a "Dining Club" (we talk about EATING mostly in the office, it's a wonder ANYTHING gets done there!) and we had a cool idea where everyone wrote down a restaurant and each month we would pick one to go to.

Well..we did it twice. The first time we itemized the bill, but it was such a major pain in the @ss (and somehow we came up short) that for the next time we decided to split it evenly. Of course, THAT became an issue after certain people didn't want to pay more than "their fair share".

Needless to say, we never made it past that 2nd restaurant.

PurpleJedi said:

jone70 said:

I should clarify, that if it's me and 2-3 close friends, I don't mind splitting a bill; but with larger groups (8-10+) I don't really like to do it. Most of the time in those situations the group includes friends of friends/acquaintances and that's when it gets annoying. Inevitably there is the person who orders steak/lobster/3 martinis, etc. and wants to split or conveniently has to leave before the bill and doesn't put in enough.

Last year our office organized a "Dining Club" (we talk about EATING mostly in the office, it's a wonder ANYTHING gets done there!) and we had a cool idea where everyone wrote down a restaurant and each month we would pick one to go to.

Well..we did it twice. The first time we itemized the bill, but it was such a major pain in the @ss (and somehow we came up short) that for the next time we decided to split it evenly. Of course, THAT became an issue after certain people didn't want to pay more than "their fair share".

Needless to say, we never made it past that 2nd restaurant.

Some restaurants these days actually offer separate bills for each person if you ask for it before you order. It's awesome.

retina said:

PurpleJedi said:

Last year our office organized a "Dining Club" (we talk about EATING mostly in the office, it's a wonder ANYTHING gets done there!) and we had a cool idea where everyone wrote down a restaurant and each month we would pick one to go to.

Well..we did it twice. The first time we itemized the bill, but it was such a major pain in the @ss (and somehow we came up short) that for the next time we decided to split it evenly. Of course, THAT became an issue after certain people didn't want to pay more than "their fair share".

Needless to say, we never made it past that 2nd restaurant.

Some restaurants these days actually offer separate bills for each person if you ask for it before you order. It's awesome.

...and some people in the club didn't want to bother the waitress like that.

PurpleJedi said:

retina said:

Some restaurants these days actually offer separate bills for each person if you ask for it before you order. It's awesome.

...and some people in the club didn't want to bother the waitress like that.

By asking her to do something that's part of her job?

As long as you're gracious and polite, and tip reasonably, it's silly to feel guilty or bad about asking your server to serve you.

PunkMistress said:

PurpleJedi said:

...and some people in the club didn't want to bother the waitress like that.

By asking her to do something that's part of her job?

As long as you're gracious and polite, and tip reasonably, it's silly to feel guilty or bad about asking your server to serve you.

I've been to places that have a sign saying you can't split a bill, is that uncommon? or mainly just at places that cater for large groups?

ZombieKitten said:

PunkMistress said:

By asking her to do something that's part of her job?

As long as you're gracious and polite, and tip reasonably, it's silly to feel guilty or bad about asking your server to serve you.

I've been to places that have a sign saying you can't split a bill, is that uncommon? or mainly just at places that cater for large groups?

Actually, one of the individuals with the "issue" had previously been refused by another restaurant to split the bill on a large party. (my grammar is off on that one..."declined"? "rejected"?)

the office in general -- gross... I won't eat anything unless it's store-bought..

but when my department does our own private thing, the people/food ~ always cool

nerds know hygiene & food prep I guess

PunkMistress said:

PurpleJedi said:

...and some people in the club didn't want to bother the waitress like that.

By asking her to do something that's part of her job?

As long as you're gracious and polite, and tip reasonably, it's silly to feel guilty or bad about asking your server to serve you.

In NYC, a lot of places will not split the tabs or give you separate tabs. There is one bar/restaurant in my 'hood that we go to a lot -- they know us by name. If I invite a bunch of people there to eat and listen to the live music, the servers will not do more than 2 tabs. It's really annoying because people like to just stop in and have 1-2 drinks but since we have a table, it has to be ordered through the server (not at the bar) and so you end up with the people who stay the latest paying and making up any shortage. And there's always a shortage because people forget how many drinks they order, or underestimate the cost and tip.

PurpleJedi said:

ZombieKitten said:

I've been to places that have a sign saying you can't split a bill, is that uncommon? or mainly just at places that cater for large groups?

Actually, one of the individuals with the "issue" had previously been refused by another restaurant to split the bill on a large party. (my grammar is off on that one..."declined"? "rejected"?)

That's stupid!

PunkMistress said:

PurpleJedi said:

Actually, one of the individuals with the "issue" had previously been refused by another restaurant to split the bill on a large party. (my grammar is off on that one..."declined"? "rejected"?)

That's stupid!

I guess I can understand the waiter/waitress who's already stressed trying to keep up with the demands of a party of 12, 15, 20 people now having to also keep track of who ordered what and which is their bill. I guess???

PunkMistress said:

PurpleJedi said:

Actually, one of the individuals with the "issue" had previously been refused by another restaurant to split the bill on a large party. (my grammar is off on that one..."declined"? "rejected"?)

That's stupid!

It's very common around here. Most of the time it's one table, one tab. Sometimes they'll split it two ways, but I've never seen a server/restaurant agree to more than that. Has something to do with gratuities, I'm sure.

Whenever I've gone out with work people I don't eat and I buy my alcohol myself, one drink at a time from the bar. Even if I'm buying a drink for somebody I still do it a round at a time. Paid for and done. I hate those sneakin' up and/or mystery charges on tabs.