Dining out is no longer a privilege of the, well, privileged few. We all revel in this seemingly daily ritual of living in a modern city and working arduous day jobs. Dining out also affords is the luxury of meeting new people, catching up with older acquaintances, refreshing our brains, all without the added strain of planning and cooking a nice meal.
Restaurants also associate serving standard sized portions with quality and standards compliance. But, we’re not all the same. While I would be left unsatisfied even after chowing down on a bowl of salad with extra dressing, there are plenty others that would consider it a meal for two. It’s not easy to please everyone.
What do people do? They just leave half-eaten food in their plate. Doggy-bagging is frowned upon, especially in European cultures, and no one wants to eat leftovers the next day. Restaurants just throw away the food, even if it is seemingly untouched, as the legal ramifications of re-purposing untouched food and hence introducing sanitary grey areas is not a laughing matter.
How do you do the right thing for the planet while also not breaking any societal norms? I propose a pro-active approach — the next time you’re at a restaurant, give the portion a brief stare as it’s set on the table, and simply ask for a spare plate so that the extra bit could be taken away and back to the kitchen. You haven’t even started eating, yet, and so there should potentially be no sanitary reasons for the kitchen to refuse to oblige your request.
I do this quite a lot whenever I order coffee as I hardly ever eat the cookie served with it. All those wasted cookies add up. Food wastage is food wastage, even if it’s as simple as refined flour and sugar.
Remember, change always starts small.