Friday open thread: time for dinner
Mar. 25th, 2022 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I'm sorry these Friday posts have been so erratic in recent times. I think this will remain the case as long as, well ... *gestures miserably eastward*
But when I feel up to it, there'll be an open thread.
Today's prompt is brought to you by a meme I saw doing the rounds on social media, which purported to show the average time of day/evening that residents of various European countries ate dinner. It's a two-part question: what time of day do you eat the main meal (if at all), and are the timing and content of that meal similar or different to the norm in your region/culture?
In my case, I'm an Australian of western European ancestry, living in the UK. I tend to cook/eat the main hot meal of the day in the evening, and unless something strange is going on, that meal tends to happen at some point between 6.30-7.30pm. I would say that in general that's in keeping with other people from a similar cultural background in both the UK and Australia, although the type of British people who eat traditional roast dinners on Sundays tend to eat those much earlier in the day.
In terms of atypical meal content, what I choose to eat for breakfast (and, to a lesser extent, lunch) is definitely atypical, because I hate almost all standard breakfast foods from my culture — cereal is revolting, I'm not a fan of porridge or muesli, and for the most part I don't enjoy toast either. I only like sandwiches when they've been freshly prepared, which means I never eat them if I have to bring a packed lunch. What this results in is me eating a lot of leftover dinner for breakfast and lunch, interspersed with periods of eating things like cheese and crackers for one or both of those meals. I wish I came from a culture where it was normal to eat hot/savoury types of food at breakfast time!
What about you?
But when I feel up to it, there'll be an open thread.
Today's prompt is brought to you by a meme I saw doing the rounds on social media, which purported to show the average time of day/evening that residents of various European countries ate dinner. It's a two-part question: what time of day do you eat the main meal (if at all), and are the timing and content of that meal similar or different to the norm in your region/culture?
In my case, I'm an Australian of western European ancestry, living in the UK. I tend to cook/eat the main hot meal of the day in the evening, and unless something strange is going on, that meal tends to happen at some point between 6.30-7.30pm. I would say that in general that's in keeping with other people from a similar cultural background in both the UK and Australia, although the type of British people who eat traditional roast dinners on Sundays tend to eat those much earlier in the day.
In terms of atypical meal content, what I choose to eat for breakfast (and, to a lesser extent, lunch) is definitely atypical, because I hate almost all standard breakfast foods from my culture — cereal is revolting, I'm not a fan of porridge or muesli, and for the most part I don't enjoy toast either. I only like sandwiches when they've been freshly prepared, which means I never eat them if I have to bring a packed lunch. What this results in is me eating a lot of leftover dinner for breakfast and lunch, interspersed with periods of eating things like cheese and crackers for one or both of those meals. I wish I came from a culture where it was normal to eat hot/savoury types of food at breakfast time!
What about you?
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Date: 2022-03-25 02:03 pm (UTC)As an adult, I tend to eat my big meal at lunch--I make a huge pot of whatever I'm having this week and then eat it every day at at work. I adore breakfast food, but I don't eat it because I literally wake up 20 minutes before I leave the house in the morning and I just don't have time. (I love sleep more than I love food.) I eat something small at night.
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:22 pm (UTC)Your meal patterns as an adult sound very efficient, and definitely seem to suit your preferences. I'm a morning person and would starve if I didn't eat breakfast, but if you're able to wake up and be out of the house in 20 minutes, I can see why breakfast is less important.
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Date: 2022-03-28 04:52 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, you're up before the sun, so you definitely need breakfast!
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Date: 2022-03-25 02:57 pm (UTC)Timing-wise, I get around to eating food at fairly typical times, I think? Which is only entertaining if you realise that I'm also more morning-biased in my sleep patterns than most people seem to be.
I don't differentiate between lunch and dinner food in any meaningful way. Breakfast is whatever I can convince myself to eat, which is often a sandwich or snackbar. Sometimes it's rice+eggs(+veggies) or leftover bread-based products (I will totally eat cold pizza for breakfast [if I've made myself some with fake cheese I can eat]). Occasionally it's cookies/some other more dessert-typical baked good (that I almost certainly made myself because haha dairy allergies and desert food...)
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:24 pm (UTC)Your breakfast preferences sound similar to mine, not in terms of the actual content, but in terms of not being specifically breakfast-designated foods.
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Date: 2022-03-25 03:32 pm (UTC)Our type of Indian tends to have sweet tea/coffee and chopped fruit for breakfast, which for me has become a banana and a cereal bar over my desk at 10.30ish, which despite how it sounds I actually really enjoy.
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:26 pm (UTC)Fruit at every breakfast sounds wonderful, and it sounds as if you've figured out the perfect way to incorporate it into your current daily routine.
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Date: 2022-03-25 03:56 pm (UTC)I think my meals are typical of a certain kind of wealthy educated westerner, in that I cook fairly healthy meals from scratch with organic and local ingredients. My husband used to hunt elk (he recently gave it up) and so up until last year most of our meat was elk, local and free-range; this year we bought a lamb and a 1/8 beef from local ranchers, and 40 pounds of salmon filets from a local guy who fishes in Alaska every summer, so that's our protein. I belong to a CSA for my summer veggies and buy from the food coop in winter.
Most recently I've been making a lot of lamb kofta with turmeric rice and either roasted veggies or salad on the side (because for some reason the butcher misinterpreted my cutting request and ground way too much of the lamb) but in general my cooking ranges widely in style and source.
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:29 pm (UTC)I think my meals are typical of a certain kind of wealthy educated westerner, in that I cook fairly healthy meals from scratch with organic and local ingredients.
Oh yes, this is definitely me too, although not with the game meat hunted by my own (husband's) hands — I think I remember you writing about this in the past and I found it very impressive.
I love lamb kofte, and yours sounds delicious!
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Date: 2022-03-25 06:27 pm (UTC)My baking tends to be more atypical of the UK. My grandmother's Norwegian and my grandfather's from New Orleans, and both of those show up in the things I choose to bake. It's not technically baking but I lived on my grandmother's riskrem growing up and I still make it fairly often now. My big bake every year is a king cake for Mardi Gras and has been for 19 years!
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:31 pm (UTC)LOL. I have heard exactly this complaint from so many Americans living in the UK!
Norwegian and New Orleans is definitely a great heritage to have when it comes to baked goods — lucky you!
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Date: 2022-03-25 07:35 pm (UTC)In general my family eat the biggest meal of the day in the evening, around 6-7pm. It's usually some-protein-and-veg with rice, pasta or potato product, and I don't think that's especially unusual where we are.
My eating is a bit more random, I don't always eat with the children, and if I've got a skating lesson or hockey practice/game, I need to have eaten a good meal beforehand or I run out of oomph part way through. (for hockey I usually also need to eat afterward too!) And that meal needs to have a good bit of protein and a lot of carbs.
For a lot of my life I would wake up hungry for breakfast, but in the last five-ish years I've become someone who can usually take or leave breakfast until mid or even late morning. I do like a good bowl of porridge though.
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:34 pm (UTC)I generally need to eat breakfast first thing, unless I'm going swimming, which I prefer to do first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. But from the look of other comments, you're certainly not alone when it comes to eating breakfast later in the morning.
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Date: 2022-03-25 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-27 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-25 07:46 pm (UTC)But I've been told I'm weird on all counts. MG's family always had dinner around 6:00pm.
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:36 pm (UTC)6pm would be a bit early for me for dinner, although 8pm is a bit late. 7pm is really my preferred time.
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Date: 2022-03-26 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-27 02:39 pm (UTC)I love savoury breakfasts, although I'm not familiar with what is typical for Korea — but I bet it's delicious.
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Date: 2022-03-26 02:26 am (UTC)Breakfast for me is frequently an Up&Go liquid breakfast because I am not a morning person.
Today I slept in til 10.30am and so I skipped breakfast altogether and had bacon on toast with hash browns at lunchtime. I don't like eggs.
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:42 pm (UTC)I am a morning person and tend to eat breakfast between 6.30-7am, unless I've gone swimming (I need to go swimming first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach), but eating late breakfasts or no breakfast at all certainly seems to be the norm, at least among people commenting here!
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Date: 2022-03-26 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-27 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-26 09:28 pm (UTC)what I want in terms of 'this is when I NEED to eat or my bloodsugar will drop too much and I will feel sick and my day is ruined':
breakfast: within 1 hour of waking up and usually within 15minutes, so 6-7am
snack: around 10am
lunch: 12pm
snack: around 3pm
dinner: 6pm
(optional) snack: around 9pm
I don't have a main meal as such because if I skip any of these I will feel sick and my day is ruined, so they're all main meals even if it's just a snack. (snack: fruit, oat biscuits, other gluten-free snack)
breakfast foods: like you, I'm not keen on cereal. There's one brand I like, but the UK version of it is a) vile b) has twice as much sugar in it as the original, so no cereal for me. I do like oatmeal porridge and I will cook it for myself some mornings, but it's usually something I do on weekends when I feel I have the time to both cook and eat it. (at boarding school and that time I was in Eurajoki and had breakfast and lunch served at the school, I would have oatmeal porridge pretty much every day because it was always one of the breakfast options and it's one of few breakfast foods that I really feel fills me up and keeps my energy levels going for much of the day.) I like fried eggs and orange juice for breakfast but don't do it often. So what I do eat atm is mainly yoghurt (I crumble a gluten free oat biscuit on top since there aren't any cereals in this country that are edible, and plain oats make me gag, and also yoghurt on it's own isn't enough nutrition for me in the mornings) or skyr, or (gluten free) toast with either orange juice or chocolate milk. I will also happily eat dinner leftovers for breakfast if I have extras that aren't meant for lunch.
both lunch and dinner are hot cooked meals for me. if I have extras from lunch I'll reheat for dinner and if I have extras from dinner I'll reheat for lunch.
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:45 pm (UTC)It sounds as if you've got a good system that works for you with the meals and snacks.
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Date: 2022-03-26 09:55 pm (UTC)I almost never cook the same dish twice, because there are so many recipes out there that I want to try. Both meals usually consist of the same dish, fresh followed by leftovers for however many days, but I don't get sick of things because there's a new recipe around the corner!
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Date: 2022-03-27 02:46 pm (UTC)Like you, I could eat leftovers forever!
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Date: 2022-03-26 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-27 02:47 pm (UTC)