Having never seen a doggy bag at any restaurant in France, ever, I have no illustrative photo to launch this edition. However, I do have dozens of pictures of Mr Sacks (pictured left), who will be our sac à toutou standin today.
TODAY'S WORD
Le doggy bag (franglais)
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En France, le doggy bag, pratique américaine qui consiste à emporter dans une barquette les restes de son repas au restaurant, a du mal à s'imposer à cause d'une certaine gêne des consommateurs… -Le Parisien
In France, the doggy bag, an American custom that consists of taking away, in a container, the leftovers of one's restaurant meal, is having a hard time gaining acceptance owing to a certain customer embarrassement… Comments welcome here.
Mas la Monaque - Rent this beautifully restored 17-century farmhouse. Click here for more pictures.
A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE… by Kristin Espinasse
One of the first cultural differences I encountered after moving to the land of bistros was this: they don't do doggy bags in la France!
In 1990, in Aix-en-Provence, a plate of egg rolls separated me from my future husband. Egg rolls in France are different from those in the States. In France, Asian restaurants serve the fried rouleaux with sprigs of mint and leaves of lettuce in which to roll them. Les Nems, as they are called, are Jean-Marc's and my favorite entrée, and we usually order so many that by the time the main course arrives we are too full to finish it.
At the end of that first shared meal in the restaurant chinois, we had leftovers. I explained to Jean-Marc that les restes in America go into doggy bags. Jean-Marc was amused by the term and his sensible side was quickly won over by the frugal concept. But when he tried out the idea on our waitress, asking her to box the food that remained on the serving platters, she showed neither amusement nor sensibility. In fact, she looked a bit put out by the request.
After Jean-Marc persisted, the waitress returned with an empty plastic tub which, according to the label, had once held pistachio ice cream. She pried open the container and slid the contents of both platters—and the side-dish—inside. I watched wide-eyed as the sweet-and-sour shrimp was poured right over the canard laqué, and the riz cantonais was heaped directly on top.
"Ça ira?" As the waitress scraped off the last grain of rice from the plates, her exaggerated gesture embarrassed me, cheapening an otherwise romantic evening.
Walking down Aix's winding cobblestone streets after the meal, I suggested to Jean-Marc that maybe it wasn’t a good idea, after all, to ask restaurants to wrap up food. It was too awkward for everyone involved when the servers had to go scavenging for odd containers in order to be accommodating.
Jean-Marc disagreed. It was a very good idea, he assured me—no more wasted food. The French would do well to adopt the practice of asking for a doggy bag!
"But they are not doggy-bag equipped here, so there's no use trying to save the food!" As I argued my point, I walked right into a beggar. “Oh, pardon. Pardon, Monsieur!”
The homeless man, who sat on the ground beside another SDF, looked up.
"Bonsoir, Monsieur," Jean-Marc offered a warm greeting.
I watched my date, who smiled as he crouched to the ground, offering the homeless man the "useless" invention: le doggy bag.
The homeless man nodded in appreciation. After what seemed a very long pause, we said goodbye and walked on. Arm in arm, I pulled my boyfriend close. This one was a keeper.
***
(Today's essay is from my book "First French Essais")
COMMENTS
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French Vocabulary
le rouleau
roll
le nem
a kind of fried egg roll
une entrée
starter, hors-d'oeuvre
le restaurant chinois
Chinese restaurant
les restes (mpl)
leftovers
le canard laqué
Peking Duck
le riz cantonais
fried rice
ça ira
will that do?
Bonsoir, monsieur
Good evening, sir
SDF (sans domicile fixe)
homeless person
Jean-Marc and his faithful sidekick, Monsieur Sacks. See more of this endearing sacoche, and the story here.
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Our dear Kristi,
Once again,this is a timely and very moving story.
Not only did you beautifully address the problem of uneaten food(without waste),but you so eloquently spoke of performing random acts of kindness before the term was even invented.
You have wrapped us in hugs!
Thank you!
Love
Natalie. Xo
I hate asking for a doggy bag, it sounds ridiculous. I ask if I can have the leftovers boxed to take home.
This is such a lovely and touching story, (and am so glad you kept that man) I always feel bad asking for a doggy bag here in France, but if I think we, my dog or our neighbour’s chickens and goats will eat what is left, I put aside my reticence and get one. I will think of this heart warming story next time I ask for one! Love Karen x
My goodness! Looks like you struck a cord here. 🙂 As was mentioned, there have been stories in the news about asking for a sac à emporter certainly as the idea of food-wasting has really come to the fore as of late in France – including stories on the many folks (and not all SDFs) who are searching for food in the wastebins of restaurants and grocery stores.
It is a timely subject and one where attitudes are changing rapidly as food portions have gotten larger (at least from what I have seen in the past 13 years that I have lived in France).
Beautifully handled, Kristin and bravo for your two wonderful men…
Jeanne, the photo of Jean-Marc walking down the flower-decked stairs was taken in Sicily.
Trina, thanks for asking about Mom. She is doing great and will soon be back with us in France for a visit!
My all time favorite New Yorker cartoon was a scene in a Parisian restaurant with an overly obvious American couple sitting at a table and the waiter asking the Maitre d’, “Que-ce que c’est – un sac de chien?”
Kristin,
You certainly got people talking about ” the doggy bag”. I have noticed that many restaurants in the states ask if you would like to take your extra food home. Then they either bag it in font of you or in the kitchen (which I prefer,although once when it was bagged in the kitchen, I received food other than mine).
We have one restaurant in Connecticut which gives you enough food for at least three extra meals. We did not realize this when we went there. Many people had said what a good restaurant it is. Their appetizer is huge and could be a meal in itself. Then you get a huge plate of pasta, family style, which is larger than what my husband an I would normally eat and then we had the main course ( I stuck to the other names for the courses, so as not to confuse the French and English words for the different parts of the meal.) we had all of the pasta bagged to take home and a good portion of our main course. The amount of food was obscene. As we looked around the restaurnat most of the clientele were over weight.
I would rather go to a French restaurant where they give you smaller portions and you can then enjoy an entree, principle and dessert and savor all of the different flavors.
Kathleen
I agree with Ellen. I hate the term “doggy bag”! The food is not for dogs. I request a take-out box if I wish to take leftovers home. In Chicago I often give the box to the homeless if it something like pizza or a portion I haven’t touched.
I disagree. I remember going to a pizza place on the waterfront in Canne. I suggested we just get 1 eggplant pizza to share since they were rather large, but my friend said in France you order an individual pizza and you don’t take the leftovers. Sad to say there was way too much pizza leftover and I just felt it was such a waste. Portions at the other places I went to in France are not much smaller than similar US eateries. Also, eating pizza with a knife and fork, I’m sorry but that’s not as enjoyable as eating with your hands. Kristin, bravo for marrying an independent thinking Frenchman!
To each, his or her own opinion and choice, Ann. I find eating pizza with a knife and fork much more enjoyable than eating it with my hands, because I hate having sticky hands, or ending up with tomato sauce, etc. on my face! When my family orders home-delivery pizza, my sons and husband eat it with their fingers, but get a knife and fork for me. 🙂
Thanks for your delightful memory..
Where I live in CA, we are aiming for Zero-Waste-Stream by 2020.
I always bring my own Tupperware container to restos both to avoid throwing away a disposable container and to avoid having to ask for one. In France I felt frustrated not being able to take away wonderfully delicious dinner food when the alternative for lunch the next day in tourist areas was much inferior. I am glad this sensible custom is beginning to to be accepted as a possibility in France.
About 3 years ago, when going with a “mixed” group of American and French acquaintances to a lovely bistro, I asked the person next to me if I could possibly slip my yummy leftovers into my Tupperware. She told me it would be considered quite rude. She suggested that I pass my plate around the table and offer my leftovers to the others, which I did. I have to admit that it wouldn’t have occurred to me to do that unless it were family. Sure enough, the plate went around the table, each person taking a few bites of food, until nothing was left!
I moved to Nice over a year ago, and have found a mix of portion sizes in the local restaurants, and the amount of food is difficult to gauge in advance. Two or three times, now, my husband and I have asked to take left-over food home, with no negative reactions.
The first time, we had been served enormous pizzas, and so we had leftover crusts and a good many untouched slices. When I asked for a doggie bag, the waiter looked at me dubiously. Feeling that I had been rude to suggest that the establishment’s food was fit only for a dog, I explained that the crusts were for my pets and the pizza was for us. He broke into a big smile and wrapped up the leftovers in foil. We left a generous tip.
Generally, I don’t feel embarrassed about asking to take home food that would otherwise be wasted. I think that a reluctance to do so is sometimes based on a notion of how members of a higher social class are “supposed” to behave. That said, I would never ask in a very formal restaurant or anywhere else where it might seem inappropriate.
…”Doggy bags’ are a useful and great invention, but “when in Rome, etc..”… I can never finish my meals here in the USA, and we always get a ‘to go’ box for the left-overs ( lunch the next day?). I have never, ever asked when in France or another Euro country. As for JM loving ‘le nems’… OMG! Those are my favorite thing in the world to eat… with the lettuce wrap and mint and dipping sauce! The first thing we do when we go anywhere there are more then 2 restos is see if one of them is a Viet Namese!
I ‘ll bet he likes Pho as well…. me too. It is sad to think of all the wasted food each day and night when so many people go hungry in the world….. some right next door….some on the streets.
Judi Dunn, Tallahassee.
I agree wholeheartedly!
So sorry to learn that the “doggy bags” story (most enjoyable) did not herald the use of bags to use to clean up after one’s dog. In some otherwise beautiful squares and promenades, a pedestrian misses many enjoyable sights by having to constantly look down rather than around for an avoidable mess. Dommage! But the kind actions of your dear husband were most touching and serve as a reminder to all of us to share. May you now be blessed with the sale of your house and a most enjoyable vacation! – Janet
Throwing food way offends my sense of frugality so I firmly believe it is acceptable to take leftovers home. However I have disliked that this practice requires that I use a disposable container – wasteful – which either goes into a landfill or is recycled. So I anticipate that I may need a take-home box and bring to the restaurant a small plastic container or a bento box. This avoids the need to involve restaurant staff in any way. I suppose that if it is considered tacky in France to save food, then I will have to do this in a sneaky way 🙂 My mother lived through a war during which food was scarce, so I am doomed, either by her example or through epigenetics, to be reluctant to waste food. I appreciate the resources that went into bringing the food to me – it wasn’t simply grown, it was processed, transported, prepared, cooked, served, etc. using a great deal of fossil fuels. It feels like an insult to the universe to waste any of it, especially when there are people who have too little food.