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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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Monday, October 9, 2017
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ALTHOUGH classified on the “low-end” spectrum in consumer spending which prompted a lot of “high-end” restaurants to avoid “I Am Iloilo City” i.e. Vikings Buffet Restaurant (not really a Michelin class one but prices are way above the natives’ concept of eating out) or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, there are still a lot of good restaurants to eat in “I Am Iloilo City.”
The natives or the Ilonggos as they prefer to be called love to eat out provided the prices are to their liking, something like everything below one hundred pesos with unlimited rice
This is quite evident in the capacity crowds in Mang Inasal, Jollibee and Greenwich Pizza almost every day.
Taking a closer look, you can see that these people almost always finish the food they would order and if they had enough, again almost always they would “take out “their leftovers.
In moi’s book this is good, in fact better than good as there is no food wastage and this leftover is recycled as the next meal or snack. Even if it is given to their dogs still it is good as the food did not go into waste.
And then we have the trendy oftentimes social climbers frequenting what they perceived as “high-end” restaurants and coffeshops.
Moi notes that these so-called trendy social climbers, mostly nouveau riche, would order a lot of food (perhaps to impress their dates or the people at the nearby table), hardly touch it, and then just leave it at their table. A total waste of food.
Besides being wasteful, are these people greedy or just plain stupid?
If these filthy rich people awash in cash think that by doing so they exude proper etiquette, hardly what they are doing is the exact opposite of good breeding and proper etiquette.
Allow me to bring you down from that lofty “feeling sosyal” attitude. According to a briefing published by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), a staggering 89 million tons of food waste is generated in the European Union (EU) each year.
About 1.3 billion metric tons of food are wasted every year, yet a seventh of the world’s population “goes to bed hungry” and over 20,000 children under the age of five die from hunger yearly, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
In the Philippines, data from the Philippine Rice Research Institute show that each Filipino wastes an average of 3.29 kilograms of rice annually.
Not finishing your food is not sosyal, neither is it proper etiquette; it is in poor taste (pun intended) and above all a total waste of scant resources.
In India, you should finish everything that is on your plate because it is considered a respect for the served food, and food in India is considered sacred.
The same is true about finishing your plate in Japan. The Japanese consider it rude to leave food on your plate, whether at home or at a restaurant. It’s related to one of the fundamental concepts in Japanese culture, mottainai, which is a feeling of regret at having wasted something.
In the European Union not finishing your food is not only considered bad manners and poor etiquette but in some member countries it is illegal and you will end up paying a fine or extra charges for not finishing your food.
Take Germany for instance; in most good or even high-end restaurants if you do not finish your food you will be charge extra on your bill.
In Great Britain or England local councils have passed what we would term as ordinances here in the Philippines that patron in restaurants who do not finish their food would be slapped with a fine.
Along this line here are excerpts from the Sept. 7 report of ABS-CBN News, “Half-cup rice ordinance approved in Iloilo”:
“The Iloilo City council has approved an ordinance requiring food establishments to include half-cup rice serving in their menu.
“The main objective of the ordinance is to prevent wastage and give consumers more choices.
“The food service industry was given three months to comply after publication of the mandatory provision of the ordinance.
“Violation of the ordinance will result in a warning for the first offense; a fine of P3,000 for the second offense; and P5,000 and suspension of business permit for the third offense.”
If implemented properly this ordinance would serve as the platform to eventually include requiring restaurant patrons to finish the food they ordered and take it home if they cannot do so to prevent the food from going to total waste. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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