The last time Mrs. Linklater went to a full contact linen, china, and crystal dinner party, where the hostess didn't go to Costco for the food, was the night she sat next to Marshall Field the IVth or Vth [who's counting?], during his marriage to his second or third wife, a blond who kept insisting that Blanc de Blanc was the best champagne in the entire world. And that party was catered.
Mrs. L would give anything for an old fashioned pot luck supper where the guests brought something REALLY homemade. But apparently there's a bunch of food snobs out there who want nothing to do with your grandmother's secret recipe for Arosto Con Cipolle Filanti because they snagged Wolfgang Puck for the night. As usual, our advice maven gets to do whatever she's going to do first. Like anybody can stop her.
Published May 12, 2006 Chicago Tribune
Dear Amy: Like a recent letter from "Frustrated Foodie," I am also irked by guests who insist on contributing to a meal that has been carefully planned. I try my best to incorporate any last-minute additions, but I don't feel obligated to. When guests bring food, I thank them and make a trip to the refrigerator. Sometimes I "remember" their food just in time to send it home with the guests.
-- Philly Food Fan
Dear Fan: Ouch. Several readers have commented that sending "donated" food back home with guests is the way to handle this.
Mrs. Linklater will be with you shortly, as soon as she finishes eating the leftover bread pudding out of the doggy bag she brought home from lunch yesterday. Oh crap, the little plastic container with the whiskey sauce spilled in the bag. Why is it that food that looks so good at the restaurant looks like you found it on the road after you get it home?
All right, a couple of Zantac and we're good to go.
Mrs. L would like to offer an alternative viewpoint to Amy's. Why? Because that's what this blog is all about dildo breath.
Try to follow her logic. If someone spent the time to bring something homecooked to your party, what is the point of giving it back? Because you have so many friends you can afford to lose a couple? Like your palette is so sensitive that you can't bear to allow "guest" food near your pristine platters of pate, polenta, and parsnips in papillon sauce?
Odds are that the men in the crowd would kill for some of that Hungarian Gulash you think is too plebian for your spread. At least FREEZE it. Or, here's a thought. Serve it to your family when you're nursing a hangover the next day. Or find some starving college kids and give it to them. Or call ME.
It's a gift. Accept it graciously, you imperious toads.
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8 comments:
absomotherf*****lutely
(remember to return the container)
salemslot9@aol.com
So, we're clear, then. When I come o visit, haggis for everyone.
Still love you, Babe.
Great post, Mrs. L, as always! Clearly these people think they are above everyone else when in fact they are social roaches.
Happy Mother's Day
Chris
My Blog
I don't bring food. I bring ambiance. There's a subtle difference. Plus there's no leftovers.
Comment moderation is enabled. There's a word verification that'll take me 3 tries before I pass. Now there's a wheelchair icon beeping at me because I couldn't help but click on it.
And, yet, I must always come back for my Linklater fix. Or just to wish you a happy Mother's Day. Sorry I didn't bring my grandmother's Coca-cola cake.
Hey Mrs. L, Happy M Day!
I agree with you, I could use the food as a starving college student! I have absolutely no problem including their food in the meal, or at the very least holding on to it and eating it later. Unless it's literally a black tie affair, I fail to see how you can't slip in somebody else's pasta salad and call it amazing. Serious. =/
Amen, Mrs L.
~Lily
If you care about your friends feelings just take the food and find some way to serve it. If it bothers a person so much that doesn't fit in with their carefully planned and nazi-like dinner menu, then chances are these aren't their real friends anyway so it doesn't matter what they do.
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