Where do you eat?

Through the WFD threads we know what a lot of our members eat on a nightly basis…but where do you eat those meals? At the dinner table? On a patio outside? On the couch in front of the TV?

Though all of my food pictures are taken at the dinner table, I would say 99% of the time we are eating in front of the TV. Pre-dinner cocktails at the table and the cooking and preparation of dinner is when we chat and catch up, before settling down in front of the TV to watch a movie or series. Even on the rare occasion that my mom joins us (due to our schedules, maybe once a week), the three of us try to agree on something to watch. This might not work for everyone, but it works for us. My BF grew up that way, and after my dad passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, it just became normal for us to not be staring at an empty chair. Even though enough time has passed, we kept it up and now its not even a thought. So it works for all three of us.

Some exceptions: holiday dinners, of course. A “specialty” dinner, such as when my BF makes his Sunday Sauce or we make something time-consuming such as Beef Bourgignon or an equivalent. And once a month we do an appetizer night, which kind of goes hand in hand with cocktails and conversation, so that’s at the table.

How about everyone else?

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Only at the table, properly, and in silence. Silence as in no music or a source that makes noise.

I often see food photos taken on a coffee table, (work) desk, in front of the telly or anywhere that’s not the dining table. I guess it’s “normal” nowadays. So what do they use the dining table for then? Maybe they don’t have one?

It used to be in front of the TV, catching up on the soaps. Then we got a new carpet in there and didnt want to run the risk of staining it. So, we moved to the dining room about 15 years back.

We make an “event” of dinner, even if it’s snacky or home delivery. Table cloth, napkins. Candles are lit in the darker months. The “best” glasses come out on Saturday night. Like Presunto, no music. But we catch up with each others day. And we do put the world to rights - if you’d like a benign joint dictatorship in your part of the world, just give me a call. I reckon we’d be quite good at benign dictatorship.

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i have a formal dining room that is never used. I am thinking of having it converted to something else as it is just wasted space for us. I eat at desk in living room and husband eats at bar between kitchen and living room. In warm weather, we eat on the back deck where I have table and chairs with cushions. We do not eat in front of the TV as we have no TV and haven’t had one for about 6 years now. I got tired of paying for trash TV. On warm summer nights and Sundays after farm work is done, we sit on the front porch and talk.

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Yep, we don’t have one. What @gcaggiano describes is normal for us, too. Not “normal,” just normal. When we’re at our upstate place we eat on the deck or at the breakfast bar.

We used to eat in the living room with tv but about 5 years ago we had a beautiful new kitchen (designed by my sister-designer extraordinaire) and we haven’t eaten anywhere else since.

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Our dining room also serves as our kitchen table because the kitchen itself in our 1920s house is too compact to accommodate a table. That’s where we eat. Eating at the coffee table, where we once enjoyed small plates or pizza, is only begging for mayhem now that we have a chowhound of a dog (lovingly referred to as “the perp” for her talents in making food vanish.)

When the weather is good, we eat every meal possible at the table on the enclosed porch. The porch is enclosed by its original French doors so the atmosphere is lovely in warm weather. Makes living in an old house worth it for us.

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Fun question @gcaggiano There isn’t a room or space inside or out that hasn’t seen a mug, plate or glass placed down. I also eat and drink while pulled over on the road. It’s a lifelong habit born out of necessity to adapt to work life.

With family and friends, I adapt to their preference.

Standing in one place holding a plate is an art form.

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LOL, solving the world’s problems is often what we do at dinner here too. Obviously no one listens to us.

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Our first house was also 1920s, with a tiny galley kitchen. I could stretch my arms out across its width and almost touch both walls.

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99% of the time here at my PC reading about food, restaurants, service. My better half sits behind me at her laptop. The other 1% in our tiny kitchen reading the back of a box or one of the favorite cookbooks. Ultimate goal is to have the dining table fully armed & operational for use & not “Second Pantry”…but boy can we procrastinate! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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When with others, at the kitchen table. Dining room at Thanksgiving, Xmas, NYE, NYD and when there’s company.

When by myself, at the dining room table, on my balcony patio table, in front or the TV or standing next to the kitchen counter. Takeout on a park bench.

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The one thing I don’t miss since retiring is eating on the fly everyday. Bad digestion.

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We have a small community maintained park in the village. Perfect for lunch from the fish & chip shop a few yards away.

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Just the two of us, at the kitchen table in our pretty large 1910 kitchen. Usually TV news on, When son and family or guests are here, in the dining room. The kids demand cloth napkins and candles. No devices allowed. In the country, mostly indoors at a large farm table; its usually too hot or cold on the deck to enjoy an entire meal.

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I dine alone, always at the table and with the tv on. I like to watch food related programs while I eat. Oh, except breakfast. That is in front of the computer, catching up on HO, news etc.

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Luckily we have an open kitchen and family room. We have no formal dining room, but a big round marble table in the kitchen that we dine at, and are able to watch our big screen TV from (to catch up on all of the shows I DVR’d the night before :slightly_smiling_face: During the weekend we dine out at restaurants. In warmer weather we sit out on the deck and listen to music from my iPad or iPhone.

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We have a formal dining room, but only use it for holidays/gatherings/special occasion meals. Regular meals we eat in the living room, in front of the TV (news, Jeopardy! or shows from the DVR depending on time of dinner and desire for conversation - some days we’re both too brain dead from work to talk at all, other nights we solve all of the worlds’ problems like the rest of you!).

I grew up eating all of my dinners with the fam at a dining table but since it is just me and DH 99% of the time, it seems too formal to sit at the big table unless we are eating a special (or especially messy) meal. We also dine outdoors occasionally, sitting at our table on the porch when the weather is nice.

We always eat at the dining room table. We used to have a dining room area that was separated out from the kitchen, but post-renovation it’s one big space. During the renovation, we had to eat off of tray tables while sitting on the living room couch, and that was such a pain. I even eat at the table when I’m alone. It’s nice and big, so there’s plenty of room to spread out.

As a kid, we were never allowed to eat in front of the TV–always at the table, whether that table was in the kitchen or the breakfast nook area. To this day, my parents will maybe have evening dessert on the couch, but that’s it.

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99.97% of the time, I’m alone when I eat my meals. So almost always, at the living room coffee table in front of the TV or while reading a book. I do have a dining room with a round table for 4 should I ever have guests. However, it’s usually covered because I have a certain fuzzy ginger cattorist who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to jump up on said dining table and park his little orange butt on the table so he can try and peer out of the dining room windows (which are STILL covered with a sheer curtain!) at whatever might be happening on that side of the house. Despite the fact that he and his stepbrother both have full use of my (unused) desk upstairs in the 2nd bedroom which offers the exact same view…just not as close to the birds in the rhododendron bush outside the dining room window. They both also have full reign of the sliding glass door in the living room, although that’s a different view. The dining room table was scratched within its first week when I first bought it. I had a walnut meat that I was able to rub into the scratches to minimize them, but still - coming home from work to a brand new scratched table? ARRRGGHHHH!

On rare occasion (a Sunday breakfast meal I’m making myself or a full holiday meal I’m enjoying on my own, as I did this past Christmas Day), I’ll clean off the dining room table and spread everything out. Although I’m still probably reading a book. :laughing:

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