This was our MO in France where taking food away from a restaurant was frowned upon until very recently. Only a couple of years ago it was made law that restaurants had to provide packaging for diners’ leftover food. Previous thinking was that care had been given toward preparing good food that should be consumed as presented. i.e., why would anyone want to eat stale, reheated food? So rather than create a scene, I would simply drop 4 oz of uneaten steak into a ziplock. Sometimes it became breakfast or lunch, sometimes shared with an interested dog, sometimes just dumped. But never sent back to a kitchen as unwanted.
I got quite proficient. DH would look across the table and exclaim, “Wow! You really wolfed the rest of your meat!”, never having noticed my “snatch and drop” .
But I’ve to say when asking them to pack the food, some places packed only approximatively, not really everything. 
Again, probably only sending home what they thought worth while and leaving small bits they considered “crumbs”.
Yeah, and when that thing they left out was the sauce, actually the best part! 
Veering off topic but perhaps valuable, one reason I started doing this was that DH would finish my plate. After a few days of this, he’d balk at going out to a nice dinner, complaining that he couldn’t eat these “huge dinners” night after night. I couldn’t get across that he had been eating a dinner and a half, especially since he routinely ate my unwanted dessert. So in order to enjoy the maximum vacation, I started zip-locking the egregious portions.
I remember ordering fried potatoes that I could not eat somewhere in Europe. Could have been BCN. I asked to take them with me and the waiter looked at me as if he confused. He explained that they would not taste good when I got them home. I don’t recall what happened after that, but I can certainly recall the look on his face.
I would eat that right now minus the dessert. I haven’t had one of those things in at least 35 years.
It is in the Constitution …
It may not be mandatory now, however, it is a tradition and restaurant tables are reserved for the menu del dia in most neighbourhoods throughout the country.
Paella is normally prepared on Thursdays and Sundays - and is served at bars as a tapa on Sundays.
Yes, the main course is always a protein: 1 beef, 1 pork, 1 chicken and 1 fish and / or shellfish … In fancier establishments; baby lamb as well …
Starters could be: a rice dish, a pasta dish, a salad or a bean dish or a vegetable dish …
Dessert or café or tea …
Bread or Wine or a beverage are included.
Prices range from: 10 €uros - 20 €uros depending where one goes.
Thank you for the interesting read. I recall my parents and grandparents telling some of this information when I went to study in the Madrid Capital many years ago.
Is this a serving for one or two ?
Big amount of broccoli and brussel sprouts and the plate is very very tiny !
Serving for one. Me!
Confession time, I love broccoli. I could eat it everyday. Well, in fact, I do eat it everyday. 
With the tasting menu I brought home, the meal cost quite a bit, over $120 USD per person, and it was a small resto in my hometown, with maybe 16 seats, which were full.
Basically a chef cooking everything, and his wife was the Front of House. It was easier for me to pack it away myself, and saved them labour.
In a place like NYC, I ask for a doggie bag.
If I’m visiting a country where I don’t speak the language, I’d rather be gauche and pack it myself, maybe when the server isn’t looking, than cause a server any stress or draw attention to myself by asking for a doggie bag.
From 2012
An excerpt that might serve to make this seem on topic;
“The doggie bag is not usually done in other countries and many foreign visitors to the U.S. seem to think this practice is somewhat appalling. It is hard to know just why but it is at least partially due to distaste for the wasteful over-large portions often served in America. To be fair, if the first doggie bags were really meant for leftover bones to be given the family pet, a prudent step in scarce times, then such distaste should be reserved for what the doggie bag has become, rather than what it was meant to be. Also, it is ironic that most of the world looks on Americans as wasteful and then beats us up when we show a bit of frugality!”
It seems like there’s an odd interplay among several emotions/attitudes/whatever. I started to try to describe my opinions about some parts of it, and that was no good, so maybe I can say: people have a real relationship with what they eat, and if America and Food went for couples’ counselling, there would definitely be a lot to talk about. 
Count me among those who found this post somewhere between offensive and pointless. Even if we can agree in general that portion sizes in the US are larger than those in Spain or in other countries, the lack of understanding or even acknowledgement of why that might be undermines the value of the observation. I don’t know much about lifestyles in Europe. I do believe, as was indicated by other posters, that Americans work longer hours (not voluntarily), have potentially more anxiety/stress, spend a lot more time driving than walking (due to suburban sprawl), eat either very processed foods because the government here massively subsidizes corn and soy at the expense of other healthier crops, that restauranteurs make a lot more $ serving large portions and to hell with our health, and that the cosmetics/fashion/diet industries all work in tandem here to encourage our worst diet and exercise decisions and then blame us and try to be the savior. That is a lot for a single person to overcome, and perhaps Spaniards don’t have the same obstacles.
What most peeves me though about this OP is that she had a flamethrower, used it to make a judgement about how Americans were inferior because their plates were large, and then studiously avoided any further such accusations in her half dozen responses that are very carefully worded to state only the facts, ma’am.
We’re porkers.
I have no problem acknowledging that.
Svelte has never been in my vocabulary.
Always thought a siesta would transform American life for the better.
Couldn’t ever convince people of that truism.
Here is a link to a post about an amazing course I took.
At some point I learned what I place on my fork is my prerogative, in any country, culture or state of mind. Call me crazy good people but this thread, in a devoted food community, is both insightful and dramatic.
We ARE the live to eat folk after all. Raise your fork with pride. 
A French-as-second-language friend, domiciled in Paris, asks for a “Baggie Dog”, inverting the adjective as French requires. I am tempted to copy her but doubt I could pull it off.
I’m not. Most of my friends and family and colleagues are not. And I will continue to push back against the stereotype that “all” Americans eat or look or are the same. I doubt that anyone here would tolerate another entire country being lumped into a single category. It’s bigotry, even if self-directed.
Here’s what I’ve always done. Morning coffee with a pastry. Pack minimum lunch around 11eat . Half sandwich, hard boiled egg , water . I’m done after 5 hours work . Wind into the evening . Have a beer . 20 minutes for nap time . Beer . Shower . Do the dishes. Wine. Meal prep . Wine . Cook dinner. Wine . Pile it on the plate . I’m not getting up for seconds. I’m tired . Lights off on the couch . Watching preferably a romantic comedy .
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