Fat bloke says 'stop wasting food'

I know that buying less should be taken for granted as the obvious option, but excess consumption is a harder nut to crack.

"EAT YOUR DINNERS!"

I honestly don't think I waste any food. We have a tiny bin for food scraps and a much bigger bin for packaging. Food scrap bin takes ages to get full, and there are four of us here.

i don't buy that much but i do waste quite a bit

I just baked an entire ham for breakfast, ate a single slice, and then threw the entire thing in the trash. The meal is in the wasting.

I don't think this is that risky - it ties into overall worries about how much is in the average family purse but also has a hefty dose of that 'ph34r the plastic bags' type mainstream environmentalism as well. Surprised Brown got the jump on Cameron with this one.

On the other hand, the Sun will run a hypocrisy type story, having paid a load of money to the guy that collects Downing Street's bins, within two days.

It is a sensible plan of attack in economically tough times and good from a climate change perspective as well. Predictable hysteria on HYS, GB telling us to eat our greens nanny statism, excuse for new taxes, I'll stop waste when they stop paying MPs etc.

I immediately thought "well, sort out the sell by date scam first" but this is pretty OTM.

Not to mention total abolition of all "2 for price of 1" bullshit when punters just want 1 for a reasonable/affordable price.

When I cook, there is no excess food. I just eat all of it, taking hours if necessary, or rather, if possible.

I would quite like to be able to buy fruit without buying a giant plastic tub for £2.99 knowing that I'll probably only make it through a quarter of it. But that's what I get for living somewhere with only a Budgens and a weekly market I can't get to because it's during working hours.

When I cook, there is no excess food. I just eat all of it, taking hours if necessary, or rather, if possible.

What happens if it's not possible? You wolf it down in a frenzy?

Yes. I think 'if possible' meant I like to eat as much as possible, for as long as possible. What can interfere with this desire is finding that I have eaten it all already. So if possible, I have tons of food and eat it for ages; but sometimes that doesn't seem quite so possible.

When I go home, my Mum complains that I am terribly wasteful, because I will throw away the whole product if it has a bit of mould on the top. Whereas she would just scrape off the mould and eat the rest. It annoys her as well that when I cook leeks, I throw away the dark green leafy bit at the end instead of using it. I know she is probably right but I find it hard to change my ways.

Yesterday I tried to take the first step towards reform, by eating a tomato 7 days past its use-by date. It was fine.

You eat so much it is hard to think of you as a food waster.

I never knew all this about the pinefox and his extended banquets. It's fascinating.

we had to throw out about a quid's worth of poncy mushrooms the other week, which we'd bought specially for a sauce; they'd gone all slimy and vile. you'd have thought we were giving away our first-born. there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

we fucking hate waste. loathe it. me particularly. the other day we had two tiny potatoes left over after dinner. i fried them for breakfast the next day. honestly, chucking away food brings me out in hives. i can't bloody bear it.

I don't think this is that risky - it ties into overall worries about how much is in the average family purse but also has a hefty dose of that 'ph34r the plastic bags' type mainstream environmentalism as well

nah, i think it'll backfire. people think brown is the spunker di tutti spunkers -- even if what he's saying is absolutely fucking right (like this), there'll be kneejerk reactions all over the place just because he's so universally loathed. the socially conformist viewpoint right now doesn't seem to be that far from "if he says black, we say white".

kudos to billy for the thread title. genius.

fucking hate waste. loathe it.

Same here. I have 3 sacks of stale bread cubes in the freezer and untold number of chicken carcasses, waiting to be made into other things. Someday I will figure out what to do with those few tablespoons of heavy cream that goes off, it pains me to pour it down the drain. Hating to waste stuff has made me learn to dry things, to pickle things, turn some things into preserves, freeze other things.

Store your poncey shrooms in a paper bag next time grimly, then they will start to dry and get shrivelly (but remain usable) instead of turning to slime and ooze.

Any tips for prepared salad, other than not buying it?

xpost: thanks, jaq: that rings a bell. quite a big one, in fact. will do that. (i'm assuming the paper absorbs the moisture? would make sense.)

I thought it was more that it was breathable. But really, what do I know about mushrooms' respiratory habits?

Gah, prepared salad, esp. with typical iceberg/romaine/butter lettuce - there's just not much you can do with it except eat it fast. If you get mesclun/spinach/rocket/etc instead, you can shove some into an omelet or do a quick saute or blanch and freeze some at least. But those usual suspect salad lettuces aren't good for much else than quick eating.

there'll be kneejerk reactions all over the place just because he's so universally loathed.

I don't loathe him but yes this is exactly what has happened. It doesn't matter what he says now.

re lettuce: You could possibly zoom it up into a smoothie, the very thought of which is making me gag though.

Feed them to someone's bunny?

I also believe Brown is right about this. And surely being fat (and not that fat either, in fact I think he's lost weight, must be all the worry) doesn't exclude him from making these comments?

I thought it was more that it was breathable. But really, what do I know about mushrooms' respiratory habits?

yeh, paper would let the moisture out or something. i dunno either. but i think your not-knowing is closer to the truth than my not-knowing.

And surely being fat (and not that fat either, in fact I think he's lost weight, must be all the worry) doesn't exclude him from making these comments?

on the contrary: i think it qualifies him even further!

This pronouncement seems at least better than George Bush telling Americans a few weeks after Sept. 11, 2001 that it was patriotic to go shopping at the mall.

I was raised to clean my plate, and have done so pretty much all my life on the theory that it's bad to waste food. This has occasionally (ok, often) meant overeating because I don't want to throw the excess away. It was pointed out to me a couple of years back that overeating is STILL wasting food, it's just an unhealthier way of doing it than throwing the food away. Still, it's an old habit and hard to break...

When I have to cut the leafy tops off things like carrots, leeks, and celery I try and keep them all in a tub in the fridge/freezer, and when I next have a roast chook, they get tossed in with the chook so I can make chicken stock. I'll also keep leftovers for the next days lunch, but sometimes I do forget its there and have had to throw out a moulded up smidge of food in a plastic container. I'll drink milk well past its useby if it smells fine though, and if bread or veg only has a little tiny bit of mould on I'll cut it off. Not if it's riddled with gloop though.

I've also never had food poisoning.

Today I poured some of the remnant of a half-gallon of milk into my coffee and it curdled. Accordingly, I threw out the remaining half cup or so of milk. This is probably the biggest single 'waste of food' event in my house of the past two months.

the only things i ever seem to end up throwing out is milk (i need to start buying those little juicebox-sized ones) and potatoes (god only knows why i don't cook these more often). waste is rare otherwise round my way. of food, anyway.

I've had trouble keeping food the way I'd like as our fridge is too small and all the shelves broke, so once I get a new fridge with a nice huge freezer I'll be doing even more leftover-keeping, stock-making, and etc.

I end up turfing things like taters as well, they always turn into binjuice hell so fast :(

I'm not 100% convinced that eating as much as you can all the time is much less wasteful than throwing food away.

I honestly don't think I waste any food. We have a tiny bin for food scraps and a much bigger bin for packaging. Food scrap bin takes ages to get full, and there are four of us here.

-- the next grozart, Monday, 7 July 2008 14:32 (Yesterday) Link

if you ate the packaging you'd be consuming even less food

Brown says stop wasting food. Now Cameron says people are too fat and it's their own fault.

WHICH IS IT.

eat your own fat

These Cameron headlines are the first decent chance Labour has had of clawing some ground back in ages. Instead we have our comedy lame duck PM eating eight course meals over in Japan. Good work everyone.

TBH I think they should be more worried about their comedy excuse for a campaign in what should be one of the safest Labour seats in the country.

my arse it should. the past 12 months or so have been something of a sea change up here.

i still feel a faint twinge of regret about the implosion of UK labour.

the demise of scottish labour, though, i celebrate with glee.

Part of me thinks that Cameron doing a "lol fatteys stop being so fat" speech in GLASGOW of all fucking places is just making sure that any wavering between Tory and SNP voters choose the latter.

trust me, there is nobody in glasgow east wavering near putting that X next to tory. SNP, yes. big aggie mcallister's all-day punch-up party: yes. hell, even tommy sheridan's mob: yes.

i think cameron simply thought: what ho, a chap is bursting to come out with some jolly old tory bollocks, what? now, where's the one place he can do it where it won't make a blind bit of difference?

i'm glad he has, though, because it's always good to have concrete reasons to loathe the cunt. sometimes i find my hatred of him getting a bit nebulous and ill-formed.

"lol fatteys stop being so fat"

don't forget "lol povs stop being so poor", too.

Bald men, comb, etc etc

http://blog.23x.net/5/what-is-a-munchy-box.html

Cameron shoulda had one of these

^^^ Want

mmm, lunch.

Subway are doing Chicken Reggae Reggae Sauce subs at the moment. I promise Mr Brown I won't waste any.

Mmmm, breakfast.

Holy shit that munchy box. I'm torn between "bleeuugh" and "christ I'm hungry".

yeh, usually the two go hand in hand. only in reverse order.

(i should add: i've never actually had one. i think stet maybe has. come to think of it, there's a good chance he invented it.)

Donna meat, salad and sauce in a nan is a great idea and has always been so. The rest altogether in a box... not so keen on.

chips and donner meat = A WINNER

I like proper souvlaki lamb which is crispy roasted bits of ACTUAL lamb but doner meat looks scary and weird, like lamb-spam or something :/

Yeah, donner meat and chips has to be top five meals of all time.

It's not often I agree with die-hard food rockists but doner meat is foul, really. It's like dog food.

I am doubly put off by remembering the dude from the kebab shop in Canterbury, who had pretty much the hairiest arms ever and seemingly every hair was coated in congealed grease from where he'd brushed up against the kebab.

Dom, what's your favourite Northants kebab vendor?

King Kebab down the Welly Road, although I don't know if that was there when you were at UCN (think it opened in 2001). Otherwise, gotta be the daddy, Up All Night. Gold Street branch, not the one outside the Black Sheep.

Yeah, donner meat and chips has to be top five meals of all time.

lol italians

Spicy chicken kebab meat and chips from The Big Fish in Leamington Spa. It rules. Just in case anyone is ever in Leamington Spa.

doner meat looks scary and weird, like lamb-spam or something

ha, that's pretty much spot-on.

but still: FOOD OF THE GODS.

in moderation, and as part of a healthy and balanced diet, of course. (where "balanced" = "floating on top of six pints of gassy lager".)

This sub is mint, btw.

Tommy Sheridan still has a mob?

I heard him speak to parliament in the old CoS Building they used before Holyrood was finished, the one with the black and white tiled hallway. I don't know a lot about his politics but the guy knew how to work an audience.

So did (insert other politician of dubious virtue)

I parsed that as "six pints of greasy lager" which still made sense, natch.

these days i get large lamb shish in a lamacun (fuck a pitta)

Think Fuck-a-Pitta is a takeout in Goole.

I heard him speak to parliament in the old CoS Building they used before Holyrood was finished, the one with the black and white tiled hallway

... the hallway down which i used to nash for me tea every night during first year of uni! (no, i wasn't doing divinity. perish the thought. mylne's court halls were part of the whole complex; indeed, they built one of the entrances to the temporary parliament in the courtyard where i used to flick tabs and throw water-filled condoms at irish rugby players. happy, happy days.)

anyway: yeh, sheridan still has a mob. just. "solidarity", they're called. kinda ironic name for a party formed after a schism in a once-reasonably-united hard-left party, but hey: who am i to criticise?

(my fast food of choice during those halcyon years of 1993-1994 was the smoked sausage supper, by the way, from the forrest fryer on forrest road. with SAUCE, obviously, not vinegar. damn, i miss east-coast sauce.)

Up All Night was good. Is the Millennium Kebab Saloon still open? King Kebab... I lived off the Welly Road in 2000/2001 academic year, can't recall it though. Nothingness name, though, "King Kebab".

Flames I think was a favourite in the second year.

Flames is still going, but as I don't drink in the Bradlaugh it's not really a convenient place for me to get a bite to eat. Millennium is still going, both at the bottom of the Welly Road and down the bottom of Gold Street. More of a burger/pizza joint to me than a kebab place though, especially with the fluroscent yellow seats

these days i get large lamb shish in a lamacun (fuck a pitta)

i only have organic lamb kebabs these days

(with sundried tomatoes salad and thousand island sauce, obv)

Is it really only in Sweden that you can get kebab meat on a pizza? It's such a simple and effective idea.

Only in Sweden and EVERY SINGLE PIZZA SHOP IN THE UK

I've never seen it though. i suppose they would do it if you asked. stupid question.

Munchy boxes are the food of the gods, as are donner pizzas (I work in the East End of Glasgow and have all these things at my disposal and it is my lunch hour and I hate you all for this)

xpost donner meat pizzas are on the menu of every pizza shop I have been in recently, but these are in the west of Scotland, so, um, yeah.

They're on the menu of every pizza shop in Hull, a city that is completely representative of the UK in every way, oh yes.

xpost: DEEP-FRIED DONNER MEAT PIZZA!

holy shit. i was going to make a tuna sandwich for lunch. really, i was. now i have some serious other ideas.

Fucking hell, those box things look like caveman food.

I'm clearly in the wrong places. Even when I was in Glasgow last week I failed to go to Greggs for a scotch pie. I'm rubbish at bad food.

Bradlaugh was my favourite pub circa 1999/2000. When we went back to visit in 2002 all the staff were wearing box ties. Fuck that.

DEEP-FRIED DONNER MEAT PIZZA!

My chest tightened up a bit just reading that sentence.

DEEP-FRIED DONNER MEAT PIZZA supper

Man, you do not want to Google box tie at work.

Are there any good pizza takeaways in Hull? I explored a few and have never been impressed.

Best food of that kind in Edinburgh, in my time there, was the Cappadocia kebab shop on Forrest Row; my regular, though, was an Italian chippy on the Canongate.

Don't think there are many spectacular pizza shops in Hull but haven't come across many genuine takeaways in the rest of the country that were much different/better: doughy crusty stodge is a Brit thang generally.

True, true.