Licking a Plate In a Restaurant

[Tea Drinker]

I suspect that this is link bait, to bring them more viewers and please their advertisers. (I know, not every obnoxious or stupid web article is such, but there are times it seems likely.)

[lady_disdain]

I suspect that this is link bait, to bring them more viewers and please their advertisers. (I know, not every obnoxious or stupid web article is such, but there are times it seems likely.)

Slate has been doing it a lot. The entire "You are doing it wrong" series, for example.

[Moonie]

Reminds me of the time when I took my grandson to the Asian buffet. He was about 6, and went over to get some dessert....dip your own ice cream. He was doing sooooo well when, to my horror, he licked the ice cream scoop!!! I grabbed the scoop from him, told him not to EVER do that again, and gave the scoop to one of the workers and said that it needed to be replaced. I like telling that story just to tease him, but thankfully he never did it again.

[Kaypeep]

When I was 11 or 12 I had a birthday party with ice cream cake and one of my friends licked their plate of the melted ice cream.  Later my mom told me to never have the friend over for a meal ever again.

[C0mputerGeek]

I don't think this actually happens.  People might sop up sauce with a piece of bread, but I doubt any of us have to worry about witnessing someone lick a plate.

My stepfather used to do this, both at home and when we were out to eat. My mom had quite a time breaking him of this habit.

Edited to add: My stepfather grew up quite poor during the Great Depression and often did not have enough to eat. He has said - on multiple occasions - that his habit of licking the plate comes from that time. He and his brothers would lick their plates clean so as to get that much more food.

[QueenfaninCA]

Yikes, I don't think that's ever OK unless you are by yourself.

Yes, I have been to fancy restaurants. But you ask for some bread or a spoon if you don't want to let the sauce go to waste (I usually ask for bread in that case but once it was enough sauce that the amount of bread required would not have been good for my waistline, so I asked for a spoon).

[Iris]

Edited to add: My stepfather grew up quite poor during the Great Depression and often did not have enough to eat. He has said - on multiple occasions - that his habit of licking the plate comes from that time. He and his brothers would lick their plates clean so as to get that much more food.

This is a reasonable excuse for licking your plate imo. "This sauce was expensive and I don't want to waste it"? Not so much. Ask for extra bread.

[Amava]

Actually it just occurred to me, there is someone in my house who does this all the time and from whom everyone accepts this. I would never tell her off for it, too.

She even nudges her plate around with her nose!

Granted, she's a dog. And I don't take her to restaurants. 

[ettiquit]

No.  Just...no.  I don't allow it in my home, and I sure as heck wouldn't want to see anyone in a restaurant (family style or high end) do this. 

[sweetonsno]

A slight tangent: according to Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, it's a faux pas to sop up sauces with bread, except perhaps in the privacy of your own home. (Apparently, you can use bread to push something onto your fork or spoon, but you should not use the bread as though it were a utensil.) For those who are curious, the proper way to use bread to convey sauce to your mouth is to tear off a small chunk, put it on the end of your fork, and then use your fork to wipe and eat.

That said, when the sauce is just *that good*, I tend to ignore manners. While I haven't ever literally licked my plate while out and about, I have breaded with abandon and even used a finger to get the last few drops. Not particularly polite, but I was facing a wall (and I did ask my dining companions if they minded). Maybe I should invest in a little food pusher. I suspect that would get almost as many stares as licking the plate, though.

[Otterpop]

Yeah, the plate lickers in my household walk around on all fours and poo outside.  If you don't do that you don't get to lick your plate, at least not where I can see you.  (Still, those two-legged bathroom users sometimes try...)

[Cat-Fu]

I'll admit to licking the plate at home (hey, I'm a really good cook who has a deep love for sauces), but at restaurants I try to be cunning with my fork to get every last drop of sauce.

I agree with the PP who said that this is just linkbait. I highly doubt that this is going to become a Thing.

[Carpathia]

I'm ashamed to admit that I once did something similar in a restaurant. The sauce was really good, but we'd finished our meal and were all sat around the table talking of various things and I suddenly realised I'd been absent-mindedly dipping my finger in the sauce on my plate and licking it (finger, not plate)

I promise I would not have done it if I'd been thinking - and I put my plate off to the side or put a paper napkin over it nowadays!

[Barb3000]

We have a not-very-close friend who does a variation on this. When he is through eating, he scrapes the fork over the plate (tines pointing up) to get every last bit of food. Repeatedly. And this is at a buffet, where he could easily go back for seconds if he wanted more food.

 He is otherwise a nice person and I wonder if this is one of the reasons he is still single at "40+". All I can think of is something ingrained from childhood, as in, Clean Plate Club. He does have a strange father.

[Venus193]

Bad table manners is a huge turn-off for most women.  Nobody wants to be embarrassed by a date's bad manners, never mind a spouse's.