What do you call this type of meal?

[tectonicplates]

I had never heard the term "picky tea" before joining MN.

I'm talking about the kind of meal where you have some slices of bread, a selection of vegetables and dips, cheese, and often some leftovers and things so it turns out a bit random. You put all the food in the middle of the table and everyone helps themselves.

What do you call this meal in your family?

Picnic tea or buffet tea here too

Lucky dip in my house as all the scraps get chucked on the table in the vain hope someone will eat them

I don't know how to quote but I was asked if I really only do it once a year. Basically, yes, because we don't have leftovers generally so a buffet tea I have to buy in all the bits for and it's a massive faff putting everything out on plates. I only do it over the Christmas period on Christmas Day and boxing Day. The rest of the year we have proper meals.

I've been doing this recently for weekend lunch. I call it "smorgasbord"!! It's not, but I like the word!!

Sunday Tea, because we always had it on Sundays. Rolls or buttered bread, ham and cheese, big bowl of salad, sausage rolls or pork pies or scotch eggs, jam tarts or whatever other cake Mr Kipling had on offer that week. I loved it. Best meal of the week.

Get you with your proper meals, zuraka!

We call it a mezze meal.

I usually try and style it out by keeping strictly Greek, Italian or a French.

So Greek would be a feta and olive salad, Tzatsiki, Tarasmolata and Pitta.
Italian would be Milano Salami, Focacchia, olives, tomato basics and mozzarella salad.
French would be cheese heavy with baguettes and saucisson Sec.

We call it a smorgasbord in our household. It’s a favourite all round, and the DC especially like to use partitioned plates to keep all the bits separate.

Dh calls it bits and pieces.
The dds called it lunch dinner when they were little.
I don't really call it anything unless it's themed, so could be tapas, mezze, cheeseboard, nibbles etc.

Pot luck supper

We call it 'picky bits'.

It's a 'pick your own' in our house.

How do people not have leftovers , surely you can’t plan exactly the amount your family will eat at every single meal? Or am I just greedy and cook too much, there’s only three of us but we always end up with random bits and pieces that can be put together for at least one meal a week (or 2/3 lunches at the moment when we are all at home).

Anyone remember the thread on here some years ago when there was at least one mumsnetter who would never eat leftovers or ‘random bits’ - she just threw them out.

I don't call it anything other than lunch or dinner. The only meal that gets its own moniker is a Sunday lunch. Otherwise it's just 'we're having leftovers and whatever's in the fridge for lunch'.

I suppose buffet or help yourself, there’s no special name for it if everyone is dining. But if I plate some of these items up as a solution to dd eating on her own it is called ‘cold things’, in honour of the server of the very best cold things, granny herself. (Q: Nice time at Grannies? A: Yes. Q: what did you get for your tea? A: Cold Things!)

Wednesfield Salad here (v.little salad involved).

Cold tea.

We call it “foraging” at our house. We don’t get everything out, each person just goes to the fridge and pantry and pulls out what interests them.

If it's an actual meal and out for everyone to pick in our house it would be a buffet. We often have bits n bobs for lunch - plated up food that isn't a sandwich or a cooked meal (crackers, ham, veg, cheese etc etc). To me picky bits describe two or more items available to help yourself to not at a meal time.

A make do

Tapas

We just say picky food

My kids call it monkey tea because it usually includes bananas and apples!

Fruits de fridge. Pronounced as in the french ‘fruits de mer’

Leftovers