Picky bits?

[HelenInHeels]

I hate this! I saw it on a M&S advert and it gave me the willies. I don't know why it sounds gross but it puts me off food as does 'dirty' fries. Yeuch!

If I hated anyone I wouldn't be having them anywhere me or my picky tea

How picky of you!

Why do you want your friends to eat cold meats???

Who mentioned anything at all about cold meats?

That's what picky bits are. Rubbish foods nobody really wants all mashed together in a revolting melange

Cold meats and cheap coleslaw and a reconstituted chicken sausage roll and some crisps that are a bad flavour and a spoonful of baked beans close to the sell by and maybe some olives

Not in this house! You can do shit tea if you like. But our picky teas aren't shit. We always enjoy them and they are never left overs. We buy things, especially for our picky teas. You do you though

All picky teas are shit! Alllll of them
(And as above the name carries connotations of monkeys eating each others fleas)

Just make the effort to come up with a proper menu and cook it

It's like when people give you twenty five trays of mismatched m&s oven things and call it dinner

So much PASTRY

What should you call it? Not a proper meal but either various party bits out of the freezer or not a real meal (like meat and three veg) with a bit of salad, what is the proper name for it?

I love a picky tea.

All the haters are obviously doing it wrong!

A disappointment

Blinis, smoked salmon and quail eggs with salad and a few other bits. Seems good to me.

Why… why would you serve these, let alone mash them?

Blergggg gross why not throw in some caviar while you're at it(but I wouldn't call that a "picky tea", it's a starter)

Ok. You're getting very angry at nothing here. Chill.

I wouldn't but a picky tea person would

Bits and bobs of course. I felt on this thread we had all come together in one big melange and agreed on bits and bobs? And then one of us would write to M&S and get them to amend their signage to the "Bits and Bobs" section of the chilled row.

Depends how much and why not a bit of caviar too. And leaves a bit of space for cheese and biscuits afterwards which you never get to after a full dinner, or I don't anyway. Just a light dinner, or if you like starter then pudding, miss out the mains once in a while.

You make 'picky bits' sound akin to skip surfing, @Stuffisperplexing. From descriptions here by most posters who proudly admit to picky teas, these are generally left overs put out for the family to help themselves- so of the same standard as all their regular food, just not served as a nameable dish. I can't get on board with the 'picky bits' term (I think the M&S marketeers are trying to make it a 'thing' you have to buy from them) but equally see nothing at all wrong with eating leftovers or stray items from the fridge. What else would you do with it?

If I looked in my larder for food that needed using I'd be putting out some cheese (various), olives, cold chicken, pickles left from Christmas Eve, bread rolls and fruit. There's some macaroni to heat up and
a few slices of ham. It was all brought in for other meals but not finished. I would call it High Tea. Can someone tell me if that would fit the bill?

Some houmous perhaps would be nice with that too?

Me too.

Yes it would @Nordione1 And while I'm on a culinary roll I've got a bit of hummus and some baba ganouch- and flat breads that need eating, and some carrots - if peeling and batonning doesn't disqualify them...

I like to eat picky tea sometimes; I don’t call it that, but no problem if others do. My parents eat like that every dinner and often for lunch too, especially in summer. I say to DH I’ll just out some snacks with our aperitif (or for lunch) and it works well as he has a lot of digestive trouble and often can’t stomach a full meal.

My favourite picky bits are olives, radishes, cucumber sticks, warmed blinis with tzatziki, maybe a little cornichon, some grated carrot salad, the crier off the end of the bread, and then perhaps a bit of hard sheep’s cheese, if I’m not full.

N.B. Dirty fries is a terrible expression!

I wonder if you're veering into the hors d'oeuvres category?? Someone else help with this please!