To not like being fed leftovers when I am a guest?

[alfabetty]

Or am I being precious? We went to see some friends for an afternoon, for something to eat while the children play. So not expecting a big meal, just snacks.

What is produced is 'cheese & biscuits'. Which is fine. But every bit of cheese has already been hacked about and partially eaten. So it appears to be leftovers from another meal.

AIBU to expect that if you have guests and are serving them cheese and biscuits, you either cut a chunk off a larger block from your well-stocked pantry (my preferred option... ) or nip out and buy a few new lumps of cheese to serve up?

This is what the cheeseboard I was presented with looked like -

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hacked about cheddar (plus crumbs)

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noseless brie

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sort of round lump of white cheese with apricot

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edam with wax flapping

except the formatting on MN has give each cheese one straight edge. Which none of them had.

OK I'll give it a go.

Look on my profile. The cuts start at the nose and work back to the heel. I did number them but I don't think you can make them out at this magnification. Also the final cuts include the rind and can be done in any order and pretty well any old way - it's not going to last long enough to worry about it at that stage, and everyone's pissed by then.

(Oh boy, anal or what?)

Can't quite believe that I have just looked at 6 pictures of cheese and crackers Cumfy.

Although that picture of a bit of cheese sitting on a slice of tomato made me want to vom and run around the room shrieking 'Urgh wet cheese wet cheese' and make boak noises.

Cheddar sitting on a big wet tomato, it is very very wrong.

But Jux, surely cut number 1 cuts the brie's nose off? I thought you were supposed to cut slices so each slice has a little rind and a little nose... like cutting micro-cake slices? Either that or cutting at an angle from next to the tip to about 2 thirds of the way up the side and then cutting all subsequent slices parallel to the first cut so again you have slices but the brie still stays vaguely triangular?

Where do people learn to cut cheese?

Is there a special cheese cutting school?

Of all the AIBU threads I've seen, this is the most U!

Galena, that is a misconception perpetuated by people who have not been to Cheese Cutting School.

Another relevant, but not central, rule one learns there is that one should break one's bread not bite it.

Who the hell has a well stocked pantry these days... sounds like something a 1950s perfect housewife might have had.

blimey - I'm glad the OP has never been to my house for a playdate

Thankfully the lovely BitterandTwisted has been back on more than once occasion despite me feeding her DD (and her when we both remember to eat lunch ) proper "end of the weeks food" lunches. And some of it the type that many on MN balk at.........you know - cheap ham, and "buttery" spreads, and white bread.....

oh yes - bread is always broken and buttered as you go along.

My mum taught me that when I was about 5 and we were due to go out for a meal with our "posh" relatives

op - and those fussing about how cheese should be cut - have you ever seen the cheeseboard in a decent french restaurant? not one where you get your own carefully cut pieces on your own plate. but a proper board that the waiter lets you have for 10 minutes. it looks like it has been put together by 2-year old chimps, and then half-eaten by their mates. but it tastes damn good.

YABU. Obv.

This is a wonderful thread.

I'd say it all boils down to how formal/informal your food-based interactions with these particular people usually are. I visit friends for dinner once a week and would be more than happy to eat their leftovers (or previously opened food products), and they enjoy my sometimes experimental desserts. And equally I wouldn't expect my parents to get in "new cheese" expecially for me if I was visiting them. But if I was a guest at someone's house and hadn't been before, and there was a bit more formality involved, then I might be a little cautious about eating their very hacked-about stilton.

Hatwoman, you are so right. There is no such thing as left-over cheese.

hatwoman, I was not born in a barn, I have experienced a fine french cheeseboard on many occasions.

But half-eaten out of my mate's fridge just didn't do it for me....

This thread is the funniest thing.

No matter how many people tell the op how unreasonable she is being, she is refusing to admit it - why post in the first place if you don't want to hear the answer?

'Half-eaten' (LOL!) by strangers in a restaurant is okay, 'half eaten' by a friend is somehow not.

Some friends of mine have come for lunch and have had real leftovers - eg cold meat left over from Sunday lunch (with non-leftover bread and pre-opened or should that be half eaten chutney).

I didn't realise the horror of what I did until now. Funny thing is though, they still come round for lunch!

Oh and don't forget that not everyone who goes to fine French restaurants has been to Cheese Cutting School. [sigh]