Invited to a sparrow's lunch

[FluentRubyDog]

Having recently had a baby, I made friends with a neighbouring mom. We went together to vote today and she invited me over for lunch. We'll... lesson learned.

The lunch consisted of a kraft cheese slice between 2 slices of bread, crustless and cut in two between us, 5 grapes each, a custard cream and a cup of tea that just about reached middle of a cup to a generous eye.

She's categorically NOT struggling with money. Fridge was in the full view and well stocked. Looking at her you'd never guess she's sparrow minded when it comes to food. We both EBF.

Why then invite me to lunch? I don't even know how to reciprocate without either causing offence or spending 2 hours chatting, starving and trying to breastfeed? Was she trying to get a point across???

I'm from Edinburgh, have lived in Glasgow for 11 years, and I have never understood this joke. Clearly whoever started the myth had never met my granny!

If you say you're not hungry, she'll keep offering different items ("How about a bowl of cereal? Or a yoghurt? Not even a piece of fruit??") with increasing aggression until you accept something. One time, my dad wasn't convincing enough when he said he was fine, so she made him a snack of pie and mash 😂

However,she might not open them!

But this is the same issue as the recent thread about a weekend away where the OP and her boyfriend paid into a kitty to cover breakfasts and snacks, and the OP was horrified that the couple who did the food shop bought enormous amounts of very cheap food — margarine, basic teabags, cheap sliced bread, cheap sausages, battery farm eggs etc, whereas the OP had expected what she said she’d have bought herself for a weekend away, eg wholemeal bread, freerange eggs, fresh pastries, fruit, good coffee .

She interpreted it as them deliberately buying cheap food to spend the difference on alcohol, but we can’t know that. Some people just eat like that.

Likewise, I wouldn’t serve someone a sandwich of Kraft cheese and grapes for lunch, even leaving aside the amount of either food on offer, but we don’t know that this woman doesn’t think an Easi Single sandwich on white sliced pan is a perfectly usual lunch.

Sliced white pan? You don't know any adult who uses normal white bread for sandwiches?

Not to eat themselves, no. Some adults make their kids sandwiches with sliced white pan. I don't know why you're surprised, it's disgusting and a stretch to call it food. As for plastic cheese...

Actually one relative of mine did eat white sliced pan but I only know because I was looking after her close to the end. In a million years she wouldn't have invited a potential new friend around for lunch, she was very odd about food.

Why are you referring to it as normal white bread? It's not normal to me.

Is sliced white pan the same as sliced white bread?

Standard white is by far the most common type of bread bought in the uk

And since not every household has young children it's likely the most common eaten by adults

Yes.

Cereal is probably the most common breakfast item. Would you invite friends around for brunch on a Saturday and put a box of cornflakes on the table?

What region calls it pan instead of bread?

Is Kraft cheese widely bought? Genuine question. I haven't had it for decades. I like real cheese. If I had a rush of blood to the head and bought some, there's no way I'd serve it to anyone else unless I knew they liked it!

Scotland. Plain loaves and pan loaves. Plain loaves are my favourite when I'm north of the border, but they're not easy to find now. They have a gorgeous chewy but soft very dark crust and the crumb has a better texture than the standard white sliced loaf.

Mind you I have reread the OP and realised it was an impromptu same day invitation so that does change things up a bit.

If it's a case of two neighbours walking home together and one, wanting to continue the chats saying "I'm going inside to have lunch, wanna join me" then it makes sense to serve up whatever you would usually eat. It doesn't explain the portions but still not as bad as I originally thought.

Brunch isn't breakfast though is it ?

If I invited them for breakfast then ceral , tea and toast ?

I wouldn't.

Yes, but if I was going to offer pot luck to a casual acquaintance, I'd feel I'd have to say that's what was on offer.

How is that comparable? She made a sandwich for lunch (perfectly normal) and used sliced white bread (again, normal). It's the portions that the OP found surprising, not the use of sliced bread 😂

I would not have offered cheap kraft cheese. But I would forgive that. The portion sizes are awful though.

I would expect a whole round to myself certainly !

... although, as a compulsive over-provisioner, pot luck here would usually be reasonably OK, to be frank. I very definitely belong to the 'Gwan gwan gwan' school of hosting.

I think you're setting the bar quite low if you're celebrating not being attacked with a machete over lunch!

The OP just seemed really outraged. I can appreciate she was hungry, and is breastfeeding, but the woman hosting is a neighbour, so she was going to be able to go home and eat as much as she liked before long — it’s not like she had a long drive with sea-level blood sugar or anything. I would have said it was an ‘Oh, weird’ situation, rather than a ‘post on the internet detailing the exact number of grapes’ situation.

Haven't had plain bread in so many years, but it makes the best soldiers for dippy eggs. Yes, I Like to embrace my inner child sometimes. 😁

Would you serve it up to a guest you'd invited over for lunch though?

I used to enjoy a particularly odd and disgusting to me at any other time of them month; a fish finger sandwich on a wholemeal roll. The thought of it is vile to me now but I always craved it on the first day of my period. There was something else weird about it too that I can't remember now, mushy peas or something bizarre.

I certainly didn't serve it up to guests just because I decided I was eating it that day.

Does anyone have a link to a thread a pp referenced about a couple paying into a kitty to be presented with margarine and other similar items?