WHY is it considered rude to eat in the street?

[policywonk]

Following on from another thread... I've never understood the thinking behind this (in fact, I'd never heard it at all until I was in my twenties).

Is it a middle class thing? Is it because street food is considered to be the preserve of the poor (I know this is the case in some developing countries)?

I can understand why it's inconsiderate to eat strong-smelling foods in enclosed spaces, but other than that I'm bemused by this one.

In it's basic terms it's all about good manners. You shouldn't don't wee in your garden. You wee in the loo. You eat in the kitchen/dining room. And so on and so forth.

Dunno, but one of my old school rules was that eating in the street was a hanging offence

We all ignored, of course, and chewed cola bottles with our mouths open all the way home

Because you eat sitting down at the table, not wondering around.

It depends on circumstances, though, doesn't it?

Maybe... do you think that's the explanation? I mean, there are other good reasons for not weeing in the street (it can be a health hazard, causes unpleasant smells and breaks a few taboos around privacy and nudity). But there aren't really any good reasons for not eating on the street, so long as people aren't throwing food debris around.

Its a UK thing though isnt it? I have lived in the UK, Spain, France, Italy and now Switzerland and its only in the UK that there seems to be a problem

There isn't any good reason to object to eating on the street as long as people dispose of their litter properly. I think this comes from the same loopy school of useless rules as the one about having to wear a hat or gloves when it's neither cold nor raining.

The French are funny about it. Strangers (usually the elderly) may will raise an eyebrow and wish you a bon appetit, partic if it's not actually mealtime (gasp)

Me too, pw.

My mother had a huge thing about this, even though she was working class & we lived on a council estate. (And I wasn't allowed to play on the front doorstep. She was a terrible social-climbing snob.)

After she died I found a letter from a GI she had gone out with during the war, about what fun they'd had walking down the street eating chips out of the paper like a couple of kids

Hypocrite!!!

I don't get it either. I think it's an old-fashioned thing.

you can't buy a graggs sausage roll - then take it home to eat - that's just madness. it must be consumed immediatley.

Really Castille, I never found the French to be funny about it (in Paris)

sorry should have been really castille? Looks a bit rude otherwise, not my intention.

it always looks really common to me....

associated with poor people who are used to eating with their fingers...

I love wandering about chomping a steakbake [common]

I am a true toff and love to munch on the move. And wee in the garden

You should be sitting at a table to eat, walking around the streets doing it is so far removed from the acceptable way to eat that it implies that you don't know how to behave.

In cities full of frantically busy people and students it's become ok, but in rural villages the old folk will stare and frown

Yes, but castille, French men think nothing of weeing in the street.

I find it distasteful to be walking along and having people walking towards me with a pasty/sandwich in their hand with huge chunks taken out of it while they're spitting morsels of food everywhere when talking to the person they are with, all they time waving what they have in their hand around.
It looks horrendous, food gets dropped on the floor, it also makes people look like greedy so-and-so's who have no self control to wait until they are sat down to eat, plus they are likely to come wondering in to shops eating curry and chips/ pasty with their fingers and touching the clothes after they have just shovelled another mouthful in. so grease marks/ food stains mark the clothes which then have to be reduced or they wont sell.

However those are just my personal opinions.

Rant Over.

But maybe that's just Parisiens.

daftpunk, you utterly superior DM-reading person, do you never ever ever eat a chocolate bar, or apple on the move?

What is the difference between those and a Greggs sausage roll, or bag of chips?

(I would draw the line at a roast dinner...)

I have a bit of a thing about this actually. Eating is civilised by the ritual of sitting down, using nice plates, cutlery etc. It's about the ritual as much as the food. When you decouple food from the rituals that accompany it you could just be any animal filling its face.

Eating in the street shows a lack of respect for what you are eating IMO. Given that it's usually crappy food that gets eaten in such a manner that isn't terribly surprising.

I'm not a snob really

Terribly terribly bad manners. just not the done thing.

My fil was a policeman (retired 20 yrs ago) and the other day my mil reported to me in a horrified tone that she's seen 2 police officers drinking water in the street -btw this was in very hot weather.

I only realsied it was thought impolite to eat in the street when I was about 12 and reading a book called 'summer term' about boarding school girls.

Are ice creams from a van ok?
What about picnics?

Ponders;

i wouldn't even eat a bar of chocolate in the street....it's common and gives off all the wrong vibes..

1)..i'm a pig and can't wait to get home

or

2)..i'm staving and can only afford cheap junk food which i have to ram down my throat asap