Time of day for eating dinner/lunch

badjak said:
Kids are sometimes allowed wine with dinner, but it generally is diluted with water and only in a home setting. They can't just go out and order wine
Then besides just saying: Crazy.....
What's the last time you heard about binge drinking in France?
Kids learn to deal with alcohol, like they learn to deal with money.
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That’s a difficult topic because whilst the binge drinking that some countries take part in (including the UK) are always hot news they skip over the bit where France, Spain, Portugal and Italy’s way of consuming alcohol statistically gives them much higher rates of alcoholism. It’s just a politely quiet hidden problem.

The UK doesn’t even make it onto most alcohol rankings there are so many countries ahead of them on alcohol consumption, dependence and alcohol related disease! Quite a surprise given how it’s presented to us.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
They don’t eat at lunch or dinner at 5pm though so it’s an unusual time to pick.
And it’s not usual in the UK to eat a main meal at 8 or 9 pm
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In The UK timing really varies. It used to be a class thing to an extent. Upper classes ate dinner at 8. Lower classes had an evening meal (often called 'tea' and not to be confused with afternoon tea!) When they returned from work- often at around 6 pm. To confuse things further, dinner for the lower classes was the name for a meal at around midday, whereas the upper classes called that luncheon.

The above nomenclature and times of dining have become very blurred these days. Some still eat at around 6 or when they get home from work and some still call that 'tea'. Others eat a main evening meal at more like 8pm and call it dinner. Many people here now call the midday meal 'lunch' which is an abbreviation of luncheon.

SandwichShortOfAPicnic, I'm not at all sure if you are right or wrong about it being not usual to eat a main meal at 8pm in the UK. I know I do that, or even later. Kids used to get fed earlier and went to bed earlier so that we could have dinner in peace.

Also, many people have long commutes from work so can't eat dinner at 6pm.
 
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Morning Glory said:
In The UK timing really varies. It used to be a class thing to an extent. Upper classes ate dinner at 8. Lower classes had an evening meal (often called 'tea' and not to be confused with afternoon tea!) When they returned from work- often at around 6 pm. To confuse things further, dinner for the lower classes was the name for a meal at around midday, whereas the upper classes called that luncheon.

The above nomenclature and times of dining have become very blurred these days. Some still eat at around 6 or when they get home from work and some still call that 'tea'. Others eat a main evening meal at more like 8pm and call it dinner. Many people here now call the midday meal 'lunch' which is an abbreviation of luncheon.

SandwichShortOfAPicnic, I'm not at all sure if you are right or wrong about it being not usual to eat a main meal at 8pm in the UK. I know I do that, or even later. Kids used to get fed earlier and went to bed earlier so that we could have dinner in peace.

Also, many people have long commutes from work so can't eat dinner at 6pm.
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Yes it is blurred, particularly if children are involved but most of the folk where I live in the UK eat at around 6-7pm (when at home) and yes some folk do eat later, I was one of them for many years.
My entire childhood my mum always served dinner between 8-9pm.
But our lunchtime (if you have to go to school or work for a living which most of us do) is fixed and it was impossible to make it from lunch to the evening meal without having to eat something else to tide you over.
Going to bed with a full belly is not my favourite thing by a long chalk.
I did know a few (not many) other children who’s food wasn’t served til later because we used to moan to each other about how hungry we were and unsurprisingly like me as soon at they left home they fed themselves and their own families earlier.

The upper classes dining times don’t really matter much to me, the elite make up 6% of the population so I don’t base what’s a normal (as in average) time to eat on what they do.
 
Coming from a background of critical equipment repairs, which don't know what time it is, I eat when it's ready or I'm able. Now that I'm semi-retired I eat whenever. Rest of my family, coming from institutional timing(teaching, hospitals, office), eats their meals almost down to the minute, daily, forever. *blah*
 
I have very regimented meal times most days, MrsT does not, and it does lead to some unpleasantness occasionally when I serve up supper (more on that later) at our usual 5:30PM-6PM, and she says, “I’m not very hungry, I just at lunch an hour ago.”

Names - I was brought up to call the three meals breakfast, dinner, and supper. “Lunch” to this day is a particular peeve of my dad’s, and if someone says “lunch” within earshot of him, they’ll either get instructed on the inappropriateness of the word, or ruthlessly mocked for using it.

Always the bridge-builder, I say breakfast, lunch, and supper. These days, though, around where I live, the three meals are breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Supper’s been left on the trash heap of history.

I like the term, though - I think it has a certain coziness and intimacy to it that “dinner” lacks.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
The upper classes dining times don’t really matter much to me, the elite make up 6% of the population so I don’t base what’s a normal (as in average) time to eat on what they do.
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Nor me. I was referencing them historically rather than now. The upper classes had quite an influence on British cuisine, not least because many of the upper classes employed French chefs back in Victorian times and before. It quite fascinating to study the history of cooking in the UK. But that is another story...

It's sort if interesting though, that if people 'go out for dinner' in the UK (meaning in the evening) then I think (but have no particular evidence) that most would go after 7pm. Similarly, if you are invited to dinner at someone's house then it would normally be ( in my experience) around 8pm.

I'm also intrigued by how people who work full time manage to eat as early as 6pm. It takes bit of time to prepare a meal, plus it takes time to travel home from work. I don't think I ever got home from work by 6pm. I'm sure they can't all be so super organised that they batch cook at weekends. I suppose that is why ready meals are so popular in the UK!
 
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Morning Glory said:
I'm also intrigued by how people who work full time manage to eat as early as 6pm.
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Nowadays, it’s easy, because I (and many others) work from home either part or full time. I generally start “the evening meal” between 4PM-4:30PM, and sometimes even do the prep work over lunch.

Before that, though, I’ve nearly always been able to get home by 5PM at the very latest - I think I’ve been lucky in that jobs where I’ve had to work later, I’ve lived close by, and jobs where I’ve lived farther away, I’ve been able to leave early.

My current job, when I was going into the office (two days a week), I never arrived before 10AM, and I never stayed past 2:45PM.
 
Morning Glory said:
Nor me. I was referencing them historically rather than now. The upper classes had quite an influence on British cuisine, not least because many of the ipper classes employed French chefs back in Victorian mes and before. It quite fascinating to study the history of cooking in the UK. But that is another story...
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They certainly did. They had (and still do have) a large influence on everything the plebeians did/do.
Food history is fascinating.

Morning Glory said:
It's sort if interesting though, that if people 'go out for dinner' in the UK (meaning in the evening) then I think (but have no particular evidence) that most would go after 7pm. Similarly, if you are invited to dinner at someone's house then it would normally be ( in my experience) around 8pm.
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I think that’s true. 7.30 for 8’ sounds quite normal.
I have noticed as I’ve got older none of my friends want to eat later now, the tables booked for 7pm (7.30pm at the latest which is just enough time to get home showered and back out the door.
In fact most of the time we meet for lunch instead 😂

Morning Glory said:
I'm also intrigued by how people who work full time manage to eat as early as 6pm. It takes bit of time to prepare a meal, plus it takes time to travel home from work. I don't think I ever got home from work by 6pm. I'm sure they can't all be so super organised that they batch cook at weekends. I suppose that is why ready meals are so popular in the UK!
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I think it’s a mix depending on your disposition. My 9-5 friends use meal prep (slow cooker or cook ahead) or common choices seems to be stir fry, ready meal or pizza etc
One things for sure when they finish work they don’t care about the nutritional content, or want to spend any time preparing food, they just want everyone fed fast with no mess!
 
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TastyReuben said:
Nowadays, it’s easy, because I (and many others) work from home either part or full time. I generally start “the evening meal” between 4PM-4:30PM, and sometimes even do the prep work over lunch.

Before that, though, I’ve nearly always been able to get home by 5PM at the very latest - I think I’ve been lucky in that jobs where I’ve had to work later, I’ve lived close by, and jobs where I’ve lived farther away, I’ve been able to leave early.

My current job, when I was going into the office (two days a week), I never arrived before 10AM, and I never stayed past 2:45PM.
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I think you got lucky. Lots of folk work in a 9 to 5.30 job on the premises in the UK (my kids tor example). Working in retail ( physical shops,) or pharmacies, for example, doesn't allow for home working. Home working here has certainly increased but for many is not possible. I worked as a senior academic manager in the university sector. I could sometimes work from home but it would have been difficult to be in charge of a large student and staff community which included technical staff, maintenance staff etc. without being there and being seen.

'Being physically there' applies to many jobs, of course, such as nursing, being a care worker, working in a factory or working in hospitality etc.

SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
One things for sure when they finish work they don’t care about the nutritional content, or want to spend any time preparing food, they just want everyone fed fast with no mess!
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Yes. Sad really.
 
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Here we eat dinner between 5.30 and 6.30 as my wife still works full time. Sometimes she arrives home ravenous as she never had lunch. Saturday is pretty casual and I try to cook something nice. Then its about 7.30 ish
Sunday family dinner I try to eat at 5.30 as kids have school the next day .
Saturday with friends normally entree at 7.30. Dessert about 9ish.

Russ
 
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