Going out for lunch

[ladyofastolat]

(Ow. Typing is hard. I've managed to slice my thumb on some rose-scented shower gel, thus confirming my belief that Lush is a shop that come with a health warning. I'd previously wanted one on the grounds of its extremely potent smell, but now I realise that for all their happy, fluffy, "I am natural!" labelling, their products have TEETH.)

Anyway... I'm reading a book at the moment (the brand new Dresden Files novel, but that's probably not important, unless it turns out that we're talking about a UK/US difference here) and at some point, some people are trying to grab someone who's currently at work. For various reasons, going into his office is not advisable. Not to worry, they say. He's bound to leave the office to have lunch.

I don't think I've ever left my work place in order to have lunch - i.e. to eat lunch in a cafe, restaurant, bar or similar. If I'm out and about over lunch time, I will buy a sandwich and look for a pretty park bench or car park to eat it in. None of my colleagues ever go out for lunch, either. Perhaps once every fortnight or so, one or other of them will have forgotten to bring any lunch, and will pop out to the Co-op to buy a sandwich, which they will then bring back to eat, but that's it.

To me, eating out at lunch is an extravagent thing that only happens on holidays or rare special occasions. It's definitely not something that gets done on a normal work day - or indeed a normal weekend day, when at home. So what's more unusual here: my feeling that eating out at lunch is extravagent and unusual, or the book's assumption that going out for lunch is normal, expected behaviour?

Comments

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I see you've had US people here to comment with more first-hand experience, but I was going to say I thought it probably was at least partly a UK/US difference, and for a reason not yet mentioned. When we were visiting Kargicq and Neuromancer in the US, one of the things that really struck me was how much cheaper and more plentiful the opportunities were for eating out. I mean that there seemed to be a much greater variety of quickly-served and affordable options - you weren't stuck between either fast-food burgers or a 'proper restaurant'. It really was barely more expensive to buy a simple, promptly served, sit-down meal than to buy a ready-meal or even ingredients to make your own meal from a grocery store. Given this, eating out regularly seems much less extravagant than it would here, and the wide choice of cuisine and speed of service makes it a more convenient option than it would seem if we are just thinking of what's available here.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Ah. Interesting point. I hadn't thought about the cost thing, but I guess that would make a big difference to attitudes to eating out, yes.