Take it away black people!

Let’s face it. In line with whole brand consciousness that black people are famous for; the next most favourite thing black people love… is take-aways.

It doesn’t matter where or what they eat. Take-away is a must. KFC, Spur, Wimpy, anywhere they eat. They just gotta have… a “doggy bag”.

After spending only one week, of being exposed to only a handful of places from where I can eat, I’ve come to notice some very interesting things about how we as black people interact with our food. What we do and not do around meals, etc.

One thing that really struck me today was how out of a table seating six. Every one of them left with a plastic bag in hand. And this, after they all had gone to the bathroom together (well, nothing there… they’re women). But when I walked into the restaurant (Spur to be exact) there were six bags with take-aways all round the table. I actually didn’t think too much of it, but it did seem pretty odd. So I took a table within view of that table so I can see what was going on.
Few minutes later… they all came to their beloved plastic bags, smiles and all, and made their way out towards the door.
Now, they obviously didn’t take that food home so they can eat them at a later time, but to make sure everybody knows where they’d just had dinner. Spur. Not just any old food place. A place where you go for very special occasions, I gathered it was some sort of special occasion, coz one of the ladies had a wrapped gift-looking thing in her hand. To the people, this is the ultimate in splurging your accumulated riches. So obviously you want everybody to know you can afford to eat at Spur every now and then. Even if you get home late at night and all your nosy neighbours are asleep, but you know you gotta keep the plastic bag so you can put rubbish in it and place it outside on top of your half-empty rubbish bin to top it all off. Just to make sure they see it.

Ok, lemme give these God-fearing mortals the benefit of the doubt and say they were really and honestly just taking some food home (maybe for the children) to enjoy later. Ok? Cool.

But how do you explain all six people deciding to do the same thing all at once - ask for a doggy bag? Here’s what I think happened. I think one stopped eating. Probably the one who knows she might never get a chance to enjoy such luxuriously juicy ribs and chips. She’s most probable also the self-appointed leader of the pack. So she stopped eating, claiming she can’t finish her food because she’s had too much orange juice. Asked for a doggy bag so she can eat some more either later tonight, tomorrow or whenever really. So the impressionable “second in command” decided to do the same. Probably with a slightly altered excuse, but it worked. So the excuses kept rolling in one after the other. Maybe five minutes apart or something. But at the end of it all, each one had their own doggy bag being prepared by the waitron.

Still can’t really explain how they all ended up leaving the table empty for whatever destination.

Anyways, I don’t understand black people sometimes. Most of them do things for the next person, rarely for their sole satisfaction. I really don’t understand that.

teh PaperCut, signing out. I’m watching 300, excuse me a moment.