請客

If someone is buying you a meal, how expensive ar you going to order?

I had an experience recently. I was among the many 被請者之一. The person who 請客 limited the order to be, say, $10. I didn’t really care about the amount cos I wasn’t hungry anyway so I ended up sharing a small dish with my accompanying partner. In the beginning, I thought that the 請客者 was so 小家，要請就不要限住，but after all the food arrived, I realized the necessity of the limitation.

One of the person order this one big dish that she couldn’t even finish. When asked why she didn’t order the small one instead, she said something to the effect of bcos the big dish is $9.99. So, regardless of whether she was able to finish all the food, she ordered something that would max out the limit.

But really, I am not sure if the lady’s behavior was induced by the limitation. If there’s no limitation, would the lady order the most expensive item on the menu? Or did she order the maximum allowable bcos there was an number imposed that she could use as a reference?

On one hand, I still thought that the 請客之人 was a little bit 小家 (only a little bit bcos really, that person was paying for everybody which was like 20 or us and potentially, there were more than one of those ppl who would use their max limit like that lady. I just didn’t know cos I was on the one end of the table). On the other hand, 做乜事就算食唔哂都係要洒人哋ｄ錢先開心？呢個係乜心態？損人不利己．人哋請你食嘢係一個 nice gesture, 唔係前世欠你架喎，做乜好似要食到人窮咁先高興？

Discussed this issue with 詹占 afterwards. My usual practice when 被請 is that I usually won’t order the expensive stuff but the regular cheap to medium-priced stuff. 詹占 told me that his practice is to see what the 請客者 is ordering and then he would order something similar or cheaper in value (unless the thing the 請客者 ordered and all the other choices are absolutely disgusting).

I kinda like 詹占's rule of thumb. In this case, the 被請者 doesn’t necessarily have to stick with the cheapest of the cheapest stuff but at the same time, the price is pretty much something that the 請客者 is comfortable with.

What about you? What would you order in this situation?