1. Be comfortable in your own skin. If you are not totally comfortable, act as if. The more you dine alone, the easier it gets. 2. Ignore anyone who you think is looking at you and wondering why you're dining alone. They're probably just jealous. 3. Be friendly with the staff. They are there to make sure you have the best experience. 4. When appropriate, engage with fellow diners. Small talk can go a long way. 5. If you want, bring something to read. A magazine, a book, or your phone (with the volume off). 6. Request a side, corner, or window table where you will have a view and will not feel like the room centerpiece. 7. If you're so inclined, capture your experience with photos and share them on social media outlets. People will enjoy living vicariously through you. 8. Sit at the chef's counter or bar, when possible. It will provide instant entertainment and ease in making friends. 9. Above all, don't forget: You are a paying customer and deserve the same great treatment as everyone else. Speak up if you need to. (READ MORE)
Eating Alone Li-Young Lee - 1957- I've pulled the last of the year's young onions. The garden is bare now. The ground is cold, brown and old. What is left of the day flames in the maples at the corner of my eye. I turn, a cardinal vanishes. By the cellar door, I wash the onions, then drink from the icy metal spigot. Once, years back, I walked beside my father among the windfall pears. I can't recall our words. We may have strolled in silence. But I still see him bend that way-left hand braced on knee, creaky-to lift and hold to my eye a rotten pear. In it, a hornet spun crazily, glazed in slow, glistening juice. It was my father I saw this morning waving to me from the trees. I almost called to him, until I came close enough to see the shovel, leaning where I had left it, in the flickering, deep green shade. White rice steaming, almost done. Sweet green peas fried in onions. Shrimp braised in sesame oil and garlic. And my own loneliness. What more could I, a young man, want.
Eating Alone: Aristotle and the Culture of the Meal "Aristotle identified man’s eating habits as one of the cornerstones of civilization—one of two activities that highlighted the nature of man’s exquisiteness (and barbarousness). The importance of eating to the human condition should be self-evident to everyone. But what is the big deal about eating as it emanates from religion, the ancient philosophers, and the traditional way of life?" (Read More)