Here’s a little drilling down on the cultural barriers to asking for doggy bags in the UK.
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Green Seal restaurant standards just received a nice boost in the form of national recognition (from ANSI). Not that I have a clue about design, 
but I’m still not wild about the Green Seal logo–it seems more blue than green and isn’t that a check, not a seal? Who’d argue with a green-colored seal (the animal)?
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Another tree gleaning article must mean that the heart of the harvest season has arrived. And if that means a glut of tomatoes for you, here are 30 ideas on how to use them.
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You’ll find some good composting basics in this piece–“The Garden State”–in the Jersey section of the NYT.
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Me again, with more about taking leftovers home.
Me and mine regularly decide what bits of finish off based on what will and will not reheat well. IOW, once you’ve most of what you want, finish the fish and take the chocolate cake home.
Second, I’ve taken non-food home too. It all started in college, when my parents took my roommate and I out for ribs. Waitron asked if we want to take any of the remainder with us. Roommate said “The ribs.” Waitron picked up the uneaten ribs. “Oh, no, not those,” said roommate, “I want *these*,” pointing to the stripped bones.
See, my roommate was a physical anthropology major, doing her thesis on how to tell what kind of animal has chewed bones found at digs. All though the meal she’d observed how we (random sample humans) ate meat off long bones. She wanted the stripped bones to examine under a microscope, to determine the characteristics of the tooth markings.
But first she made soup, using the stripped bones for stock.
In her honor, I try to arrange for a credible excuse to take home stock-makings – leaving a bit of meat on, for example. At a certain Chinese restaurant with superb roast duck, available by the 1/4, I baldly ask for the carcass.
I haven’t quite yet gotten to the point of taking home food leavings just so it goes into the compost instead of the trash can, but watch this space for further developments.
WillyB–you *must* keep me up to date on this. Taking home food scraps to keep them out of the landfill would be revolutionary! It’d be like a less self-interested version of freeganism.
You’d be taking the restaurant’s (pre)trash, with its consent.
As for taking stock-making ingredients, that’s taking doggy bagging to a place I hadn’t considered. Well done. And I can totally imagine the shenanigans involved with trying to do so in the least socially awkward way–such as leaving a few bites on a rib.
Taking compost inputs home isn’t totally unself-interested. I use my compst in my gardens; making it is practically free, buying it very expensive.
OK, fine. How about enlightened self-interest?