Serving in the circle

Serving might be almost as important as the cooking itself. There are also a few "do's" and "don't's" in serving.

• It is good that the people who have cooked also do the serving. They might be able to answer questions on the food (is it spicy?, is there garlic in it? ...),especially to people with allergies

• PLEASE DO wash your hands before serving, especially if you serve with your hands (chapatti, burgers, …)

• PLEASE DO check quantities and look around the circle while you're serving. When you've served about one quarter of the circle, check your pot to see whether you've not yet served more than one quarter of your pot. Check this again when you're halfway. You can easily adapt quantities, give more or give less to be sure that you can serve the whole circle round.

• PLEASE DO make sure everybody gets some of everything, however little there is.. It's better that everybody has a little of one item, than that some people haven't got any of it. It's also better to give only a little in the first serving round and have leftovers for a second serving.

• PLEASE DO make a remark if you see people take seconds with their own spoon. Some people might not be aware of doing something wrong, and they won't realize until someone mentions/explains this.

• PLEASE DON'T allow people to take seconds before some of every dish has been served to everyone, also the servers. Especially a server's plate tends to be forgotten once in a while, and this could be rather frustrating after all the (hard) work. It's not only practical to wait until you're sure everybody has been served. It is also a matter of respect.

• PLEASE DON'T hold people's plates or bowls over the pot (to prevent spilling food on the ground). It's better to drop something on the ground than that something drops from the plate into the pot. You never know how clean the plate is, especially the bottom-side of it.

• PLEASE DON'T let people take their own chapatti or burger, … from the pan/box/…, but give it to them. You never know whether people have got clean hands ; you can only be sure about your own. Think about all the not so nice things that might get spread and shared into the food if over 200 different hands (some straight from the shit-pit or from somebody who is sick) go into the chapattis or burgers.