Take-away food

Take-out or takeout (in North American and Philippine English); also carry-out (in some dialects in the U.S. and Scotland);take-away (in the United Kingdom other than Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Ireland),parcel (in Indian English and Pakistani English), refers to prepared meals or other food items, purchased at a restaurant, that the purchaser intends to eat elsewhere. A concept found in many ancient cultures, take-out food is now common worldwide, with a number of different cuisines and dishes on offer.

The concept of prepared meals to be eaten elsewhere dates back to antiquity. Market and roadside stalls selling food were common in both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. In Pompeii, archaeologists have found a number of thermopolia. These were service counters, opening onto the street, which provided food to be taken away and eaten elsewhere. There is a distinct lack of formal dining and kitchen area in Pompeian homes, which may suggest that eating, or at least cooking, at home was unusual. Over 200 thermopolia have been found in the ruins of Pompeii.

In the cities of medieval Europe there were a number of street vendors selling take-out food. In medieval London, street vendors sold hot meat pies, geese, sheep's feet and French wine, while in Paris roasted meats, squab, tarts and flans, cheeses and eggs were available. A large strata of society would have purchased food from these vendors, but they were especially popular amongst the urban poor, who would have lacked kitchen facilities in which to prepare their own food. However, these vendors often had a bad reputation, often being in trouble with civic authorities reprimanding them for selling infected meat or reheated food. The cooks of Norwich often defended themselves in court against selling such things as "pokky pies" and "stynkyng mackerelles". In 10th and 11th century China, citizens of cities like Kaifeng and Hangzhou were able to buy pastries such as yuebing and congyoubing to take away. By the early 13th century, the two most successful such shops in Kaifeng had "upwards of fifty ovens". A traveling Florentine reported in the late 14th century that in Cairo, people carried picnic cloths made of raw hide to spread on the streets and eat their meals of lamb kebabs, rice and fritters that they had purchased from street vendors. In Renaissance Turkey, many crossroads saw vendors selling "fragrant bites of hot meat", including chicken and lamb that had been spit roasted.

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Wikipedia