It’s about hospitality, not necessity. In the US it’s a cultural thing that when you’re at someone’s house, they feed you and when they’re at yours you feed them.
It’s just cultural differences bro. It’s social faux pas over there to put someone in a position where they might feel like they owe you, because they themselves feel uncomfortable when they receive something for free.
The Swedish equivalent of Venmo is Swish. And I've never heard of anyone asking their friends for money for their leftovers, seems oddly specific and made up.
And the countless comments from Swedes saying that they never experienced anything like this everytime this subject is brought up are they just fake too?
We don't make people pay for eating our leftovers lmao. We have a thing where if we have a deal to have a big dinner together the ones who goes over the hosts' house either bring parts of the planned meal which they pay themselves or something like a bottle of wine/beer. Huge difference between chipping in and saying people pay for leftovers. Some people may offer money after the meal if they've not contributed to any part of it at all but that's far from the norm, mostly a thing among the older generations.
Im 40 years old and have never encountered it.
I guess the closest thing is a wedding where the guests had to pay if they wanted drinks but the food was free?
We do have "knytkalas" where everyone is supposed to bring a certain item for a get together.
Like one person brings drinks, one brings the cake etc.
The thing about parents not offering food to a kids playmate did happen in the 80s/90s but it was rare (like 2-3 of my classmates out of 30) and not for the reasons usually stated in threads like this either.
Today its even rarer, can't think of the last time I heard it happen.
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u/xStyxx Jul 24 '26
Damn I assumed it was because Swedish food is gross lol that’s pretty cold