My neighbors have friends who supposedly refer to them (my neighbors) as “food snobs.” They, my neighbors genuinely delight in the moniker. But ask them to go to any of the following and the answer is, “Oh, I don’t eat that.” We’ve invited them to join us for sushi, Afghani, Greek, Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican, Colombian, Korean… the list goes on. All no thanks. So what makes them snobs you ask? She doesn’t cook, and they go out for every dinner or bring in food. They eat Italian food, pizza (pizza isn’t Italian food, it’s pizza), kosher deli, bland Americanized Chinese food, and they go to diners. And they’re snobs. I can’t imagine what their friends enjoy eating!
This I understand. My father-in-law did that frequently. Like you say, I know it was with good intentions, but it felt somewhat demeaning after a time. There came a point when I had to simply speak to him privately beforehand and ask him to please let me pick up the check that evening. He respected my desire to reciprocate, and I believe he appreciated that I spoke to him privately rather than argue about it at the table.
