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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

to eat with our eyes

English answer:

to judge food by its appearance

Added to glossary by Mark Nathan
May 10, 2007 08:45
17 yrs ago
4 viewers *
English term

to eat with our eyes

English Other Tourism & Travel Hotel review
"loved the temi but the food could have been more suitable for english people while in the hotel the breakfast was for germans only so we just had jam on toast or ate out but the evening meals we were a bit more adventurous and tried not to eat with our eyes the meatballs?? were delicious but i only tried them because my husband had some"

This is a passage from a hotel review (written in a very Joycean style, if I may say so).
I am not clear what the above phrase means. My guess is that they didn't want to be put off by the appearance of the food (although I have never heard the expression used like this)

Thanks
Responses
3 +8 to judge food by its appearance
3 +3 to eat something having judged about it by appearance
4 to eat only with our eyes
4 just looking at the food, and not eating it
3 rephrased
Change log

May 10, 2007 13:07: Hakki Ucar changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"

May 21, 2007 08:30: Mark Nathan Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (3): Cagdas Karatas, RHELLER, Hakki Ucar

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Discussion

Andrea Re (asker) May 10, 2007:
This is too good (and OT):
"The 1 bedroom appartments are basic and in truth in need of an overall"
Now I think that it is Doctor Who speaking and not Joyce at all:)
BrigitteHilgner May 10, 2007:
It seems to me that the writer found the look of some/most of the food off-putting. She is probably only used to bangers and mash.

Responses

+8
13 mins
Selected

to judge food by its appearance

seems to be what it means here, but as you say, this is not really normal use; usually to eat something (or someone!) with ones eyes is to want to eat it because it looks so good.
Peer comment(s):
agree Vicky Papaprodromou
14 mins
agree Marie-Hélène Hayles : yes - the writer definitely doesn't seem to be using the standard meaning, which is as Mark says.
17 mins
agree kmtext
27 mins
agree Alison Jenner
1 hr
agree vixen
2 hrs
agree Alexandra Tussing
15 hrs
agree Refugio : It is standard language for chefs, who are taught that "we eat with our eyes first."
17 hrs
agree Alfa Trans (X)
12 days
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks to all:)"
+3
8 mins

to eat something having judged about it by appearance

...
Peer comment(s):
agree Vicky Papaprodromou
19 mins
thanks Vicky!
agree Elena Aleksandrova
2 hrs
thanks Elena!
agree Alexandra Tussing
15 hrs
thank you!
Something went wrong...
4 hrs

rephrased

This is obviously not correct English

in the evening, we tried to be more adventurous and not only "eat with our eyes" (in other words, actually EAT something they admired or were curious about); the meatballs were delicious

related expressions might be "to devour with one's eyes" ; eye candy

Something went wrong...
19 hrs

to eat only with our eyes

Try not just to take the food in with one's eyes but actually eat it.

That's how I read it.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 19 hrs (2007-05-11 03:59:22 GMT)
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Or, "try to take in the food not only with our eyes."
Something went wrong...
1 day 18 hrs

just looking at the food, and not eating it

To interprete the term, one would have to read the whole text since it is relatively unusual to be used anyhow. So, reading the whole text from the beginning, it sounds as though, the writer did not want to eat the food, and just wanted to look at it because either she was full already or the food did not look too delicious.
Example sentence:

The food didn't look too good, so we just ate it with our eyes only.

Something went wrong...
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