thank you for the attention. When we immigrated I was amazed that it's common for locals to invite friends and family for a visit and serve only a cup of coffee and a cookie. We always had dinners with guests for birthdays and holidays and visitors often got a full dinner served. Which of course had it's own problems - like boasting about cutlery, dinnerware and deficit foods the hosting family was able to "procure" which was rather... how do I put it... disgusting but a natural sign of times.. Also for women who worked full time such extensive cooking or rather the process of "procuring" ingredients (which was often the women's job and took hours of standing in lines) was a very stressful process. In fact, years after immigrating my soviet relatives happily ditched the traditions of cooking for holidays/birthdays and now eat at restaurants. I myself liked eating out at some point, but I haven't done it in the last 10 years and I don't miss it one bit.