I refer to the letter Open house - the ugly side of Malaysians which rapped Malaysians for their habit of packing and taking home ('bungkus') food served at festive open houses.

I think it is okay to 'bungkus' back to home food served at open houses provided these are leftovers. I mean, normally, a host will prepare slightly more food than anticipated. So, normally, we will find some leftovers.

The host should announce repeatedly as well as write notices on the walls to inform guests that they can only 'bungkus' the food only after a certain time eg, 5 pm, when the open house is officially over.

We should not 'bungkus' the food while new guests are arriving, meaning we should not be doing any 'bungkus' before the open house has officially ended.

Leftover food is, of course, encouraged to be 'bungkus-ed'. It is the duty of the host to keep reminding the guests when they can start to 'bungkus'.