'Have you eaten?' means hello

Ask a Thai colleague how they are and you may hear a question back instead: กินข้าวหรือยัง, 'have you eaten rice yet?'. It is a greeting, not an invitation and not a health check. ข้าว means rice, but here it means any meal, from pasta to som tam. The question is old: people greeted each other this way long before สวัสดี became the standard hello in the twentieth century, and it carries a little care, 'are you looked after?'. The expected answer is short: กินแล้ว 'I have' or ยัง 'not yet'. If you answer ยัง to someone you know well, you may hear ไปกินข้าวกัน 'let's go eat'. Nobody needs a description of your breakfast.