understanding the whiteness of party etiquette

So a White friend of ours is having a "social party" and a bunch of the Filipinos invited to the party were perplexed at what to bring. The hostess just said chips. Now, the Filipinos are thinking, "chips? but what about when we get hungry? chips is not food."

Confused, we consulted the White Significant Other of one of the Filipinos. And here's what he said:

A "social party" - networking, saying hello, chatting. chips, dip, wine, cheese, maybe some bread. no real obligation to stay too long.

A "dinner party" - full on place settings, sit down, food "food", stress worry about what courses to serve, etc.

And as he's telling us this, we all look at each other like, "so, what's the difference?" I mean, Filipinos make absolutely no distinction with food and no food. We're guessing that doing chips at a "social party" means that when people get hungry, they will leave thus getting the host off the hook of having to kick them out. But unless you have a big dining room table, you can't have a sit down meal. Hmmm...it explains the need for all the China place settings and formal dining. Then again, with Filipinos, there aren't rooms big enough.

The WSO continues to explain that once when we were at the Filipino friend's mom's house and we were all eating but the mom who had already eaten was off in the living room somewhere, that that was a very un-White thing to do. Everyone eats or no one eats. We nod at his explanation, attempting to grasp this thing that we call White Culture.

I believe this is significant. Because for years, I heard White people say they have no culture or that their culture was American culture, but that never felt right. Because White people would do stuff, and I couldn't help but feel like, "wow, that was so White" in the same way I might say, "wow, that was so Filipino of you." So, indeed, White people do have a culture. And part of that culture says that there is a distinctive significance between a "social party" and a "dinner party."

Now, if only I could figure whether it's culturally significant or not that white people do talk alot more than most folks or if I'm just imagining things.