Birkas Hamazon with bread
Question
Answer
Shalom!
Thank you for your question.
Indeed, one is to leave some bread on the table until after the Birkat Hamazon is recited. We are told that one who does not leave some bread on his table will not see blessing. For this reason, one should not eat all the bread that is on the table during meals and some should be left over. Even a small amount of bread suffices for this purpose.
One who can see, the practice of leaving over food only applies at meals. One is not required to leave over, say, some ice cream when eating ice cream. One may consume all the ice cream and simply recite the after-blessing at that time.
Since a meal is defined as a bread-eating-session it is important that the leftovers be specifically bread and nothing else.
Source
(OC 180:3).
