Question:
Lets say one is eating food cooked in a pot usually used for hot meat, but the pot happened to be clean of any meat when the food was cooked. One wants to eat the food on a plate that is on a tablecloth usually used for dairy food. Must one put the plate on a place mat like he would normally do if he was eating an actual plate of meat on such a tablecloth?
Answer:
It is permitted to eat it on a milky tablecloth. The reason we don't eat meaty things on a milky tablecloth is because some of it may fall on the tablecloth that has milk absorbed on it and eat it together with meat. The food in question is not really meaty. The Ashkenazim don't eat it together with milk, but to abstain from eating it on a milky tablecloth is not necessary.
Best wishes
