Clichés

[Dave]

...is it a fill-in for, alternatively, showing precisely how hungry the character was by having him drooling over a doughnut? (Which may not be any better, but at the very least we readers can conclude the author has thought about the effects of character's hunger a little bit more than if they'd left it at "he was as hungry as a horse."

I think you are just picking at the low hanging fruit here.

 

[Dave Carignan]

I really try to avoid them at all costs if I can. I just don’t want my story to sound cookie cutter. Avoiding them however means it might take me a bit longer to write certain scenes than if I just settle for a cliche.