Proper eating etiquette...
 

Last night, for no particular reason? my mum was getting a little upset about mine and my brothers methods of eating, altohugh mainly my brother. It was all about the knife and fork work.

Basically, my mum was getting upset that i would scoop or drag food onto my fork, which i was holding concave (in order to scoop things accordingly :D ). Apparently though, this is wrong, and you're meant to hold your fork convex (ie spikes down) and scrap food etc onto the back of your fork and then put it in your mouth like that. This to me, although i was still adapting to it, was an incredibly ineffcient way of eating, since gravity would tend to pull donw, causes the food to slide off the back. Like using a shovel backwards/upsidedown?

Although, apparently, if you want to scoop :D you're meant to put your knife down and then scoop with a fork, solitarily in your prefered hand (ie i am right handed).
They were the two that most related to me, although i thought it was quite absurd?

She also mentioned that people in America would commonly cut up their whole meal and then just use the solitary scooping action with their prefered hand.

What the most interesting thing was though, is that my dad is German and my mum is Australian albeit her parents are British, so while my mum was telling us this, dad would butt in and tell you otherwise. And both where critising each others habits (dad said it was acceptable to use my scoop method ), so i was left in the air not kowing if anything was correct or proper. That said, i think the small things like this are absurd so my brother and i were getting a bit of a laugh out of it all. Especially the parents mildly arguing over such a trivial thing. Although, I don't want to come across, nor think i am a philistine, so i was trying to comply. Of course, as my dad always likes to think that he's right and perfect and all :p he kept saying "i'll show you the right way later" :lol:

That said, i think it's more of a traditional thing that might be dying off anyway?

Although now, i was thinking, how does it matter? all these small trivial things, especially when they seemingly lead to a less effcient way of eating. I could hardly balance or manage to stick anything to the back of my fork :(

Still, i was wondering about whether this really makes any difference whatsoever and if anyone really cares much, about this stuff anymore?

My mum was mainly insisting that when we may be in some kind of offcial company for business or something, that it may deter them from doing something cause i didn't scoop food on the back of my fork (or do any of the other small eating appropriations) ....eh?

I don't think that your table etiquette will really be much of a problem, unless it's really bad, but you can always check out sites on proper eating etiquette somewhere on the net.

As for this post, I believe it belongs in Tilted Living.

the brits (and hte aussies I guess) are taught to eat w/ the fork upside down like your mum was saying. the spoon or knife are used to hold the food onto the fork (or so my camp councelors told me). us americans shovel it in ;) we dont' generally cut our WHOLE plate first, but I'll cut a few piecs, put my knife down, and eat what I have ,via stabs or scoops ,then snag the knife to cut a bit more. that's personal preference, though. I always cut & fork w/ the left hand (I'm a lefty) and swap back and forth as needed 'cuz I'm just not coordenated enough to get food into my mouth w/ my right hand. oye, what a mess that would cause!

Forks were made for stabbing...hence the prongs :)

Primarily i stab my food if i can, and if not, then scooping is applied. But the back of your fork? All i can say is WTF? Why in gods name would you waste your time trying to fit things on the BACK of your fork!? I mean, following that logic, why not use your spoon upside as well too?

As for the knife thing, Im a lefty, so fork in left hand, knife in the cutting hand. Cut off a few hunks of meat, and stab it. For scooping with a knife...use the knife to hold your prey in place, while chasing it down and scooping it up with the fork.

My Swedish Aunt eats the way your Mom does it, but the rest of my family does the old scoop method. The one thing we don't do is cut something, put down the knife, switch the fork over to the other hand then put the food in and repeat until done. I have several American friends that eat that way. It seems like quite the waste of time, maybe that's why they cut up alot of their food at first.
As long as you have the basics and use them, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

When I use the fork for scooping, I use my knife to hold the food in place (blade down on the place) and scoop the food into my fork right side up. Upside down makes abolutely no sense to me. It defies all logic.

As far as cutting, I'm right handed. So I will cut with the knife in my right hand and fork in my left. When the piece is cut I switch the fork to my right hand and eat.

I do not cut multiple pieces when I eat. I cut on piece at a time. Sure, eating may be slow this way, but eating slow is better for your digestive system anyways, and it provides a better opportunity for the meal to be more of a social gathering :)

My Aunt makes using an upside down fork look easy, if you see it done it's not so bad.
Maybe they use it upside down for the same reason as you switch hands...to slow down and enjoy the meal. :)

At least we don't eat with sticks any more.

Personally, I like a good spork.
Wish I could find a metal one.

Upside down? Switch hands? I don't even put the knife down unless I'm going to have a bite of something else. Even at the most formal dinners I've been to, people don't put the knife down or hold the fork wrong. The reason the fork's prongs are bent that way, it makes it easy to scoop food.

What's next, driving on the left?

Ditto.

I don't see the reasoning behind that, but I respect their choice.

I'm american, and I just stab, cut, leave it stabbed, put in mouth (all while holding onto the knife) and repeat.

I don't know ANYONE who cuts up the whole plate at once and then scoops it up. I've never really heard of it.

I can eat a meal faster using just a fork rather than knife and fork.

I mean a knife is helpful, but eating buttered whole potatoes with a knife becomes just a hassle, when I can chop it quicker and more efficiently with the rib of the fork.

I and billions of other people still use sticks to eat. And there's nothing wrong with that.

As for the spork... <a href="http://www.tadgear.com/x-treme%20gear/snowpeak_titanium_spork.htm">check this out</a>.

No. Way.

That is extremely tempting :D

In the fair dinkum department Perth has the best finger food known to Man.

LOBSTER. :lol:

I scoop with the fork "bowl-side up". As far as that goes, I'm with you--your mom's up in the night.

Now as far as food that you cut goes, I do the "European" method despite my "American" citizenship. I hold the fork in my non-dominant (in my case left) hand. I hold it tines-down, or "anti-bowlwise", if you like. I hold the knife in my dominant (right) hand. I cut one bite, then without shifting utensils or hands, I eat the bite I just cut from my still-upside-down fork in my left hand. Repeat as needed.

The more "American" style involves cutting a bite, then putting everything down, switching hands, taking the bite off the fork from your right hand, putting everything down again, switching hands again, and cutting the next bite. I don't know about you, but I came for a meal, not a workout.

I don't think any way is necessarily wrong unless you're actually putting the people with whom you're eating off their food!

At a guess, the tines down/convex fork business is so that you can deposit the food delicately in your mouth without having to open wide enough to get the whole thing in - thus showing the remains of your previous forkful - or lift your elbow higher than your ear. I would generally use my fork in this way, but I must say it makes peas particularly tricky.

At the risk of appearing foolish (no change there, then), does anyone else here still use both a spoon (right hand) and fork (left) for puddings?

:) I've been told the same thing not long ago, that you should scoop on the back of the fork. I'm not really surprised, since it looks way better than shoveling. I've decided not to comply with this though. With non-stabbable food at least.

At the dinner table, listen to your mother. When deer hunting, listen to your father.

The titanium spork looks quite neat but I'd rather have knoon or a spife any day.

And cutting up food then swapping the the fork into the knife hand?!? What's all thatl about?

Craziness.

All of us that live in Asia and eat with sticks are laughing our asses off at this thread. :D

I don't have any real objections to chopsticks, just the wood part of the equation.
Why don't you at least make chopsticks out of plastic or some other non-organic material?

Thanks for the spork link, westothemax.
Appreciate it. :)