They hold it like one would an ice pick.
There's the European Continental style where you hold the fork in your left hand like a pen.
There's the American style where you cut your food up into manageable pieces and then use the fork like a spoon.
Then there's the funky caveman-caught-a-rabbit ice pick style which I see a lot in Migros.
I like the European method - makes sense.
When you use the American method - after cutting your food, it is cold
before the knife is stowed and the fork ends up in the right hand for
feeding.
Have seen the caveman approach as well - consider the source
Unless you're an aristocratic Euro looking to feel superior despite your inbred genes.
Would love to hear your opinion on South Asians who eat with their hands.
Take a pen for example, we hold a pen the way we do because it is the most efficient way of holding it in order to write the way we write. Kids hold crayons Norman Bates stylie, but then quickly learn once they have been promoted to writing, that there is a more efficient grip.
Now, if we survived on a diet of thin chicken broth and noodles, then a fork would not get us very far. So, a spoon would be a more appropriate implement. Holding the spoon upside down would not get much soup on your mouth either. So, there is an optimal way to hold the spoon.
Same applies to the fork. It's not necessarily that it's ugly to hold it like an ice pick, it's that it's not optimal either.
At home - if there is no guest than fork in my right hand without any effort. Sometimes hand in use when it comes to chicken and... (I will spare details)
In public - savoir vivre (is that how it's spelled )
At exclusive function - I always struggle there as there are more cutlery of different sizes.
But frankly, similar to above ZDE's comments who would give a F f..ork as long as I behave myself and do not F..t.
Metal thing... dig food.
Proper American ettiquette: cut off piece of food with knife in your dominant hand. Switch fork and knife in your hands. Eat piece of food. Repeat. Hold fork in the style of the Continental Europeans (not the English).
As an American, I never do the switch, so eat like a Continental European. My English husband holds his fork upside down and "loads it up."
So, it all depends on who you're watching eat.
She eats with her hands when she cooks curry for us.
The odd thing is, she picks the food up with her left hand or right hand (can't remember which) and holds the fork in her right hand instead of her left hand.
I questioned her on this because she is right handed (writes with right hand) and thought she might be a bit retarded with all the in-breeding. She said they use one hand for picking up food and eating because they wipe their bum with the other.
She does wash her hands before eating and she doesn't multi-task. I did question her on this
I must have been 21 or more before I realised steak could be soft and tender compared to a charred piece of carbonised cardboard. Those were the days...
It was as tough as hell. I couldn't chew it. If I didn't finish my meal, I would be sent to bed and get it the following day.
I learn't to keep the tough meat in the side of my mouth, eat my desert and go out to play with my friends where I would then dispose of it.
My mother used to fry us or boil in a pan Cows brain and tell us it was an Italian delicacy. She used to get this free from the butchers on the basis that they were throwing it away and she needed it to show to her medical students.