Yeah, I hate slow eaters too, bloody selfish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_etiquette
I suspected as much, we just need to teach the barbarians some table manners.
I rather not be interrupted during my meals by having to do small talk. Coffee time is the perfect opportunity to do so, everyone has eaten, is content and then we can come down to business.
Interesting read from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_etiquette ...
Continuing "fork etiquette" I would consider myself combination of quasi American-Continental-cavemen style well-mannered table entertainer, employing the above depending on the situation. Sometimes I would prefer American style and just slice the meat and use only right hand to consume it later, next day at the table with granny or inlaws I would use Continetal style and at the braai with friends I would grab a piece of boerwors or steak in my hand and squeeze the living juices out of it down my throat
Agree. We italians eat pasta using the fork only.
Using the spoon and the fork for the spaghetti is a custom of barbaric populations, that were resilient to the effort done by roman armies to bring civilization to them.
Normally the same way I hold a wiener....
Fork schmork! Use chopsticks - what you can't pick up, don't eat.
Barbaric for sure, but sooo very helpful I simply am not skilful enough to do it with the fork alone. I can eat meals with some Arabic bread, as that is easy, but not Spaghetti only with a fork ...
What's wrong with eating spaghetti with a straw, like they do in the district of Polenta?
Use the plate as you would the spoon.
For that matter, what's wrong with eating spaghetti the way Lady and the Tramp do? You can dispense with the straw or fork and just slurp it up - with romance to boot.
I have no trouble eating spaghetti with just a fork ... and unlike most other Western European countries, I have no ancestors from Italy!
I can also use chopsticks reasonably well (better with my right hand than my left, but I can use chopsticks left-handed if I really have to), and have no ancestors from any Asian country either ... unless you count the people who were in Australia before the Europeans 'discovered' it ... but they don't use chopsticks either.
Basically, I can use any or no tools appropriately to get the food to my mouth ... and generally in a way that will satisfy the nation that created those tools or methods ... in a quarter the time of most reasonable people ...
in that case I prefer the spoon. I generally follow the advice an internationally experienced Italian gave me many years ago when I discussed this with him. He told me to use the spoon but to keep it at the lowest level possible, and everything was alright.
** It might be mentioned that I got taught about eating Spaghetti with fork and spoon by an Italian lady in Varigotti in the Liguria region in about 1956 (when I was six years old). And more by another lady, a tremendous cook in a "Pensione" in Marina di Pietrasanta (north of Viareggio) in the mid 1960ies. And of course also by that tremendous old lady in her nice house we visited (my brother and some Italians we knew from Zurich) in Torre del Lago Puccini. My brother, not so much in favour with people south of the alps did it "his way" and cut the stuff and took everything that way.
Chopsticks are excellent, and I like using chopsticks for most things, but not for noodles.
I am basically from South India and its true that we use our own hands to eat our food. But on top of all this being a muslim I normally follow the American way to eat food as we are suppose to eat only with our right hand. So, normally to cut a pizza or steak I use knife on my right hand to cut and fork on my left to hold the pizza, but again to bring food to the mouth I have switch because of my religion. So, first I cut and keep some pieces ready so that it makes easy for me to have it.
Funny post.... i've been noticing that a lot lately i see so many people hollding the fork and the knife, but instead of moving the knife to cut the food, they moove the fork... weird....
but i guess its not only swiss, i used to be in an international school and saw the all the methods listed being used... and only a very small percentage was the continental method of the pen (which is what i use).
I find the use of chopsticks by westerners to be utterly pretentious, and, even though I'm perfectly competent with a pair, I'll always use a fork if one is available.
There's no place for novelty at dinner time!
for me it depends of the kind of food im eating and the company i have, since i socialized alot with asians it became quite ordinary...
That's fair enough, I suppose.
But have you seen all the tossers in Globus, eating their California Rolls with chopsticks, even though there's perfectly good cutlery available on the table in front of them?
I mean, it's fine for them if they want to look cool and cosmopolitan, but they'd better not expect me to do the same. In my culture we use a knife and fork, and that's that.
Do you expect someone from Japan to eat lamb chops with chop sticks? I would not be offended, but I would find it silly. I imagine that many Japanese feel the same about sushi.
As for me, I usually go SE Asia style with a spoon in the right and a fork in the left. If you need a knife, your food's too tough. However, I will use a fork and knife at a business lunch/reception or a first date, just in case. I also use my hand if I'm eating at home with the Filipino side of my family, and we're having rice with fish, shrimp, lobster, etc (anything that needs to be picked at).
The comparison doesn't work, since trying to eat lamb chops with chopsticks would be a messy failure, whereas a fork is perfectly designed for spearing a California Roll or a lump of rice and shoving it in your gob.
In fact, I can't think of any kind of food that cannot be eaten with a knife, fork and spoon, or some combination thereof (apart from finger food, of course, like, er, a lamb chop...)
Whereas with chopsticks, one has no choice but to eat little itty-bitty bits of meat and rice.
Which is fine for foreigners , but not for me.
With chopsticks, you can load quite sizeable bits of meat and rice in one go. But noodles with chopsticks ? No, I even regard the "chopstick-eating" of noodles by Japanese or Chinese people as "critical" and often horrible (sounds!) .
I take issue with that. A spoon is much more efficient than a fork for almost anything. Really, the best method is shoveling with a spoon, using a fork as back up. Properly cooked meats shouldn't require a saw to cut through, so I wouldn't even bother with a knife. Yet I'm sure you would disagree with this.
Chopsticks work just as well as a fork with rolls and noodles, and just as poorly as a fork with rice. Now, requiring the use of chopsticks in an Asian restaurant is a bit pretentious, but if you want something really bad, let's start with equating meat, potatoes, and a second vegetable with requirements for a civilized meal (as was mentioned earlier in the thread).