Etiquette lessons?

[Lallans]

Being a lefty, I eat European style - not transferring my knife and fork. Frankly, when I see people do the American style, I find it sort of annoying. What I'm intrigued with is how some Scots scoop food onto the back of the fork tines and successfully transfer to the mouth without dropping anything.

Crudely put, you mash things up and sort of paste them on. My kid brother, when he first saw another kid doing this back in the day, pronounced it "disgusting." But if memory serves, he was hardly one to talk.

[wildrover]

If they eat like quite a few Mid-east countries I've been in there's a trick/pattern. You rip off a piece of flat bread and use it as your silverware.

A-ha! Thanks for that tidbit...none of us knew, which led to some awkward moments as we all considered how to transfer goopy stuff to our mouths and then reload, without sharing everyone else's saliva and skin cells.

One thing to know is if your host is Islamic. If so remember to not use your left hand. Now I have seen many who do so I don't know how much this is enforced.

Good point, nor just Islamic. In countries where the benefits of toilet paper haven't been discovered, it's a necessity, and the etiquette of keeping the left hand in the lap continues despite the invention of things like hand-washing. We ate right-handed in the restaurant, though I doubt anyone would have cared terribly if we'd used both, this being America and all. In contrast, I've heard stories from a cousin or two who went overseas to paper-less lands and said the left hand stayed down at all times, regardless how clean it was.

It's actually a really great way to eat a salad, as you can fold smaller things into the leaf to ensure they don't roll off the fork.

Interesting...must try.

Being a lefty, I eat European style - not transferring my knife and fork. Frankly, when I see people do the American style, I find it sort of annoying. What I'm intrigued with is how some Scots scoop food onto the back of the fork tines and successfully transfer to the mouth without dropping anything.

Crudely put, you mash tinings up and sort of paste them on. My kid brother, when he first saw another kid doing this back in the day, pronounced it "disgusting." But if memory serves, he was hardly one to talk.

The other way I've seen & heard it done is mash them with the bottom of the fork against the plate. Either way, yeah, it's sort of gross.

Jock, wish I had time for meals like that...they happen, but as you say rarely. I don't drink much port these days...good stuff, though, certainly something to drink slowly. Unfortunately, outside of formal dinners, most in this country seem to drink far too fast to enjoy it, and if they're drinking anything other than cheap beer or a fluorescent chick drink, it's usually described with all the verbal grace of an amphibious version of that biblical guy whose wife went all salty. I've stopped sharing the good bottles outside a very, very small group...even after the warning, "if you shoot this, you're cut off," most people still drink too damn fast to have any perception of what they've just slopped past their tongue.

[Jock Scot]

PEAS & FORK.

Alright here we go, UK style fork skills! First you stab a mouth sized piece of meat(tines down)then with your knife you load(by pushing gently the fork and knife together) on top of the meat some potato/swede/carrot and then with your knife you push some peas into the potato etc and onto the fork just above the meat. YOU DO NOT END UP WITH MUSHY PEAS! And then the whole caboodle is raised to the mouth. Easy really, when you get the load and loading right!

Wildrover the second type of meal that I described are actually not so rare over here and I suppose in the shooting season I will partake, in one form or another, four or five of those a week in various abodes around the UK.

[Drac]

A-ha! Thanks for that tidbit...none of us knew, which led to some awkward moments as we all considered how to transfer goopy stuff to our mouths and then reload, without sharing everyone else's saliva and skin cells.

From my co-workers who are from Mexico they commonly eat with tortillas as silverware.

Consider that the fork is a fairly recent invention. Elizabeth I was the first (recorded) to have a fork and that was a 2-tine novelty. Kind of weird how it has gone from most of our history that the knife was the primary eating implement is now considered a barbaric eating tool.

Jim

[Lallans]

From my co-workers who are from Mexico they commonly eat with tortillas as silverware.

Consider that the fork is a fairly recent invention. Elizabeth I was the first (recorded) to have a fork and that was a 2-tine novelty. Kind of weird how it has gone from most of our history that the knife was the primary eating implement is now considered a barbaric eating tool.

Jim

And I've been considering the Inuit practice of grasping meat in the teeth and then slicing off a chewable portion with a ulu knife, one of those semi-circular jobs that are the only push-handled blades legal in Canuckistan (a sure sign of their cultural importance)....

[Drac]

And I've been considering the Inuit practice of grasping meat in the teeth and then slicing off a chewable portion with a ulu knife, one of those semi-circular jobs that are the only push-handled blades legal in Canuckistan (a sure sign of their cultural importance)....

It was just a remark on the irony, not a suggestion that it would be proper to pull out a knife and start using it.

Though I have been thinking of doing a ulu for kitchen work. Jantz has several kit ulu

Jim

[Mike_Oettle]

Cygnus wrote: “As for the ‘T word’, whatever happened to the term ‘water closet’? Even this side of the Atlantic people ought to know to what you're referring.”

Well, the term water closet is well enough known, but it is considered frightfully old-fashioned and quaint, even though there are quite a few folk who refer to the toilet as a WC.

And Canuck brought up the word lavatory, which of course also means a place for washing your hands.
Isn’t it just wonderful how we take an innocent word or expression and turn it into something unmentionable!

And as has been said, for those who do not use paper in the loo (good Scottish word that!), or wash their hands afterwards, the left hand is definitely not to be used for eating. (It’s not for nothing that lefties are called cack-handed!)

With regard to eating, it is worth remembering (as my father always used to remind us) that fingers were invented before forks. (Often it comes out as “Fingers was invented before forks” – in some dialects this is the way the verb is conjugated.)
Regards,
Mike

PS: The word loo, meaning toilet/lavatory, is supposed to have originated in Edinburgh (or was it Glasgow?) where chambermaids were instructed to call out before tossing the contents of chamber pots out of the window: “Gardez l’eau.”
It was not long before this French expression was rendered in Scots as “Garrdy loo!”

[Lallans]

It was just a remark on the irony, not a suggestion that it would be proper to pull out a knife and start using it.

Though I have been thinking of doing a ulu for kitchen work. Jantz has several kit ulu

Jim

No I really was thinking about it- almost a unique eating style as far as I know. Have to give it a try sometime, with or without ulu. Apparently you want to watch out for your nose and accidents do happen. If from European culture, an ulu can be called a demi-lune (half moon) and is a sort of rolling chopping tool used in many kitchens, yes.

[Pleater]

Ah - the delights of a really good port - a half bottle is one of the things I acquire in the run up to Christmas, to drink with Christmas cake, white Cheshire cheese and walnuts, and possibly a russet apple, or maybe a Cox's orange pippin - the old varieties are difficult to source these days.

I have a very limited alcohol intake - a little dark rum, and if I ever find it again I would buy a slightly sparkling white wine called Moscato d'Asti, but I have not seen it for some time. That is best drunk very cold when in a hot bath with either really ripe mangoes or peaches to hand.

Drinking alone is perceived as unhealthy, but I find alcohol and company are best enjoyed separately. This normally results in my having to drive around taking people home.

Anne Croucher :ootd:

[EHCAlum]

Necessarium used to be the word for it - but these days so few people have any Latin.


Another dish which is usually eaten with the fingers is crab, which is always fun if it is available whole and in its shell. Sometimes it is served with a wooden board and small hammer, other times it is brought already cracked. I have heard of places which serve it with patented shell cracking pliers, but not yet found one.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

Crab, shrimp and crawfish must be eaten with hands at a crab picking. They should also be boil and covered in Old Bay spicings. A hammer works but so does the back of the knife you use for opening up the shell.

Here in Virginia, Bar-b-que is a Noun and not a Verb