This must be an American thing. I’ve never ever seen anyone do this or heard of it.
Ketchup - strictly for kids. The only exception is French fries.
As for the way of eating where you cut everything up into pieces, shift the fork to your right hand and eat with it: it bothers me, 'cause it looks so childish. It’s like eating with a kid. I wouldn’t dream of commenting on it, though.
I did a Google search for “etiquette bread butter” and came up with dozens of sites describing this approach. The ones I looked at do all seem to be American sites, although one of the sites says that these American customs are derived from “European and military” customs. Perhaps, though, Europeans don’t look to Web sites for etiquette guidelines?
Beats me, Priceguy, I got the info out of a book… several books, actually, all American. So maybe it is American etiquette, rather than ‘Western’ etiquette.
To tell you the truth, though, I haven’t noticed a lot of people eating their bread that way, either. To the degree that I’ve noticed, I’d say about 1/2 cut their bread with a knife, and the other half tear it in half, butter each half, then eat each half in how ever many bites as it takes. I’ve never been to so formal a dinner party that they didn’t serve bread, either – I also got that tidbit out of books, not my own experience.
One time, my mom had made sandwiches (probably PB&J0 for my brother and me, and sliced them diagonally. I watched in horror as he picked up one side and took a bite out of the middle of the cut side! Everyone knows you’re supposed to eat your way around the crust and then eat typewriter style across the original cut end.
Don’t get me started on how he ate corn-on-the-cob.
Possibly an old European custom then. You see some stuff in the US that we got from Europe before the Europeans moved on to something else (Like our measurement system 
)
This reminds me of how my sister (used to? don’t know if she still does) eat hamburgers. Try to get a visual here. She would cup her hand and balance the burger upside down on her fingertips. Then she’d gradually nibble all the way around the damn thing while twisting her hand. She went around and around this thing until there was nothing left.
It used to gross me out so much, even more so when I was a teenager (it was “uncool”). Now I just laugh at my sister’s poor table manners, there’s nothing else you can do. We’ve all tried to tell her, but she insists on doing things her own way. So it’s her life, she’s an adult, she can deal with it on her own.
No, but I do admit that I shake my head in amazement whenever I see people eating sandwiches without mayo, mustard, or any other condiment. Dry bone sandwiches don’t seem very appealing.
Heh. I do hold the burger right side up in my hands, but I am also guilty of eating all the way around the outside and then, again, typewriter style across the remaining sort-of-circle. It’s something about getting the edge all settled and then working on the area that’s left, which is all equal.
I work a plate of food this way too, constantly eating my way around the edge and repushing everything into a neat area. With NO TOUCHING between the plate’s inhabitants.
My old ex used to hold her hamburger upside down too. It annoyed the living shit out of me.
Unless there is vinegar around. Now that is yum.
I can see eating a hamburger upside down. Very often the bottom bun is too weak to hold the sandwich together.
Man, a lot of y’all need to get a grip on yourselves. Unless another person is spewing crumbs in your face or snatching bites off your plate, WTF business is it of yours how or what they eat? Maybe you should always eat alone, then everybody at the table will be eating everything the right way.
The OP’s brother in law is just startlingly rude. Esp. talking about the OP in the 3rd person, while she was there, to her sister. It’d be difficult for me not to empty a glassof icewater into his lap, in lieu of the punch in the mouth which he actually deserved, were I the OP.
She does the same thing! That’s funny. Some people just don’t like things touching one another, and I can understand that. I don’t really care myself, but it depends on the food for me. If two things have completely different tastes or if I like something in particular, I won’t mix. But I don’t have a problem if they do, but that’s just my personality. I’m messy and free spirited, such is my house, my food, my car . . .