# Food Manners **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-manners/476203 "2008-12-08T03:45:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-manners/476203/21 "2008-12-08T15:00:19Z")
> [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](#): > > Can anyone explain the no-elbows-on-table rule to me? I’ve never understood that one. > > Not to say I can’t eat that way, just that I don’t see the sense of it. As I tell my son, if your elbows are not on the table, your plate or glass is less likely to end up on the floor. > [@featherlou](#): > > I thought of another table manners thing that really bugs me (a slow eater) - people clearing the table and serving dessert while I’m still sitting there, gamely trying to eat my dinner as fast as I can. I’ve left the table hungry because of this. I think Miss Manners would definitely have something to say about that, because it truly does make me feel like I’m not as important as the other diners who happen to be able to chew and swallow faster than I can. That is rude on your co-diners’ part. The next course should always wait until every one is finished. On the other hand, you should also not deliberately eat at a snails pace and force everyone to wait for you. I’m not saying you do this. I’m a slow eater, too. One way I compensate is to take smaller portions, and then take seconds if there is time. (If not, there’s always room for pie.) A lot of table manners are rooted in practical reasons. Scooping soup away from you makes sense (It _is_ counter-intuitive), because you wouldn’t want to accidentally dip your sleeve in you soup. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-manners/476203/22 "2008-12-08T19:16:32Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > But what hand you hold your fork in? Which direction you tilt your bowl to get the last of the soup? Personal choice all the way. Holding the fork in the left while cutting and also for eating is the “European style”, and switching the fork between is “American style.” I don’t know the history. I am American but eat “European style” for no particular reason other than switching hands seems silly to me. But Miss Manners has written about this saying that Americans who eat European style are equivalent to someone using a phony foreign accent. :rolleyes: > [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](#): > > Can anyone explain the no-elbows-on-table rule to me? I’ve never understood that one. It’s not that it’s so horrible to allow an elbow to touch the table, but it’s slovenly to eat while leaning over your place supported by your elbows. It makes you look like a dog over his food bowl. I think the “no elbows” rule is a simplified objective guideline rather than judging how far over you are leaning. > [@featherlou](#): > > II’m not sure I am completely on board with Miss Manners on the food etiquette - she also says you should eat buttered bread one bite at a time (break off a piece, butter it, eat, repeat), but no one I’ve ever met does that. You haven’t met me 🙂 Not sure what you do, but it’s not especially appetizing to look next to me to see someone’s buttered bread with their tooth marks on it sitting on their bread plate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-manners/476203.md?page=1)