Seems that lately, teens and twentysomethings, when they eat spaghetti or angel hair, don’t make any effort to twirl it around the fork. Instead, they lift a forkful of strands hanging down like seaweed, and just shovel it in their mouth.
Is this supposed to be cool? Or do they simply have no clue how to twirl? If the latter, c’mon. It’s not like it’s a lost art. I had mastered pasta twirling by the time I was five. 'Course, I’m Italian-American, but even so, most people my age had learned by age 10 or so, even if they didn’t have a bevy of relatives to train them. And if it’s the former, well, news flash: it does not look cool.
Is it better or worse that my mother (who, although she’s in her sixties, is not physically impaired in any way and has actually been doing this for years), cuts up all her spaghetti into little pieces, as one might do for a toddler, before she begins to eat it? Her excuse: “It’s easier to eat that way.” Yabbut Mom, you’re not a two-year-old. I’d think in sixty-odd years you’d have learned to deal with spaghetti.
I try not to go to spaghetti places with her for this very reason.
I’m a twenty-something, and I twirl my pasta. I do not, however, use a spoon to do so. I never saw the point of it. Seriously, what does the spoon do that the plate doesn’t?
Nah, nothing wrong with that. As long as she doesn’t have a curtain of pasta in front of her face, making her look like Bill Nighy in POTC2. Unless this method causes the pasta bits to fall off her fork and slide down her chin and over her front. Then I could understand your embarrassment.
Hilarity, you may have a point. I also learned how to use chopsticks when I was about 8. But I didn’t try to drink beer from a bottle until I was 18, and I still can’t.
Oh, and bouv, the spoon is like training wheels. You’re not supposed to rely on it forever; just while you’re learning. And to be fair, having a toddler learn to twirl pasta can be a trying experience, with the strands flinging about and scattering gravy everywhere. That’s why you train them with the spoon at first, to keep it contained. But perhaps some people think the spoon is essential to the method and don’t realize they can give it up.
Also, Amy Vanderbilt says it’s gauche to tuck a napkin into your collar unless you “are very young indeed,” or it’s a lobster bib. But my 'Tayen relatives would no more forgo a tucked napkin than they would fail to wash their hands before coming to the table. Subcultures.
I was hoping someone would answer that. A guy I knew was taught to do it by an Italian guy with…connections.
“Don’t screw the maid. She’s mine.”
“Yessir, Mr. Linguinni. I’m very glad we got that straightened out at the start, Sir.”
That’s the way I do it. Either cut it into little pieces or shovel a forkful into my mouth, bite and let the rest fall back to the plate. For this reason I try to avoid long pastas whenever possible. I’d just rather not deal with it.
Perhaps it’s a taking up of standard eastern usage via ramen, that is “properly” eaten that way? I mean, is twirling on a spoon really such a sign of civilization?
It just foams up and dribbles down my front. At least it used to, until I gave up trying. I don’t know how to let the liquid flow into my mouth and avoid the foam.
I cut my spaghetti too. It is easier that way, even though I’m from a (partly) Italian-American family and was taught how to twirl it when I was a kid. But seriously, when it’s cut up a bit, a) you’ve got all the labor out of the way, b) you won’t have long strands of spaghetti accidentally drooping in front of your face and c) it’s easier to control the ratio of sauce to pasta.
My family very occassionally still shoots me dirty looks when they catch me cutting my spaghetti, but I think I’m the one who laughs last.
Well, everyone’s free to do as they like. But ramen noodles are small; I don’t think you can twirl them. OTOH, letting a forkful of spaghetti dangle in front of your face, biting off a swath and letting the rest fall (ugh, Joey P, really!), looks really crude.
To me, that is. But by all means, if that’s what you want to do, go for it. As I said, in some circles I would be looked down on for tucking in a napkin.
Well, I’ll be dipped. My guess is that you were trying to use your lips too much. You don’t want to suck on the bottle, just pour it into your mouth. YMMV, and apparently does
An enormous amount of people don’t know how to eat pasta. I’ve always used a spoon to twirl my longhair or spaghetti around my fork… and taught people from half a dozen different countries how to do it! Seems to be a skill that got handed down from my Italian great-great-greatgrandparents.
Mind you, lots of people don’t seem to know how to try their socks on without taking their shoes off, either (just wrap the sock around your closed fist, thumb inside fingers: the socks that circle your fist just-so are the ones that are right for your feet).
I never think of myself as “Italian American” although I was surrounded by the real deal as a kid. Any decent restaurant will include a large spoon with pasta. It doesn’t require “training” beyond the knowledge of what the spoon is for. It’s not like chopsticks where you need to practice to get it right. The idea is to get a workable amount of food into your mouth without flinging sauce everywhere. Cutting it is ok but I think it’s less efficient.
I was born in the state of NY so I had the benefit of restaurants that took the cuisine seriously. For the love of God, garlic is not the end-all to Italian cooking. OK, that’s my cultural pet peeve. If I walk into an Italian restaurant and get a nose full of garlic I’m walking back out.
Depends on where you grew up, I guess. Some people twirl, some don’t. All of my relatives in Virginia (and they’re no slouches in the etiquette department) do the cut the spaghetti and eat without twirling routine.
Me? I twirl with a fork and spoon or with chopsticks alone.
