In Thailand, spearing food with a fork and then putting it in your mouth is considered as gauche as spearing food with a knife and putting that in your mouth is in the West. Almost everything is eaten with a spoon and fork here, with nary a knife in sight. And it’s always the spoon that goes into your mouth; the fork is used mainly to shovel the food onto the spoon. There are a few exceptions, this is not a hard-and-fast rule, but that’s it mostly. And whenever I go abroad, especially to the US, I have to make a real effort to remember not to eat everything with a spoon, lest I get odd looks.
(Chopsticks are never used with rice. That’s a Chinese practice, not Thai. You’ll only see older ethnic Chinese here using chopsticks with rice.)
I can do both comfortably, but I suppose I usually prefer the American style. More leisurely or something. Sometimes I’ll fall into the two-handed method as well, but I don’t notice it a lot. We don’t eat meat all that often any more anyway, so at home, it’s pretty rare to need a knife.
I was given to understand that people uncoordinated enough that they couldn’t use both hands to wield their utensils were probably fresh out of some wilderness hovel.
Not hardly. You use the knife to move things toward the fork. That way you don’t end up chasing stuff around the plate.
My mom was Irish and was taught proper manners by her mom which she passed on to me. When I was younger, I was a switcher but then I decided I wanted to eat like a proper lady so taught myself to use my left hand. Now it’s second nature (and a heckuva lot more practical, eating-wise). I’ve also eaten fruit with a fork and fruit knife, dessert with a spoon and fork, and I’ve even used a fish knife for fish. I like elegance; it’s nifty to spiff up and dine in a posh spot and fit in.
Well I don’t eat meat, so that’s out. Pancakes and french toast are easily cut with a little downward pressure with the side of a fork. I can’t imagine needing to dirty a knife to cut a pancake. That goes for just about everything I eat.
I’ve never switched hands growing up, nor had I ever known anyone to (granted, it wasn’t something I paid much attention to, but I think I would have noticed). In the dining etiquette section of foods class in middle school, switching hands was never mentioned–knife in right hand, fork in left, tines down, end of story. I honestly never realized there was any controversy in this until reading the threads on it here. Since then, I’ve paid close attention to the eating styles of others. When eating out locally, I’d say fewer than 10% switch hands, all of them over 60 or southern tourists. That would make me think it was an age-related thing, but from watching dining scenes in movies (from all eras), still less than a quarter of them switch. The southern thing might have something going for it, though, since in movies, the 25% that do switch almost invariably are.
I still wonder how something that appears to be so limited to certain groups got to be labeled the “American way”.
I’ve never had anyone tell me one way or the other how to use silverware. But it can depend upon the type of food one is eating. If the food is uncut, I’ll use my right hand for the knife, because it’s a little stronger. But why bother switching? But if it’s Asian food which is usually pre-cut, then I’ll usually stay with the right with chopsticks (unless I’m at the computer, then I’ll use the left; same thing with writing: I’ll take notes with my left hand if my right is using a mouse). With Thai food, however, it’s always fork in left hand, spoon in right. That was grilled into me. And chopsticks? Please don’t hold them in the middle, if you want to make a good impression on someone you’re dinning with.
Most of this stuff is fading away. My grandmother once said that you should never put your elbow on the table. Why? No particular reason. And everyone does it now; it’s just more comfortable.
(I’m generally right-handed, but I hurt my right arm once, and had to learn how to do everything left-handedly.)
I hold my knife in my left hand, and my fork in my right hand. I do not switch. I’m nominally right handed, I use my left hand for a lot of tasks, and can even write legibly with it.
I was taught to fork-switch, cutting a few bites of meat and then switching. Cutting all your meat made you look like a child, but it was okay to cut a strip off your meat, then cut that into three or four bite-sized pieces, and then switch the fork hand, with tines up.
When I moved to NYC, I saw more people eat European-style, and gradually shifted to the non-switching method.
THEN, I got a job involving a lot of work in Europe. For a number of reasons, I felt like people were watching me eat (the job involved a lot of business/social situations) and I wanted to demonstrate that Americans could eat American-style and still appear civilized and graceful. I went back to the fork-switching of my youth.
I’ve always gotten a kick out of the description of different styles in Dodie Smith’s I Capture The Castle - the Europeans think the American style is too fussy and complicated, the Americans think the Europeans could stab you with a utensil at any moment.
Well, it isn’t just the south, as you can see from this thread. I have lived in TN, NC, IN, MD, MA, WI, and MI and have rarely, if ever, seen an American who didn’t switch hands and hold the fork tines up. I was raised by a German mother so I am really familiar with the European style of eating and I can’t imagine that I just didn’t notice. In my experience, the American style has been far more widespread than what you have seen.
When I was about 11 years old I read a story about an American spy in Nazi Germany, who was found out when someone saw him switch his fork from one hand to the other. Ever since then, I’ve never switched and I never will.
Non-switcher, non-European here. I’ve never seen anyone switch fork and knife and I’ve only heard of it on the internet. Doesn’t your food get cold while you cut it up into tiny pieces?
I noticed that Jeffrey Steingarten, a food critic and frequent judge on Iron Chef America, uses the European style of eating. He looks like a complete and utter slob when eating in this style. On the other hand, there are many examples on the Food Network of people eating quite elegantly in the European style. I don’t think most people notice non-switchers when the execution is proper, but they stick out like a sore thumb when the execution is poor.
I’ve never seen anybody cut the entire piece of meat into tiny piece all at ones, just enough to sustain a good run of uninterrupted eating. Besides, a good steak should barely be warm to begin with.
Eurpean Style - but then I do come from “the commonwealth”
Never before heard of this swtiching thing described. If I saw it I would wonder about the manners of the perpetrator or if they were ever taught to eat “properly” (ain’t different cultures wonderful?)
On a side note, if you ever eat in Singapore at a “food court” you are as liable to be given a fork and spoon to cut / eat your meal with as a fork and knife. Bugs the hell out of me. Partly because I always used a both a fork and spoon with my left hand.
The other day I saw a family of four eating, three of whom used the fork in fist approach, with fork in right hand and knife in left. My reaction went kinda like this… :eek: :eek: :dubious: :rolleyes:
Southern parents, very strict table manners growing up (napkin in lap, no elbows on the table, rude to cut up all the food at once, must ask to be excused to leave the table etc). Raised a switcher, so it’s habit.
Not if I have “real” (read: European) bread; when I’m done cutting, I grab a piece of bread in my left.
But sometimes, specially if I don’t have bread, I’ll get confused about which is the right way to hold fork and knife. It’s got nothing to do with having finished cutting - it can happen at the start of a meal or in the middle of it. I’m lefty-forced-righty.
One of the times that Mom was swearing up and down that I’d never had laterality conflicts as a little girl, Middlebro pointed out that I’m the only person he knows who uses the right hand to eat with a spoon but the left to stir. Eating a yoghurt, I’ll stir it with the left and then switch. Layla01, any hot dishes I eat are freshly-made enough that cutting them first and eating second means you’re less likely to get burned.