I don’t switch, either. Born and raised in the northeast US, for what it’s worth. I don’t think my parents ever taught me “proper” table manners, aside from the basics (no talking with your mouth full, elbows off the table, don’t be a slob, etc…) If I had to guess, I’d say my mom, at least, probably east the same way, because her father was the first of his family (and the youngest) born in America (iriginally from England.) So odds are he ate the “European” way. His wife, while not the first born in the US, was also the child of immigrants, though, so there’s a good chance both of my mom’s parents ate the Euro style, so odds are she does, and I know I do, and can’t recall ever being a “swticher.” I’ll make sure to keep an eye on her and my dad nect time I have dinner with them.
One thing that baffles me about some switchers here…they claim they don’t have the dexterity to be a non-switcher. Bu-wha? Does it take that much skill and coordination to bring a piece of meat, that has already been stabbed and is on the fork, from the plate to your mouth? Do you miss and get it in your ear or something? Are you just afraid that you’ll look “clumsy” while doing it? I mean, unless you’re dining with the freakin’ Queen O’ England, the Prez of the US, or some other hoity-toity person, I don’t think anyone will care.
No, no … meat and mushy foods that stick to forks are easy to bring from plate-to-mouth left-handed (I’m a righty). The part I can’t get down is eating loose food with a fork in my left hand (peas, corn, loose rice, etc.).
Question: does European-style dining require that the food-bearing utensil always be in the left hand? Or does it only come in to play when the knife and fork are used together? For instance: after a right-handed Englishman has properly consumed his steak European style, it it OK for him to use a spoon in his right hand to eat ice cream? Is it OK to eat soup with a spoon in the right hand?
It’s generally just while you’re cutting something but some people become fairly adept at scooping peas or other small vegetables onto the fork with the knife.
I was raised in the USA by one American and one European parent; I’m a non-switcher but my sisters are switchers.
When I was 20 I was an exchange student in Wales, and one night in the dining hall I was raising my (non-switched) fork to my mouth when I noticed the rest of the table staring at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You know how to use the knife and fork!”
“Well, of course I know how to use a knife and fork. We don’t swing from the trees, you know” (by this time I, the only American in the residence hall, was accustomed to defending my crazy country and its crazy customs).
“But every other American we’ve ever seen…” etc. etc. Cross-cultural hilarity ensued.
Doesn’t eating in the Euro fashion increase the risk for elbow collisions? Unless you meat is a very tiny portion, it’s inevitable there must be some lateral motion with your right arm, which sooner or later bill bash the left arm of the person sitting next to you as he is raising his peas to his mouth with his left hand. At family gatherings that I’m accustomed to, special seating arrangements are usually made for left-handers to avoid this type of conflict. Perhaps cuts of meat are simply smaller in Europe and one can slice the entire piece with just the wrist action alone?
To me the idea of keeping your fork and knife in your hands while you eat seems like you’re in some massive hurry to gobble down as much food as possible as quickly as possible. (I was always taught to put your utensils down between bites.)
Keep it on the table where we can see it. You don’t have to show everybody that you are used to feeding the pigs under the table.
Seriously, while people notice if you use your utensils in an unusual way most will only really care in formal settings. However, the hand on the lap is really bad form in any situation.
German children are taught that Americans use their utensils that way because a real cowboy always wants one hand free to draw his gun.
No. You’re supposed to keep your elbows close to your body, not winging out to either side.
To me, putting all utensils down between each bite will lead to dining on cold, unappealing food. And looking like a little kid. Not to mention an awful amount of extra motion around the table.
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
No. You’re supposed to keep your elbows close to your body, not winging out to either side.
Works if you are a T. Rex or have a wrist with a range of motion that covers a 5 inch wide steak. People that eat real hunks of meat do need a little elbow room on the right. Keep you let arm out of your neighbors’ way. And if you don’t need to subdivide your cross-grain slice of steak into several smaller pieces for consumption, then you are too hungry to eat in polite company to begin with.
This old chestnut comes up regularly - last time I read a thread like this I tried eating like an American to see what it was like. I thought I knew how it was done until I actually tried it - and I couldn’t do it.
So can someone explain exactly how it is done.
Cutting up the food first (or at least enough for the first few mouthfuls) is fine. It is the loading of the fork that I do not get. How do you load the fork with the fork in your right hand and nothing in your left hand?
Say you are eating a standard meat and three veg type meal, or a roast - how do you get the peas, potato, meat and gravy on the fork without using the knife to load the fork?
I use other food on the plate as a “backstop”. It would never occur to me to use a knife to load stuff onto my fork. I think I’d feel kinda like a caveman. (No offense)
I could’ve SWORN there was a SD column on this in one of the old books. It’s apparently not here; a search came up empty.
Anyway, I’ve heard at least one advice columnist or diet expert say that those watching their weight SHOULD do the switching style, as a way to slow down their eating and give their stomach time to feel full.
We don’t generally load everything on to the fork at one time – two items at the most unless you are dining alone. Mashed potatoes are thick enough to be scooped up with the tines up. You might have gravy on the potatoes or perhaps on the meat. The meat can be speared with the tines. I think I do that from the top of the bite of meat. Peas I would scoop up a few at a time on the fork.
Are casseroles mostly a Southern dish? We swear by them in Tennessee. I think they would be hard to eat in the European style though.
I enjoyed eating in the European style when I was there in the Seventies, but kept forgetting to do that in a more recent visit. It’s easy and comfortable. I should do it more here.
Yes, we are generally switchers, but fists look ignorant!
How do you eat your BBQ’d ribs? Why do you think they bring those steaming hot cloths to the table afterwards? How do you eat your fried chicken? Please don’t tell me you cut it off the bone.
Just position the steak, your arm, and yourself so that most of the cutting is forwards and back, not side to side. Is it really that hard to cut a steak and not bang elbows?
I’m not getting this at all - so you shove your food around until it bangs up against some other food, where you trap it? How does that work for you when your plate is almost clean? Really, being unable to use both hands with dexterity is much more what I’d think of ‘caveman’ behaviour, particularly if it involves chasing food items around the plate and spearing them.
Absolutely. Any time you’re using a single piece of cutlery, it goes in the right hand. And I really don’t get what someone said upthread about not turning the tines down to spear food. Why not just use a spoon?
As for elbow room, check out what I said upthread about small movements. If you can’t be trusted not to bang into your fellow diners, you’re not fit to eat in company. (I now have this mental image of Americans sawing away at their massive hunks of meat, elbowing the diner to their right, only it’s OK because said diner won’t be trying to move food to his mouth with his left hand. And you call us unrefined?)
Opal, again, if you can’t eat two-handed without looking as though you’re gobbling your food, you need to slow down a little. We expect each other to exercise self-restraint without the artificial constraint of cutlery-juggling. And this constant rigmarole of picking up knife and fork, cutting a few pieces, putting knife down, swapping fork over, taking bite, putting fork down, picking fork up, taking bite, picking knife and fork up, rinse and repeat, would look unbearably fussy.
