# You should eat like a Brit.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-should-eat-like-a-brit/333860>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 3, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-should-eat-like-a-brit/333860 "2005-12-03T03:34:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-should-eat-like-a-brit/333860/61 "2005-12-07T13:23:39Z")

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Oh yes, Og forbid I should perform most actions with my dominant hand and take advantage of the concavity of my utensils. :rolleyes:

Screw you people, it’s _chopsticks_ for me from now on. Ha!

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**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-should-eat-like-a-brit/333860/62 "2005-12-07T16:00:54Z")

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Kiwi in America:

Fork in the left hand. Where food does not require cutting I use the knife in my right to push food onto the fork. The fork is always held tines down (and much like a scalpel). I was, at first, puzzled by watching people switch utensils around. To me it looks clumsy and (initally) uncouth - at least until I realised that it was simply how a lot of people ate here

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**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-should-eat-like-a-brit/333860/63 "2005-12-07T21:11:02Z")

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> [@ShibbOleth](#):
>
> I’ve eaten both ways… I started the “other” way when we lived in Europe. But I never quite got the hang of eating stuff off of my fork when it was upside down.

So, \*that’s \* the way the Brits eat? Surely the peas will fall off?

We [on the European mainland] turn our fork over when we eat peas [or something similar difficult to stay on the fork].

Fork in the left hand, knife in the right, hold the wrists lightly at the edge of the table, cutlery loose in the hand [like you’re planning to put them down any minute] above your plate.  
When sipping your wine, put the cutlery on your plate like you held them.  
When done, put the knife and fork side by side on your plate.

When eating pasta, like spaghetti and stuff, we use a spoon in the left and a fork in the right hand. [we use the fork to roll the spaghetti and the spoon to keep it from falling off]

This is so nice to learn. I had no idea there were so many differences. 🙂

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