I eat like this too. I’d say it makes you make sense.
I do eat my peas with a spoon most of the time, otherwise I stab the round bastards with the tines of my fork.
If you do this with a kebab at 2am, you’re eating like a true Brit indeed 
A kebab? What happened to the curry?
I do. My step-father, who was extremely anal about “proper eating habits” was British. Well, both his parents were, they moved here before he was born. What does that make him? First generation British-American? These things confuse me.
Anyway, learned my “proper eating habits” from him. It makes more sense to me, or I probably would have switched over the the “American” way of doing things as soon he left, just out of spite.
Me too. 3rd generation 'merkin with some Brit ancestry before that FWIW.
When the fork’s in the left hand the tines are curved downwards for stabbing. When the fork’s in the right hand the tines are curved upwards for scooping.
Wow, Shag baby. Multiple mistakes here, old bean.
First, the “American” way of which you write predates the “European” way, so it can be said that millions of Americans are observing tradition. And where do you get the idea that “manners are supposed to have in origin (sic) in either efficiency…”?
Manners are seldom about efficiency and everything about tradition, grace and refinement.
Do you eat pie this way? macaroni? scrambled eggs? mashed potatoes?
For the majority of things I eat with a fork, no knife is involved or needed. And then when I do use a knife, fork-in-the-right-hand is still what I’m used to.
I do. American girl with an English mother.
Macaroni: No
Scrambled eggs: Yes
Mashed potatoes: No
Pie: Yes (except pumpkin pie: no)
Apparently a good case can be made that the American method may, indeed, predate the English method. If this is the case, then the more recent refinement makes sense and I urge all Americans to discard their antiquated utensil-wielding ways. If, however, the American method postdates the English method, I will rescind my American citizenship on the grounds of extreme national wackiness (Limeys are supposed to be the wacky ones, not us Yanks).
The fork, effeminate? The spoon strikes me as being a wee bit poof-ish, but certainly not the fork… 
Well, I think that both the American and British/Continental methods may be considered in line with good etiquette, but just to make sure that I don’t come across as a barbarian, I raise both pinkies and my nose while I eat.
I love those words.
I was speaking of the manners associated with eating habits only. The part that you omitted referred to making other diners feel at ease. This habit is very disturbing. It makes it look like the person is a malfunctioning drone. What should manners related to eating habits be based on?
Even if the American tradition is older than the European one, that doesn’t matter. I expect Americans to steal the best ideas from around the world, improve upon them, and make them our own.
I always thought these complaints were about how we use our fork to cut our food. In fact I wish forks had a bit of an edge (like a butter knife) so that they could cut more easily.
I eat my peas with honey. It sure makes the peas taste funny but it keeps 'em on my knife.
That should have been my most obscure reference for that thread. Ah well.
I do the opposite, I switch hands, but eat tines down. Well, some of the time, because my mom used to have such a fit about it when I was young, she’d insist I’d eat tines up. Seriously, we actually once had a blow out argument at the dinner table over this, complete with the plaintive cry: “WHAT IF YOU EVER HAVE DINNER AT THE WHITE HOUSE?”
Huh. I’m english, and I do it what’s apperently the american way - I cut with the knife, and then switch the fork to my right for eating. Not sure where I picked that up from, but maybe it’s not as clear-cut as you think?
I gotcha, Fern Forest
In fact, that line is a running joke among the group of pickers I play with - I will randomly insert that lyric into just about any song I sing when I’m feeling mischievious on stage. Nobody but us ever gets it, though 
Actually, in the UK it is considered non-U (ie, a bit lower middle-class, doncha know) to hold the fork like a pen; proper posh types hold it like you do (I think - I’m trying to visualise it), rather like a scalpel, but without the forefinger being outstretched. Thus a Brit is able to judge his fellows, even when their mouths are otherwise occupied. Ah, civilisation. 
Forks? What are Forks?
True Americans eat with their hands.
Ok, Americans in India.
Lefty. Anglo-German-whatever-eater.
Sauerbraten and two veg, please.
I found this quote from a *history of food *web site.
Apparently, the American method of utensile switching is known as the *zig-zag *method. The utensile exchange to the right hand must have evolved from the spoon to the fork.
It’s been done. If you’re looking for more information about this sort of thing, Henry Petroski’s book The Evolution of Useful Things has an interesting discussion on silverware.
I’ve never understood the howls of protest that switching hands is such a vastly inconvenient thing to do. Most of the time, I don’t need a knife at all, since I’m not eating something involving much cutting. When I am, it’s obviously far easier to take half a second to switch my fork to my dominant hand than to try to develop fork-wielding skills in my left hand as well.
But none of you stop on my account. One of life’s little pleasures is watching people clumsily eating with their forks in their left hands, pausing every few moments between picking up dropped food to proclaim how efficient and not-at-all-pretentious they are.