hold the phone

[strippedhalo]

I ran out of recced Teen Wolf stories to read, so I've taken a temporary detour into Sherlock fic, and I'm in the middle of one (this one) and mention is made of forks being held differently in "America" than in England. Is this true? The story seems to suggest that in England, everyone holds their fork in their left hand. Now, it's true that

Comments

[lovecat10036]

Mr. Google found me this:

http://www.thekitchn.com/survey-using-your-knife-and-fork-166188

And I've traveled enough to be able to say that yes, in general there is a difference between the way Europeans and North Americans handle their knife and fork. Spoons, I don't think there is a difference; you use your dominant hand because you're just feeding yourself, vs. cutting something up AND feeding yourself.

You can also spot Europeans by their shoes, but that's a topic for another day :)

[strippedhalo]

Bizarre! But do tell me about the shoes, I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for MtYG signups to open. (Okay, I'm at work, but it's BORING.)

(I was sitting on a park bench in Ireland several years ago wearing [faux] Crocs, and a lady came up to me and said, "THOSE ARE AMERICAN SHOES." I have occasionally been called out as Canadian due to my vocabulary choices, but that was my first [and only] calling out based on footware.)

[quiet000001]

Yup, I agree about the cutlery. In the UK there seems to be a bit of a class thing also - 'lower' classes seemed to be more likely to use the American method. (Which is, approximately, fork in right hand, unless you need to cut something up, at which point you swap fork to left and pick up the knife with your right to cut, then put down the knife and swap the fork back to eat. All that swapping back and forth is apparently rude or uncouth or something, though.)

I taught myself to do it both ways when I lived in the UK for a while - I've noticed that now I do tend to use the 'British' method if I'm at a nice dinner or something along those lines where I want to be as polite as possible. (British method as I know it is fork in left, knife in right, all the time. Fork used so that the tines curve down rather than held so it forms a sort of 'scoop' shape.) (Although I refuse to keep that fork orientation if I'm trying to eat something like peas where keeping them on the back of the fork is an exercise in ridiculousness.)

[strippedhalo]

The tines down method is so weird to me. What about things like rice?! (Or peas, good point.)

And like, I get that having the fork and knife in separate hands is practical, and that is in fact what I do, but why not hold the fork in the dominant hand and the knife in the other hand? Weird, weird, weird.

[moirariordan]

This is all so bizarre to me. I've eaten in so many different countries in my life, and I have never noticed a single difference between people in the US and people anywhere else. It depends on the person! Doesn't it?!

Like my dad switches back and forth in the way quiet000001 described, and he's so Midwestern US down to his bones that it hurts me sometimes to think about. Then this English guy that I had a thing with was such a sloppy eater, he would practically just pick up his steak with his hands and gnaw on it. Every example I can think of from my own life is contradictory in some way like that.

ETA: I realized I missed a sentence, lol. The point to my anecdote about my dad is that my grandparents do the exact opposite - they don't switch. Yet their kids - my dad and my aunts, do. And I tend to not switch. And my brother does. So it's like - no idea how this is an indicator of anything. I always thought it was just a subconscious quirk-thing.

[strippedhalo]

I also thought it was just an individual preference thing! I will never understand table manners past "use utensils" and "use your napkin" and "no elbows on the table" (all of which are rules I break sometimes).

I guess, if you're going to be all fancy formal dinner about everything, it makes sense to have a system where everyone is eating sort of the same way, so there's no bumping of elbows or whatever. But it's still weird. And my grandmother does the tines-down thing, I think, but none of her kids do. And my parents both switch, but I don't. Individuality!

[turps33]

I hold my fork in my right hand. But looking at comments, maybe I'm just lower class *g*

[strippedhalo]

Or secretly American! Or, you know, normal and practical about using your dominant hand. You weirdo. :D

[pensnest]

Certainly the fork is held in the left hand

[quiet000001]

I do not believe you re: peas. Unless you are talking about something dodgy like mushy peas, which do not count as food. :P :)

[pensnest]

Ew, mushy peas! No, no, I am a complete Southerner and do not eat mushy peas. But it's quite possible to prong a few nice fresh garden peas, and then squash a few more against the tines of the fork and convey them to the mouth. Or glue them on with a little mashed potato and gravy. (It's also possible that I may cheat with the last few peas, and turn the fork over to gather them.)

[quiet000001]

I don't think I had mushy peas the entire time I lived in the UK. I think we had a single can once and I opened them and was, like, offended by their existence. Ew.

I prefer to eat the peas un-squashed and not mixed in with stuff, which may have something to do with it. Flipping the fork over is just easier if you're not going to persuade the peas to glue themselves on in some way. (I do, however, use the knife to guide them onto the fork rather than just chasing them around the plate.)

[rikes]

Chiming in from Finland - definitely knife in the right, fork in the left hand!