Table manners
 

When I was a girl my dad was really big on table manners. I was really taken aback the first few times I visited my in laws, where my boyf turned from this well mannered eater, who had actually impressed me by how well he ate in restaurants, into a shovelling machine at his parents house. Why are the eyties so into their food and yet such bad eaters? The one thing that really bugs me, even now, is the habit of just helping yourself to whatever you want, without asking if anyone else wanted any too. I have learned to eat at super speed in fifth gear at my in laws otherwise i wont get a look in. :frown:In fact a friend of mine has a great story about one christmas at her in laws; she left the table as the secondo got brought out to help her daughter go to the loo, came back and there was nothing left to eat. Not even hubby has thought to save her anything.:eek:

Re: Table manners
 

I have noticed lots of Italians who seem to shovel pasta in their mouths without ever properly chewing and swallowing a mouthful before adding more pasta.
I've lost count of the number of people I have seen licking knives and my personal pet peeve is that nobody here seems to have been told to put their knife and fork toghther on the plate when they have finished eating and not just leave them sticking out any old how.

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Yeah the shovelling thing cant be good for your body can it? My hubby can eat a steak in about 5 pieces.

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Why don't they put their knife and fork together?? That bugs me so much!!! I'm forever telling my husband to set a good example to our children and put them together.
Another thing that makes me sooo cross is no one waits for everyone to be served before they dig in. It's quite embarrasing every time we go to mil's as everyone starts eating and my 3 yrd old says's "Mummy, they're naughty, they're not waiting" haha It's a shame if a 3 yr old has to teach adults a bit of table manners but frustrating for me as it doesn't really back my polite theory up when the poor little kid sees the majority of people just tucking in and sod the rest.
When they're invited to our house, I'm still serving the food and they've already eaten half their pasta...that's just plain rude where I come from!!!

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I did a lot of waitressing when I was aged 16 to 18 - both in a restuarant and also as a silver service waitress for a large club type place specialising in grand dinners.

We were NEVER allowed to start clearing a table until everyone had finished ........... something that the Italians do as soon as one plate is empty. I was taught that it was so rude to start clanking crockery and cutlery when people were still eating. Italian waiting staff do this all the time .... and because people here do not put their knife and fork together they often can't tell if a person really has finished - so they have to interrupt too to ask "ha finito?"

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That could be one reason why the chemists are always fully stocked with indigestion pills and liquids and why so many diferent "digestivi" drinks exist here - and why people will not walk, swim or do anything slightly vigorous after eating ----- it takes that much longer for their food to digest as half of it hasn't been chewed !

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Oh! I was just going to say that! all the shelves in the supermarket crammed full of digestivi. My boyfriend and his friends are mostly polite and wait for everyone before they start... but they do the knife and fork thing. I thought maybe it was good manners here to leave them sprawled apart on the plate! Or that if you put them together it meant something insulting (i got carried away remembering those old HSBC ads in england about how 'in china, if you finish your meal they are insulted because they think you didn't eat enough and they bring you more food but in another place if you don;t finish the meal they are insulted blah blah).

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Its always nice to see good manners, because as my Gran says manners cost nothing!

One thing that winds me up is that fact that my wife has been brought up to say fork & knife instead of knife & fork! Now this may sound like I'm being anal, but you say it quickly and you'll see what I mean:o

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are we to presume then that wife is not British?

It never crossed my mind before but maybe that is why we don't put the fork first.
I can only imagine how "fork 'n' knife" would come out with some British accents - even better Irish ones - lol

Jaysus Christ - would ye ever pass a me a fekking fok'n'knife ?

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I read somewhere that more and more people don't bother with knives anymore, at least when they are eating. Suppose that this way its easier to keep an elbow on the table at all times.

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did you read it in Italian ???
Is true for pasta and risotto and I've also seen people with a steak and mash or whatever on their plate - use the fork and knife to chop the steak - and then pass the fork to right hand to eat the mash, veg and previously chopped up pieces of meat !!!!!!!!!
I was always told that my fork was NOT a shovel - not even for bloody roll around the plate peas !!!!!!!!!!!!!
And as for elbows on the table ...................

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Maybe we could set up a school 'The English School of Table Manners and Etiquette' - teach them a thing or 2 ...what !!

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I can't remember where I read it but it was a while ago so probably in English. I have a feeling it was written about the US of A.

As to the school of manners, could have a module on how to make a pot of tea (put the tea bag in BEFORE the BOILING water)?

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So who's been making you tea recently and not doing it properly .... and what ... no silver ????? Sugar tongs ????
Sweetie dahhhhling

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I have to make my own. Coffee on tap though.
Do I get a kiss next time?

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a kiss ? depends if you are really Italianised and can wait 10 minutes for a mokka cup of coffe in the mornings or if you still use a british kettle and a spoonfull of nesacafé ?????

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Can't use a british kettle, not enough electricity. Don't mind waiting if someone else is making

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was chatting to my american colleague today and she didnt know what a kettle was :confused: spent an amusing few minutes then explaining that while most of us have a lovely shiny new kettle in the cupboard - we dont actually use it cos it 'blows' the whole house :frown:

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Oh come on - I'm only on basic house power but kettle works fine: Kettle and dishwasher or kettle and washing machine make the trip switch go into overdrive but kettle works.
If I had to wait these days for a tiny jug type metal saucepan to boil a few drops of water for my early morning tea I think I'd start going stir crazy.
Maybe all you folks should get in touch with your Enel or whichever electricity company to raise your watts a bit

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Could think of better ways to raise my 'watts' a bit hee hee :D
sorry - there I go lowering the tone again ....:ohmy:
Maybe it depends on the kettle - I have an english one and its 3kw - which is our allowance for the house - whereas the ones they sell at LIDL are only 1.7kw therefore alot better. Can't be bothered though - have bought a lovely little singing kettle which annoys the hell out of everyone else in the house !

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You can get electric plug in Mokka machines now!! I almost got one last week but ended up getting a real one;)

Oh & my wife is Scottish, which kind of has the same effect on certain words like the Irish i.e Fork 'N' Knife:)

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We have 4.5W, but find it easier to wait for the stove kettle than trot to the basement to reset the trip switch. Still not in the mind set of counting Watts. My mum sent us a deep fat fryer for Christmas so we can have fish and chips, but not on wash day

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I won't tell you how many watts I have, but I still have a singing kettle! I grew up with one and I prefer them to the electric ones! To make my dryer work in the shed I had to have the fuse on the plug upgraded as it kept shorting the lights in the shed!

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Italian plugs don't have fuses.

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Didn't know that about fuses. And why are there always "normal" sockets in the bathroom?

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Okay smarty pants:p! I meant the breaker fuse had to be upgraded for that particular plug to stop the breaker tripping - that technical enough for ya!:D

The plug sockets themselves are protected in some way, so I have been told, unlike UK sockets where the protection is in the appliance plug - why we have to use surge protectors in the UK, but here it is built in, I think?

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houses and blocks of flats are all earthed which is why there is no earth wire inside the plugs.
I still remember being taught how to change a plug in physics ....
brown to the right - blue to the left, green and yellow in the middle.

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for electric rasors and hair appliances - they are usually fairly high up on the wall but are still next to the sink - which has to be a little bit dangerous.
I wonder what the statistics are on electrocuted Italians ?

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As far as I know, and from my small experience of other countries, the UK is the odd one out not putting plugs in bathrooms. It makes drying hair so much easier if I can do it in the bathroom. Again though I think it goes back to the fact that the UK doesn't earth the mains as such only the appliance - it's to do with ring mains and parallel or some such, I think!!