Boulder

I am English and hardly ever use a knife these days. I was brought up though to use a knife and fork but I don't now just because I prefer to use just a fork. My husband is Italian and he only uses a fork.

ImHere

Never mind.

Dan725

Definate British knife and fork style, me. So is my american wife, and I would say out of most of the americans I know, the split is 50/50 between "British style" and the retarded cut your food up-put down knife-pick up fork with same hand-eat-put down fork-pick up knife-repeat style - crazy.

That napkin thing bloody irritates me as well - I fail to see why every american has to have not just one or two but half a box full of napkins everytime they sit down to eat.

Lottie

Funnily enough we were talking about this at work on Friday. The group I was with were talking about being interviewed for a job over b'fast, lunch or dinner and how awkward it is. This practice seems to be a lot more common here than in the UK. Anyway, would you believe it, but there are classes you can take which tell you how to eat when you're at one of these interviews.

One of the girls I was with said "yes, it's really hard to know what to do at b'fast with bacon".

I looked really puzzled, so she continued, "well you know, normally I would eat bacon at breakfast with my fingers".

You can imagine my look :scared: but everyone else just nodded!

No wonder there are classes

Dant3

I remember a scene in 'War of the Roses' where the Kathleen Turner character, eating English-style, looks at Michael Douglas in disgust 'cause he's eating American-style. I conclude from this flimsy evidence that there is a rare breed of American, perhaps confined to the more affluent areas of New England and no doubt facing extinction, who are able to eat the proper way and regard their brethren's face-stuffing antics with the same disdain as do the rest of the civilized world.

Jabba1

It's because you look funny.

CaliforniaBride

Hubby gave me classes in eating bacon. "pick it up with your fingers and chomp!" It takes some getting used to, but after trying to cut the bacon with a knife and fork and having it crumble on my plate I got stuck in. Must admit I do chmp with acertain Britishness

TouristTrap

Do you hold your pinkie up?

S. Africans too eat everything with a knife and fork, including pizza and burgers....


I saw 'Mr Twinings' on tv once. He explained that the putting of milk in the cup first came from Victorian times when they used fine bone china and didn't want to risk the cups breaking from the boiling tea. It is fine if added in afterwards, but I can never for the life of me do it without adding milk first...and of course, warming the pot is sacrosanct around these parts....nothing like a good cuppa made in a fine teapot and drunk in a pretty cup.

TouristTrap

Priceless!!!...LOLOL

bxpuser7543

keep up the battle mate,i hate eating with my septic "family",they cant cut meat for jack,they hold the meat down with the knife and try and pull it apart with the fork,looks so cavemanlike

f...,i had to edit this beacause i left the "with" out,lol

cindyabs

Personally, my husband and I eat our respective ways and neither of us give a hoot how the other one holds their cutlery or not as the case may be. It's like you say toe mah toe, I say toe may toe, etc, etc.
However, this napkin thing has me curious- I shall observe next time we're out, whether he uses one or not.

ImHere

Saying toe-may-toe to me isnt offensive at all but spewing food all over the table and eating like a neanderthal when im also trying to eat is pretty bloody offensive to me.

mandpete

Me and my husband still eat the british way and our 13 year old does most of the time. However I have to remind my 8 year old constantly to use her knife and fork. I have to remind both of them to sit up and bring their food to their mouths and not sit with their chins almost on the plate. I also have to tell my 13 year old not to eat, especially crisps, with his mouth open. They both have school lunches and they have definitely picked up different eating habits than I am used to, but I suppose they do it so they don't look different from the other kids.

We rarely use napkins at home because we eat almost everything with forks and not our fingers so we don't need to keep wiping food off our hands. Obviously when we have chops or ribs we do use quite a few napkins.

The other thing I have noticed is how many paper plates and plastic cutlery people buy at the supermarkets. I can't believe that some people over here serve regular family dinners on paper plates.

bxpuser7543

I can relate to the chin on the table scenario,kin animals,lol

Dimsie

I suspected as much !!