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Forking Etiquette
- zbanks 16y agoAnd I thought this was about github...
- w1ntermute 16y agoEven after seeing the domain name, I was hoping beyind hope that it would be...
- sigzero 16y agoI must have missed that meeting. Why?
- epochwolf 16y agoI had no clue what he was talking about with tines down until he mentioned the american method being tines up. As for cutting stuff with a fork: I've unconsciously avoided doing that in nicer restaurants but I've always done it at home when I don't have a knife handy. I think I would pick up on other people around me using forks differently just because I like to watch what everyone else is doing.
- edw519 16y agoWas I supposed to open doors using nothing but my elbows? Yes, actually. My mother called me with directions to her new apartment... "Go into the lobby and hit '614' with your elbow. I'll buzz you in." "Go into the elevator and hit '6' with your elbow." "Get off the elevator, turn right, and go down the hall to Apartment 614. Hit the doorbell with your elbow. I'll let you in." "Why with my elbow?" I asked. She replied, "You're not coming empty handed, are you?"
- srean 16y agoIn winter that would be a resounding yes. For all things such as metallic elevator buttons, metallic doors...... Hate getting spiked by static. I don't know why I get an unfair dose of those as compared to others.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoI usually just slap the offending surface hard enough for the shock to not matter.
- srean 16y agoMy friends explain that my humor is dry and unfunny.
- tung 16y agoI pull out my keys and touch the handle with it. No more door handle shocks. I wish I could say the same about my kitchen sink.
- macrael 16y agoEtiquette is such a funny thing. I know I sometimes notice people who aren't following protocol, usually out of ignorance of the rules, and it can really bug me. Why should it matter to me if someone is holding their fork in a fist, rather than between two fingers? But it seems ugly to me. Obviously it is the vey definition of uncouth, but it surprises me that it seems ugly. As if all of us following the rules do something pretty by doing so.
- burgerbrain 16y agoI generally go out of my way to not follow "proper" etiquette while dining, but this is because I think that "etiquette" is a piss-poor reason for me to be uncomfortable while dining as a left-handed individual. Screw old english ladies' definitions of proper, I am going to rearrange my utensils and plates.
- ugh 16y agoI dare anybody to tell me that it’s bad manners to hold the knife in my left hand. (I’m left-handed.)
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jamesbritt 16y ago"I dare anybody to tell me that it’s bad manners to hold the knife in my left hand." Well, not while while you're holding that knife ...
- jerf 16y agoIn my personal etiquette system, things should go both ways; individuals may have certain behaviors they should engage in, but the group is not off the hook. Failing to flip the service for an off-handed person is just as much a faux pas as anything else. Etiquette often has its reasons, so I'm actually not annoyed at etiquette per se anymore, but I'm still annoyed when the rules trump the spirit. I'm very much a "spirit of the law" sort of person when it comes down to it.
- sachitgupta 16y agoRules are just guidelines that are meant to be broken. How else can change happen?
- johngalt 16y agoIf your cutting don't send the fork all the way through the meat to hold it against the plate. The tines will drag across the plate as you cut and you'll get that high pitched screeching. Just thinking about that sound is irritating. Take your time and let the knife do the work.
- varunsrin 16y agoIs it bad that when I saw this I thought it was gonna be about git.
- viraptor 16y agoAs much, as I don't mind "proper etiquette" in public places, at home there's only one thing I use: http://www.lightmyfireusa.com/spork.html http://www.lightmyfireusa.com/spork.html It fits in the hand perfectly and I can finally cut stuff with the side of the fork (who needs a knife anyways?). I really recommend that one.
- snarkyturtle 16y agoRice is the hardest thing to eat with a fork. Especially the non-sticky kind. Foods like rice and other loose foods should be exempt from etiquettes in favor of the most efficient method. Otherwise, as noted in the article, it'll lead to either an excruciatingly slow and/or messy meal, which is all the more noticeable than the way you hold your fork.
- mootothemax 16y agoStrong disagree. With a bit of practise one can learn to balance a decent amount of rice on the back of one's fork. Green peas, alas, escape even the most practised forking, regardless of which method - balancing on the back or stab-them-to-death - one chooses.
- snarkyturtle 16y agoThat's the thing though. Why even practice balancing when you don't need to balance it using the contour of the fork to your benefit? It's like having a car only to put it in neutral and push it the rest of the way. Sure, you can do it on level ground and it's plain easy to ride it downhill. But if you're pushing it uphill you shouldn't think "hey, I'll just keep pushing this until I become strong enough to do this without effort", you should think "let's just use an essential function of the damn car".
- notahacker 16y agoit could be worse, you could be using chopsticks to fit in...
- chronomex 16y agoSticky rice is sticky for a reason.
- Waywocket 16y ago>Green peas, alas, escape even the most practised forking, regardless of which method - balancing on the back or stab-them-to-death - one chooses. Personally I choose not to eat peas at all unless furnished with a spoon :P. (And what other colours of peas do you get where you come from?)
- mikeklaas 16y agoSurely it would be "spnork"?
- tlrobinson 16y ago"napkinforkspoon" isn't a very efficient word for such an efficient tool. Clearly it should be "sporkin".
- dkarl 16y agoFor the last time, fellow Americans, it is not proper etiquette just because English people do it that way. If it's called the Continental method, it's probably the result of the English blindly copying the French. Isn't it silly of us to insecurely copy the manners of a country that insecurely copies the manners of another country?
- nailer 16y agoIt's designed as a mechanism to spot people of lower class, and some would argue it still works. Go dining with a seriously monied American and see what they do.
- kgo 16y agoSure it's silly. But it'd be sillier to either (a) invent a whole new etiquette system from scratch or (b) descend into thunderdome-level anything-goes anarchy at the dinner table just to prove we're not silly. Before you know it, people would be cracking open eggs at the big end.
- dkarl 16y agoYou forgot (c) don't panic and abandon your current system as invalid just because it doesn't match somebody else's system. It's false to regard one system as trumping another. We do not regard it as a breach in etiquette when someone eats in the "Continental" way in a setting where the American style prevails. The only reason to be embarrassed about the opposite is our American tendency to assume that European manners are more refined than our own, to the extent that we feel a little guilty when we go straight home after a soccer game without beating anyone up.
- code_duck 16y agoSimilarly, I was informed a few years ago that I hold my fork like an utter heathen. I tried to solve this, but still have no idea what the proper technique is or how mine differs.
- shawndumas 16y agoThere are two differing styles[1]. ---- [1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypq2qhRZnI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypq2qhRZnI&feature=relat...
- Sniffnoy 16y agoOh, here I assumed this was going to be stating something like we need fork the whole notion of etiquette and make our own version. To an extent, we already have.
- artpop 16y agoI was truly shocked the first time I saw an American eat a meal and I'm Australian so that's saying a lot.
- rflrob 16y agoI've found that, for a great many foods, the continental method is more efficient. Assuming you still use the knife with the right hand (and if you're right handed, that should be what gives you the most control over the cutting surface), then it's a bit of a waste of time to constantly switch your fork into your right hand for plate-to-mouth delivery. With the continental style, you never have to change your grip (until you switch to eating the rice and other rollables).
- flexd 16y agoAm i the only one holding the fork in my right hand? I thought that was normal.
- autarch 16y agoAll of this stuff is completely hilarious. It's incredibly rare for me to use a knife in a meal (although I did when I went out earlier this evening). I'm vegan, and I mostly eat non-American food. About half my meals use just a spoon and chopsticks. Many of my other meals are things like Indian food (just a fork, or just your hands). I hold my fork in my right hand, because I'm right handed. I use the contour of my fork to pick up my food. If I'm using a fork, I'm often eating something saucy (like an Indian curry). Attempting to eat this tines down would be a messy disaster. I really don't get these ridiculous etiquette rules. As Scott Adams point out, eating like this is inefficient, and generally annoying. I eat to enjoy myself, not to impress others with my memory of ridiculous minutia.
- Luyt 16y agoCorrect way of using cutlery: 1. Concentrate the food on the center of the plate. 2. Using knife and fork and with a scissoring movement, reduce the food to small chunks. 3. Using the fork, mix and stir well. 4. Use the spoon for moving the resulting mash into your mouth with maximum efficiency.