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I was eating with some Americans a few days back and I was surprised to find they were surprised when I complained there were no knives- apparently in America its the done thing to just eat with a fork. Which to me just sounds....wrong.
So I wonder...how do folk here normally eat?
Of course, it varies from meal to meal to a degree, but the majority of your meals?


edit- just researched this myself. Continental style is apparently what is normal to me, knife and fork in different hands and eating with it like so, American style is just picking up the knife when you need it.

Depends on how you define meals. American style for cooked dinners, hands for the majority of the food I ingest.

I have on good authority that you can get drummed out of the RCMP by eating peas with a knife.

At home?  A combination of chopsticks, fork, knife, and spoon, depending on what the wife cooks. 

There's no option in the poll for just burying your face in the plate and slurping the food directly into your mouth.  :(

Seriously, knife and fork.  But, as Peter Wiggin noted, it depends on what you're eating.  No need for any utensils if you're having a burger and fries.  A full meal, you need all the traditional utensils.

I don't know what kind of Americans you met.  We use knives for items which require knives.  I don't use a knife much anymore, though, because most items which require knives are meat--but I certainly used a knife to eat steaks, grilled chicken, etc.  If you were using a knife to eat spaghetti, I guess that would draw weird looks.

Most of the food I eat is finger food, I guess.

P.S. the mindset that makes chopsticks acceptable is the mindset that has made every confrontation between Asian countries and the United States a ten-to-one casualty affair.

Uhm, it depends on the meal?  :huh:

I eat soup with a spoon, a steak with a fork and a knife, asparagus and chicken with my hands, cake with a fork, fish preferably with a spatula and a fork (or, if a spatula is not availanle, two forks) and sushi with chopsticks.  :huh:

Eating soup with fork takes a long time.

I like to eat rice with chopsticks.  White dudes are often impressed that I can do that. :cool:

Quote from: Caliga on October 19, 2011, 06:02:19 AM
I like to eat rice with chopsticks.  White dudes are often impressed that I can do that. :cool:

Now Marty is going to struggle with learning how to eat with chop sticks.  He'll probably poke an eye out in the process.

Quote from: Razgovory on October 19, 2011, 06:22:41 AM
Now Marty is going to struggle with learning how to eat with chop sticks.  He'll probably poke an eye out in the process.

QuotePosted by: Martinus
Uhm, it depends on the meal?  :huh:

I eat soup with a spoon, a steak with a fork and a knife, asparagus and chicken with my hands, cake with a fork, fish preferably with a spatula and a fork (or, if a spatula is not availanle, two forks) and sushi with chopsticks

Nigiri sushi's a finger food.

Quote from: Caliga on October 19, 2011, 06:02:19 AM
I like to eat rice with chopsticks.  White dudes are often impressed that I can do that. :cool:

Today was the first time I successfully gobbled up a whole chicken stew with rice using only the chopsticks. Pretty satisfied with myself.

As for the question, in which I presume he's wondering FOR THE MEALS WHERE YOU EXPECT TO USE A KNIFE AND FORK YOU FUCKING DUMBASSES I usually work with the knife throughout the meal. I only put the knife down if I'm feeling particularly lazy. It's simply not polite.

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on October 19, 2011, 06:25:48 AM

Quote from: Razgovory on October 19, 2011, 06:22:41 AM
Now Marty is going to struggle with learning how to eat with chop sticks.  He'll probably poke an eye out in the process.

QuotePosted by: Martinus
Uhm, it depends on the meal?  :huh:

I eat soup with a spoon, a steak with a fork and a knife, asparagus and chicken with my hands, cake with a fork, fish preferably with a spatula and a fork (or, if a spatula is not availanle, two forks) and sushi with chopsticks

He's lying.  He can't do anything competently.

If I'm eating someting which doesn't require a knife (e.g a stew), I don't use a knife and I use my right hand for the fork.

Thought everyone was the same.

I like sporks

L.

I can easily use all of those methods in a single day. Just had a chopstick lunch.

Quote from: Martinus on October 19, 2011, 05:38:02 AM
Uhm, it depends on the meal?  :huh:

I eat soup with a spoon, a steak with a fork and a knife, asparagus and chicken with my hands, cake with a fork, fish preferably with a spatula and a fork (or, if a spatula is not availanle, two forks) and sushi with chopsticks.  :huh:

:rolleyes:

Quote
Of course, it varies from meal to meal to a degree, but the majority of your meals?

There should be a 'standard'. I sometimes have soup and use a spoon. Most of my meals though are pretty solid knife and fork affairs (well...at home....).
Unless you always make sure to have exactly the same amount of meals of soup, sushi and regular food so as to ensure all your utensils wear out at the same speed.

Quote from: Martinus on October 19, 2011, 05:38:02 AM
Uhm, it depends on the meal?  :huh:

I eat soup with a spoon, a steak with a fork and a knife, asparagus and chicken with my hands, cake with a fork, fish preferably with a spatula and a fork (or, if a spatula is not availanle, two forks) and sushi with chopsticks.  :huh:

Instead of knocking no some of our odd ways of eating - I'm just going to point out that Tyr asked what one uses in the majority of one's meals - not with the suggestion that one can only use one method.  It's okay if you don't know the answer. :hug:

To avoid being labelled with the facetious crowd, my main meals are probably equal amounts of knife and fork (meat and veg) or fork and spoon (stew, spaghetti etc.).

Quote from: Slargos on October 19, 2011, 07:10:47 AM

Quote from: Caliga on October 19, 2011, 06:02:19 AM
I like to eat rice with chopsticks.  White dudes are often impressed that I can do that. :cool:

Today was the first time I successfully gobbled up a whole chicken stew with rice using only the chopsticks. Pretty satisfied with myself.

As for the question, in which I presume he's wondering FOR THE MEALS WHERE YOU EXPECT TO USE A KNIFE AND FORK YOU FUCKING DUMBASSES I usually work with the knife throughout the meal. I only put the knife down if I'm feeling particularly lazy. It's simply not polite.

Plus putting down the knife is unsafe. You never know when a Jew or Black might wander by.  :P

During just a normal meal I usually use just a fork or a spoon depending on what it is I am eating.

The whole knife-fork-spoon combo is just for sit down dinners which are sorta formal-ish.

I have a servant shovel the food in.

Quote from: Ideologue on October 19, 2011, 06:27:23 AM
Nigiri sushi's a finger food.

All sushi is. :contract:  However, when I eat sushi with other people, I do have to use chopsticks, because all of them do as well, so I don't want to look like a brute. :x

I mostly eat astronaut bread and foodstix.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I eat with my mouth.

Quote from: Barrister on October 19, 2011, 08:53:07 AM
I don't know about the rest of you, but I eat with my mouth.

I'm not surprised that manners don't exist in the wilderness but now that you're in the city, it might behoove you to change your habits...

Quote from: Malthus on October 19, 2011, 08:25:10 AM

Quote from: Slargos on October 19, 2011, 07:10:47 AM

Quote from: Caliga on October 19, 2011, 06:02:19 AM
I like to eat rice with chopsticks.  White dudes are often impressed that I can do that. :cool:

Today was the first time I successfully gobbled up a whole chicken stew with rice using only the chopsticks. Pretty satisfied with myself.

As for the question, in which I presume he's wondering FOR THE MEALS WHERE YOU EXPECT TO USE A KNIFE AND FORK YOU FUCKING DUMBASSES I usually work with the knife throughout the meal. I only put the knife down if I'm feeling particularly lazy. It's simply not polite.

Plus putting down the knife is unsafe. You never know when a Jew or Black might wander by.  :P

Nah. You can always plug him with the fork. Even an enraged nigger will go down to a fork in the eye.

knife and fork (where applicable). though i always have the urge to hold the knfe with my eft hand instead of my right

Quote from: garbon on October 19, 2011, 08:56:33 AM

Quote from: Barrister on October 19, 2011, 08:53:07 AM
I don't know about the rest of you, but I eat with my mouth.

I'm not surprised that manners don't exist in the wilderness but now that you're in the city, it might behoove you to change your habits...

His food goes in a bowl on the floor.  :)

Quote from: Valmy on October 19, 2011, 08:28:35 AM
During just a normal meal I usually use just a fork or a spoon depending on what it is I am eating.

The whole knife-fork-spoon combo is just for sit down dinners which are sorta formal-ish.

:yes:

Quote from: DGuller on October 19, 2011, 08:41:14 AM

Quote from: Ideologue on October 19, 2011, 06:27:23 AM
Nigiri sushi's a finger food.

All sushi is. :contract:  However, when I eat sushi with other people, I do have to use chopsticks, because all of them do as well, so I don't want to look like a brute. :x

Same people would probably think you were odd if you add pizza with a fork.  Fuck their ignorance.

Quote from: Ideologue on October 19, 2011, 10:51:57 AM

Quote from: DGuller on October 19, 2011, 08:41:14 AM

Quote from: Ideologue on October 19, 2011, 06:27:23 AM
Nigiri sushi's a finger food.

All sushi is. :contract:  However, when I eat sushi with other people, I do have to use chopsticks, because all of them do as well, so I don't want to look like a brute. :x

Same people would probably think you were odd if you add pizza with a fork.  Fuck their ignorance.

It would be odd to add pizza with a fork.

Well, that's what I mean.  They're being arbitrary.  Implements are for food that will seriously make a mess if eaten by hand (e.g., soup, tuna salad, a juicy steak).  But sushi doesn't really fall into that category.  An implement is helpful for wasabi, I suppose, as you don't want to get that on your hands.

Like, you'd look silly eating sushi with a fork, right?  So why ought a similarly-purposed implement be mandated?

american style, the fork in my left hand, the knife in my right hand when I need it.  If I'm eating at a decent restaurant, I try to eat with both fork and knife in hand tough.

Quote from: Ideologue on October 19, 2011, 11:03:52 AM
Well, that's what I mean.  They're being arbitrary.  Implements are for food that will seriously make a mess if eaten by hand (e.g., soup, tuna salad, a juicy steak).  But sushi doesn't really fall into that category.  An implement is helpful for wasabi, I suppose, as you don't want to get that on your hands.

Like, you'd look silly eating sushi with a fork, right?  So why ought a similarly-purposed implement be mandated?

I don't think you understood my post. :P

American style, if I don't need a knife I'm not going to hold one.

When eating with knife and fork I usually do it European style, but these days I'm probably eating more with chopsticks (since the majority of the home cooking is Chinese) or my hands (sandwiches, toast, snacks).

Standing, facing in the direction of Charles XII's tomb.

To clarify, when you guys talk about American style does that mean you cut the food with the fork in the left hand then switch it to your right to transport the cut food to your mouth?

Quote from: The Brain on October 19, 2011, 01:06:01 PM
Standing, facing in the direction of Charles XII's tomb.

This thread discusses eating, not masturbation.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 19, 2011, 02:51:46 PM
To clarify, when you guys talk about American style does that mean you cut the food with the fork in the left hand then switch it to your right to transport the cut food to your mouth?

I presume so.

I've always been taught to cut with the right and shovel with the left. I know a lot of people insist on the opposite, but aside from being terribly uncouth, it just feels wrong.

Quote from: Malthus on October 19, 2011, 02:53:31 PM

Quote from: The Brain on October 19, 2011, 01:06:01 PM
Standing, facing in the direction of Charles XII's tomb.

This thread discusses eating, not masturbation.

My God. Have you ever had a wholesome thought in your life?

Quote from: The Brain on October 19, 2011, 02:56:22 PM

Quote from: Malthus on October 19, 2011, 02:53:31 PM

Quote from: The Brain on October 19, 2011, 01:06:01 PM
Standing, facing in the direction of Charles XII's tomb.

This thread discusses eating, not masturbation.

My God. Have you ever had a wholesome thought in your life?

September 22, 1981, at 8:42 PM. If I'm not mistaken.

Anyway, I eat the correct way. Knife in right hand, fork in left.

Quote from: The Brain on October 19, 2011, 02:58:54 PM
Anyway, I eat the correct way. Knife in right hand, fork in left.

I only use sporks and knorks. -_-

If you're going by the majority of my meals, I suppose that I eat sandwiches and similar foods that don't require any utensils most of the time, so the answer would be "with my hands". 

But yeah, I usually eat with a knife and a fork. Even if I eat with just a fork, I always hold it with my left hand. People who hold a fork with their right hand are barbarians.

My parents always used to pick on me for eating left handed- fork in the right. It just feels so much more natural to me.
But I eat continental style anyway, the only time any switching occurs is if I have a particularly tough steak or somewhat and really need the power of my right to cut into it.

Quote from: dps on October 19, 2011, 04:29:57 PM
If you're going by the majority of my meals, I suppose that I eat sandwiches and similar foods that don't require any utensils most of the time, so the answer would be "with my hands". 

Most things I eat are with my hands of course but I wouldn't really count a sandwich and other snacks as meals.

Quote from: Martinus on October 19, 2011, 04:34:50 PM
But yeah, I usually eat with a knife and a fork. Even if I eat with just a fork, I always hold it with my left hand. People who hold a fork with their right hand are barbarians.

Not really. Takes more effort to switch back and forth.

Quote from: Tyr on October 19, 2011, 07:08:39 PM
Most things I eat are with my hands of course but I wouldn't really count a sandwich and other snacks as meals.

Bitch, I supported you but I can't keep doing that when you suddenly change the goal posts. "How do you usually eat?" "How do you eat your meals?"

Quote from: garbon on October 19, 2011, 07:12:50 PM

Quote from: Tyr on October 19, 2011, 07:08:39 PM
Most things I eat are with my hands of course but I wouldn't really count a sandwich and other snacks as meals.

Bitch, I supported you but I can't keep doing that when you suddenly change the goal posts. "How do you usually eat?" "How do you eat your meals?"

But...that's what my first post says.

Not that it matters too much. Not a life or death question.

And the method of putting down the knife unless you have something to cut sounds awfully silly to me. If you are eating a meal with a knife and a fork, you hold the knife in your hand for the entire meal, unless you want to grab a glass or something.

I think I may have seen a person who would cut the meat and then put down the fork only once or twice - but people like this are considered soft in the head and/or infantile here.

What's the point of holding the knife while you shovel rice and vegetables in your mouth?

Quote from: Tyr on October 20, 2011, 04:22:49 AM

Quote from: garbon on October 19, 2011, 07:12:50 PM

Quote from: Tyr on October 19, 2011, 07:08:39 PM
Most things I eat are with my hands of course but I wouldn't really count a sandwich and other snacks as meals.

Bitch, I supported you but I can't keep doing that when you suddenly change the goal posts. "How do you usually eat?" "How do you eat your meals?"

But...that's what my first post says.

Not that it matters too much. Not a life or death question.

What if we don't eat conventional "meals"?

Quote from: Martinus on October 20, 2011, 05:45:29 AM
I think I may have seen a person who would cut the meat and then put down the fork only once or twice - but people like this are considered soft in the head and/or infantile here.

Put down the fork?  Did they eat things by spearing them with a knife?  I can see how you would view a person like that as soft in the head.

Quote from: Tyr on October 20, 2011, 04:22:49 AM

Quote from: garbon on October 19, 2011, 07:12:50 PM

Quote from: Tyr on October 19, 2011, 07:08:39 PM
Most things I eat are with my hands of course but I wouldn't really count a sandwich and other snacks as meals.

Bitch, I supported you but I can't keep doing that when you suddenly change the goal posts. "How do you usually eat?" "How do you eat your meals?"

But...that's what my first post says.

Not that it matters too much. Not a life or death question.

Actually you twice ask how do you eat but then twice ask how do you eat the majority of your meals.  It's a bit odd to draw a distinction now when you'd been using them interchangeably earlier.

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on October 20, 2011, 05:54:58 AM
What's the point of holding the knife while you shovel rice and vegetables in your mouth?

If you've abandoned any attempt at civilized eating then you are right it isn't important to hold the knife.

I put my elbows on the table.  :)