Emigrating has generally been a very, very complicated and difficult task, but by far the hardest aspect has been relearning how to use a knife and fork.
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@EndlessMason American table manners: Cut with a table knife in your right hand. Put down knife. Pick up fork with right hand, spear & place in mouth. UK/Aus: Keep fork in left hand, knife always in right, spear food with fork, left handed, then bite. It's harder than you think. @hacks4pancakes
@weezmgk @hacks4pancakes
I believe in Australian manners also includes the rule that's not a knife, this is a knife -
@weezmgk @hacks4pancakes
I believe in Australian manners also includes the rule that's not a knife, this is a knife@EndlessMason You've played knifey-spooney before, mate! @hacks4pancakes
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@osma Americans do eat like barbarians. Pizza, chicken, ribs, and burgers all mainly with (bare!) right hand. Barehanded! Filthy. @hacks4pancakes @EndlessMason
@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
counter point: eating pizza or fish and chips with a knife and fork is bonkers -
@EndlessMason You've played knifey-spooney before, mate! @hacks4pancakes
@weezmgk @hacks4pancakes bonza!
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I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes If it helps, I can tell you that although I was raised in Europe, with a strict fork-in-left-hand rule, I never obeyed by it, because I felt fork in the right had was more convenient (i.e. knife in left hand).
I still do it to this day, and having eaten at both plain and fancy occasions in many places the world, I've survived.
But, on a similar topic, I have noticed that Americans very often tend to use a fork only, and then use the fork to cut things. I don't know if it stands out, but I notice it.
(perhaps people notice my holding the fork wrong and they're just too polite to mention it?)
Edit: One more thing: The only time my knife-in-left-hand gives me trouble is when I go to a fancy restaurant and they have those special fish knives. Those are difficult to use with the left hand.
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@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
counter point: eating pizza or fish and chips with a knife and fork is bonkers@EndlessMason not just bonkers, elitist boobery eg Mitt Romney @osma @hacks4pancakes
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@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
counter point: eating pizza or fish and chips with a knife and fork is bonkers@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
wait, bare handed? You get the borger in waxed paper, surely they're not lifting it out of the salad catcher? -
This is legitimately not a joke. I feel so stupid and clumsy. I'm not sure I will ever get it down even though I try every single time I go out to dinner. And I was raised with strict table manners and can eat with chopsticks perfectly, too.
@hacks4pancakes
I'm an imitators, so after moving to Europe I imitated the people I was living with. Now, I can't go back to the American way when I visit. THAT feels clumsy and wasted motion. You will adjust! -
@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
wait, bare handed? You get the borger in waxed paper, surely they're not lifting it out of the salad catcher?@EndlessMason Salad catcher? Salads are in bowls in the US. If you eat salad on a burger, you're apt to get a mouthful of bowl. @osma @hacks4pancakes
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I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes I think all the British tv I watched as a kid in the 80s made me a lefty forker because I've always done it that way.
Which helped in military boarding school in in Jr HS (yo NMNA peeps!), because the upperclassman would like to have us sit at attention until the last 5 minutes of chow; so slice, scarf and taste it later was utility > manners.
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@jpm Americans eat with the fork and knife in the opposite hands, and the fork reversed. And I am ADHD enough to be self conscious about this.
@hacks4pancakes @jpm I'm Australian and I use either hand for a fork, depends what I'm eating and whether I need a knife.
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Emigrating has generally been a very, very complicated and difficult task, but by far the hardest aspect has been relearning how to use a knife and fork. It's way harder than accents or driving on the other side of the road.
@hacks4pancakes did not realize there was an american way. I’ve must have seen it in tv and movies million times but never noticed.
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@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
wait, bare handed? You get the borger in waxed paper, surely they're not lifting it out of the salad catcher?A civilized burger is served on a plate, so you can lift off excess bread and eat it with a knife and fork in left and right hand, respectively. We don't eat one on horseback, after all.
(I do enjoy an occasional brutish burger of course)
Edit: I will pretend I intended to place the utensils in barbarian order above. You will pretend to believe it. That is Civilized.
@EndlessMason @weezmgk @hacks4pancakes -
I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes i was reprogrammed, while in the states no less, by an english rose who would gently, but mercilessly, mock me when i moved the fork from one side to the other. 'it's so inefficient' she would chide
i had the biggest crush on her and was motivated to learn quickly
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I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes I spent a lot of time in the US as a European and never noticed this. Fascinating!
The only cutlery related thing I can remember is some lady eating spaghetti by twirling them around her fork with her free hand but I doubt that’s a common thing. -
A civilized burger is served on a plate, so you can lift off excess bread and eat it with a knife and fork in left and right hand, respectively. We don't eat one on horseback, after all.
(I do enjoy an occasional brutish burger of course)
Edit: I will pretend I intended to place the utensils in barbarian order above. You will pretend to believe it. That is Civilized.
@EndlessMason @weezmgk @hacks4pancakes@osma can't you just put chunks of food on the reindeer antlers? @EndlessMason @hacks4pancakes
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@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
counter point: eating pizza or fish and chips with a knife and fork is bonkersThere's two kinds of fish and chips. The pre-cut cheaper bits of fish, and the whole-fillet with a side of mashed peas and a lot of tartar sauce kind. How you eat the better kind *without* a knife and fork boggles the mind.
@EndlessMason @weezmgk @hacks4pancakes -
I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes Later I'll be eating somewhere likely to feature Americans, and I shall be using this information to sleuth. Now, in this case, does American == north American, or USian? How do Canadians use cutlery?
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@EndlessMason Salad catcher? Salads are in bowls in the US. If you eat salad on a burger, you're apt to get a mouthful of bowl. @osma @hacks4pancakes
@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
This isn't a macdonalds ad, and I don't work fastfood any more, so I'm not naming all the individual vegetables in the burger⸸__
⸸. Since I'm a person with vegetarianism it's technically a salad roll, but "burger with the lot, no meat" is the closest thing on the menu -
I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes I’ve heard different explanations for this which tie the switch to westward American expansion, where Americans gave up the knife altogether and used the fork sideways as a cutting instrument - this allowed them to eliminate carrying one knife for every fork on the wagon trains, thereby cutting down on weight. No idea if there is truth to this or not.
It took 2 years for me to learn how to use the fork in my left hand and knife in my right after moving to Portugal! My kid, who was five when she came here, kept calling it out (she learned to eat the European way in the canteen at school where they make the kids hold the knife and fork in this manner) so my wife and I had to adapt
