Ewwww. That's Disgusting. You slob!

December 23, 2005 4:55 AM

Don't Gross Out the World: A Cross-Cultural Dining Etiquette Quiz.
posted by jacquilynne (31 comments total)

Lame flash 'quiz' with sound.
posted by signal at 5:02 AM on December 23, 2005

In the US, "The fork is held in the right hand and is used for eating."

Is that really the accepted manner now?
posted by pracowity at 5:12 AM on December 23, 2005

Huh. They call dunch "dinner" in England as well, or at least did when I lived there as a boy.
posted by maxsparber at 5:19 AM on December 23, 2005

In the US, "The fork is held in the right hand and is used for eating."

It's how the terrorists identify Americans.
posted by three blind mice at 5:28 AM on December 23, 2005

Weird quiz. The Japanese etiquette question has a strange answer - slurp noodles to let the chef know that the food is good? Strange, a Japanese aquaintance had told me you slurp noodles to cool them, and you don't slurp miso because it is meant to be eaten piping hot.

But what does he know, he was just born there and lived there for a few decades. A flash quiz on the net is usually authoritative, right?
posted by splice at 5:30 AM on December 23, 2005

I can confirm that both 'lunch' and 'dinner' are often used to describe the midday meal. Whilst 'dinner', 'supper' and 'tea' are equally used to describe the meal eaten between 5-7pm.

Also the fork in the left hand, knife in the right is used if you are right handed. These tend to be swapped for left handers. The 'eating with just a fork in the right hand' method is considered in the UK to be a sign of extreme mental retardation.
posted by DrDoberman at 5:31 AM on December 23, 2005

The only one I got wrong was the England question. Something not quite right there.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:47 AM on December 23, 2005

In the US, "The fork is held in the right hand and is used for eating."

Is that really the accepted manner now?

Technically, it is and has been for generations. But it certainly seems like fewer and fewer people actually eat that way. When we were kids in the 70s, my sister used to claim it was "more efficient" (and therefore better) to keep the fork in the left hand, as if there was a time limit on eating and her doctor felt she wasn't shoveling it in fast enough, heh.

I love it on tv and in the movies when they show a family eating, and some of them have the fork in the right hand and some in the left.
posted by JanetLand at 5:58 AM on December 23, 2005

The mid-day meal is still sometimes called dinner in rural Pennsylvania, I've gotten confused by that more than once. And thus the playmate coolers that you carry your sandwich and pop in are often called "dinner buckets."
posted by octothorpe at 6:29 AM on December 23, 2005

From the second link: Everything should be eaten on the plate.

As opposed to, what, eating it on the floor? Or was that supposed to say "Everything on the plate should be eaten?"
posted by antifuse at 6:46 AM on December 23, 2005

I've been in a number of Spanish tapas bars where the bill is based on the number of cocktail sticks left on the plate after the food has been eaten. Each stick corresponds to one piece of food eaten. Throwing them on the floor would amount to fraud.
posted by biffa at 7:01 AM on December 23, 2005

they still call lunch, dinner where i live in tennessee.
posted by nola at 7:10 AM on December 23, 2005

That's interesting, biffa. In Brazilian bars, people often use cocktail sticks to keep track of how much they've been drinking. I don't believe it's for the benefit of the bar staff, but rather, to ensure that the bar staff isn't defrauding you.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:20 AM on December 23, 2005

It may not have been the most informative quiz on teh internets, but at least it generated some interesting conversation.

In my family, the mid-day meal has always been dinner or lunch, and the evening meal dinner or supper. And does anyone really put all that much thought into which hand holds the fork? I imagine that a person just favors their main hand simply for better control of the utensil.
posted by Plinko at 7:40 AM on December 23, 2005

Where I'm from in Northern England it's often dinner and tea rather than lunch and dinner but it's understood from context wherever possible which form you're using. Picking the non-standard form for the context is a pretty pitiful effort at a trick question.
posted by biffa at 7:51 AM on December 23, 2005

Lame flash 'quiz' with sound.
posted by signal at 7:02 AM CST on December 23 [!]

Phew! Thanks for the helpful warning!
posted by Jesse H Christ at 7:53 AM on December 23, 2005

I can attest to the "finish all of your food in germany" statement. I inadvertently offended an entire restaurants staff when I was way jetlagged, and my stomach just couldn't deal with food then.
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:03 AM on December 23, 2005

We always said in Alabama that dinner was the largest, most extensive meal of the day. Usually that was supper, but on Sunday that was lunch and Sunday afternoon was time off for the cooks (the women folk) and we all ate leftovers for Sunday supper.

We were also taught not to switch hands with the fork.
posted by Pollomacho at 8:04 AM on December 23, 2005

The only one I got wrong was the England question. Something not quite right there.

Is that because the 'English' question wasn't about English culinary habits; but about what the authors thought the English thought about the way the Americans eat their chicken. Clear as mud!
posted by DrDoberman at 8:05 AM on December 23, 2005

Japanese dining etiquette is true, and embarrassing when dining at sushi restaurants with people who don't know how to use chopsticks. Of course, what is not mentioned is that sushi (nigiri specifically) can be eaten by hand without offense.
posted by olbiadle at 8:12 AM on December 23, 2005

Forgot to mention that "trying a bit of everything" in Japan is an interesting proposition. I befriended a sushi chef a while back, and after going there regularly, I decided we would go "omakase" style (chef's choice). He made up a huge plate of sashimi for my wife and I with two pieces of everything he had. Now I know what my palate can't take: pickled baby octopus, raw squid, and geoduck. But it would have offended him not to try to eat some of everything.
posted by olbiadle at 8:16 AM on December 23, 2005

splice - Japanese noodle slurping etiquette is a far more complicated topic than it appears to be at first. Slurping to cool down the noodles was one reason that I heard sometimes, but I don't quite think it's correct because of the fact that:

1. Slurping non-Asian noodle dishes (pasta) is considered bad manners, even when the dishes are hot.
2. You can also slurp cold noodle dishes (like cold somen, zaru soba, and zaru udon).

I've asked probably a half dozen different Japanese people if there are any hard and fast rules to noodle slurping, and they've all given me slightly different replies. I'm inclined to believe that it simply makes eating certain foods more fun. I know that's why I did it.
posted by C^3 at 9:03 AM on December 23, 2005

So is it true that in the US a guest is expected to go to the refrigerator and get something to drink?
That sounds so strange.

The cutting of potatoes with your fork in Germany is true: a long time ago knives were made of iron and forks of silver. The iron tainted the taste of the potatoes.
Having this habit indicates that you're not part of the hoi polloi.
posted by jouke at 10:40 AM on December 23, 2005

So is it true that in the US a guest is expected to go to the refrigerator and get something to drink?

Sometimes. Depends on the situation and the relationship. If it's the first time you're at someone's house and it's the first drink: probably not. If you've been there for a while or you come over often, then yeah, you can get your own drink. I mean, unless your legs are broken or something.

Also, don't people always cut their potatoes with their forks? I mean, they aren't hard.
posted by dame at 12:22 PM on December 23, 2005

And does anyone really put all that much thought into which hand holds the fork? I imagine that a person just favors their main hand simply for better control of the utensil.

No, british people and plenty of americans keep the knife in the main hand & the fork upside-down in the non-dominant hand, and use it to stab things rather than to shovel things, or if a need for shoveling comes up, you use the knife to set some food on the back of the fork. This is how my british mother taught me to use utensils & how I still use them, but lots of americans put the knife down, and switch the fork into the dominant hand, and scoop instead of skewering.

but I couldn't get thru the whole quiz 'cause of that annoying schwoopshwop flash-sound bizness.
posted by mdn at 1:14 PM on December 23, 2005

And does anyone really put all that much thought into which hand holds the fork? I imagine that a person just favors their main hand simply for better control of the utensil.

For sure. I am pretty certain that most Australians who consider themselves to be anything above white trash follow the fork-in-left-hand rule. To do otherwise would be seen as a sign of a poor upbringing.

Also, AFAIK, there is no concession for left-handers to hold their fork in their right hand. They just have to learn to deal with it, just as once they were forced to learn to write with their less favoured hand.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:52 PM on December 23, 2005

I was taught (by my ex-girlfriend's mother ) that not passing the fork to your dominant hand indicates you are in a rush or want the meal to be over. She was from a snobby New England family.
posted by joegester at 7:46 PM on December 23, 2005

I'm a left-handed USian and am incapable of using a fork in my right hand. The only issue that's ever come up for me is that I try to sit on the left if I'm eating side-by-side with anyone so we don't keep bumping elbows. If anyone's ever thought less of me for using my left hand, they've kept it to themselves.
posted by scody at 9:02 PM on December 23, 2005

I've been in a number of Spanish tapas bars where the bill is based on the number of cocktail sticks left on the plate after the food has been eaten. Each stick corresponds to one piece of food eaten. Throwing them on the floor would amount to fraud.

Although that may have been corrupted overseas a "Spanish Thing", it's actually a "Basque Thing". Still, in places like that, it's run on the honour system and people just don't throw away or otherwise try to hide their cocktail sticks, though tissues and the like still end up on the floor...
posted by benzo8 at 12:09 AM on December 24, 2005

My first restaurant job years ago, I go to the table and the busboy has set the knife with the blade out like in the picture. The family is trying to get grandma to sit but she refuses because the blade of the knife is in an unlucky positon. I always wondered if this was a common belief.
posted by pointilist at 1:15 PM on December 25, 2005

benzo8, perhaps I should have said Catalan but the places I was talking about where in Spain, mostly in and around Barcelona.
posted by biffa at 6:40 AM on December 28, 2005