FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - (2007-08-05) New survey on the RFC site: How do you hold your knifeand fork

Peter A · **(2007-08-05) New survey on the RFC site: How do you hold your knife and fork**

In article >,
says...
>
> "Phred" > wrote
>
> > "Nancy Young" > wrote:
> >>
> >>"Phred" > wrote
> >>
> >>> But to return to the topic -- I was taught to use fork in left and
> >>> knife in right if the stuff needs cutting. And we don't chop it all
> >>> then eat like you do; we cut a bit off and stuff that down before
> >>> cutting off another bit.
> >>
> >>Who cuts up all their food at once? I don't know if it's
> >>bad manners or just frowned upon, but usually you just cut
> >>off your next bite. Cutting up the whole thing at once is what
> >>parents do for their small children.
>
> > I'm happy to be shown I'm wrong, but the impression we have here in Oz
> > is that "Americans" chop stuff up, then switch the fork to the other
> > hand to shovel the bits into the mouth. Are you saying they do this
> > one bite at a time? Or have I got my ethnics mixed?
>
> Since you were responding to Chatty, I thought maybe you meant
> that's what they did in SA, I hope you didn't take the question
> as snotty. No, you cut one bite at a time. That's why we are
> talking about switching, we keep switching back and forth. I know
> it sounds awkward, but I don't find it to be, since that's how I was
> raised.
>

I have been trying to adopt the "European" system simply to avoid all
the switching between hands. I find that with the fork in my left hand I
can do the simpler things, such as spearing a piece of chicken or
tomato, but some things - for example, buttered peas - still require the
greater dexterity of my right hand.

--
Peter Aitken