FWIW, I've never met a single British person who does this. First I heard about it was reading that 'Watching The English' book. I'm not sure which particular bit of the English she was watching, but it wasn't anyone I've ever hung around with. That's just weird, though
I don't mind putting on a suit and tie to go to work. I often do, even though I work from home, just because I like them. It's just that's all there seems to be when I want to dress up a bit, and goddammit I want options about how to be pretty.
Maybe habits hang on longer here in Scotland, but that is how they eat here. They push food onto their upside-down fork with their knife (which they never put down) and stick the fork into their mouths with their non-dominant hand. I have been twitted many times about the silly eating method I employ, and laughed at because I put my knife down and switch hands. I have NEVER mentioned to them that I think they eat 'funny.' I would never dream of making fun of the way they hold their cutlery, if they were visiting me in the USA instead. That, to me, would be incredibly bad manners. Many Scots, for all their loveable qualities as a culture, have this thing about everybody doing everything the same way. "It's the done thing," is a phrase I've heard over and over. If you're doing things differently from everybody else, that means you're trying to stand out or above the crowd, and that's not the done thing. Basically, you're supposed to chop down the poppies so the cabbages will thrive. Erm....no. I share the sentiment of not trampling on your fellows to get 'above' them in life, but carrying this to silly extremes—like making fun of the way somebody holds their fork in the hopes that you'll shame them into going with the crowd—needs a shake-up. Fork-holding is not the kind of individualism that is a threat to anybody. Get over it.
@jannert ' quite honestly I'd just say my way of eating makes more sense since I'm right-handed But I'm left-handed so I've never had to switch cutlery. I do put down my knife though. Ooh another pet peeve. What is it with dessert forks and eating cake or pie without any knives? When I've raised this, people look me funny and say "but you don't need a knife." Ah, yes, you do. When you cut a piece out with the side of your fork, that's when an actual KNIFE would have been handy. I don't know how many damn times I've had to battle with my piece of cake because the fork doesn't cut properly and there's no other piece of cutlery to allow you to hold the bigger piece in place so you can just pull the small bit off. Where's the sense in that!!? Or worse, if you get a dessert spoon And one more. What is it with restaurants putting the damn napkin on the plate next to the cake? Or worse, when they put it UNDER the cake. Like, why? Why would you do that!?
Maybe @jannert you might enjoy a big wooden spoon and a bib? [Hoh, hoh, hoh] The new nationality passport test actually has its updated section on this dispute - concerns the left/right, fork/knife usage systems of the United Kingdom of GB&NI 2016, statutory instrument, I believe. There are various out-right bans, includes US 'shovel swallow' and affected pincer tweeze of lower middles re knife: gauche and gross in my opinion.
Aren't you the guy who used to boast about sucking up pints of diluted Ribena through a straw in your nose?
That was my fiction, J...I'm a little ambidextrous about that one, not sure whether my public's ready... We snorted tequila, and also flour once - that was a big joke, a big party. I was kind of a laughing stock for a while after, what with my jabbering, wild staring eyes. Include tale of the two smarties in that memoir section, oh and liquorice in Leicester Square.
This is more of a gripe than a pet peeve, but the phrase "women's fiction" is really starting to bug me. For a start, it's so vague as to be almost meaningless when listed as a genre, and second - only women can enjoy reading about women? Please. Now, the upside-down fork thing... if you don't eat the 'American' way (put the knife down and use only fork) and you don't eat the 'British' way (upside down fork)... how do you eat? Hold both fork and knife and use the fork like a shovel? I'm not judging - I don't care how people hold their cutlery - I'm just confused.
I eat the British way. Knife the food and use the fork upside down. I've an inside joke that I drink like an American (ie, really fast), but eat like a British person (ie, use both the fork and the knife, and hold the fork upside down.)
I agree with this. How do they even categorize women's fiction? Do they use the Bechdel test? Every book with a female protagonist is classified as women's fiction? (Hetero/lesbian) romance is always women's fiction? Me too, but I'm guessing basically if you don't abide to the American or British rules, you'll eat like the rest of the world, shovel the food into your mouth with your hands or sometimes upend the plate and just let it slide down your throat. Now that's the non-American/British way.
According to my research, different places have their own definitions which makes it even more. For me, personally, the worst thing is not knowing if it includes romance or not. Some places mean literally anything with a female protagonist, others mean "book club fiction", another useless term as far as I'm concerned. I should have specified I was talking to the previous posters who are British/American as far as I know. I would love to master chopsticks. After several years with an Indian husband I'm quite good at using a flatbread as cutlery, but I need to move on to a spoon once the bread is gone.
... What the hell is book club fiction? No need to answer, I'll google it, but dang, that's arbitrary. Didn't mean to have a go at you in particular, sorry. Chopsticks are actually super easy to learn even though they look kind of daunting. In Indian and Thai restaurants over here, punters are always so confused with the spoon. I think they expect soup or think there's been a mistake.
Hold both fork and knife. Give no thought to what direction the fork is pointing. Sometimes it'll be upside-down, if that's easiest, but trying to eat peas that way (which that Watching The English book assures me happens, though I've yet to see it) feels like you're failing a basic intelligence test.
I squish the peas on the end of whatever's already on the fork. If I was trying to eat peas on their own, I'd probably go for a spoon.
I eat my peas with honey I've done it all my life It may seem rather funny, But it keeps them on the knife Ogden Nash
A haa. But do you drink directly out of the bottle or can? If not, if you must have a glass ...then you're not drinking like an American!
Cans?! CANS!? HOW DARE YOU!!! Only true, self-respecting folks drink out of either a glass or a bottle. It's what classy people do. <sips lightly out of a glass>
This is thread is amazing. It's perfect for helping me develop personalities for my characters. I'd post a pet peeve, but nothing really bothers me... I'm a pretty chill person.
I went to a boarding school that was pretty strict on how you eat. Table etiquette. It was a long time ago though! I hadn't given it a thought for years. But I just realised this may have increased my feeling of intense revulsion at people with poor table manners on the screen. It's in my bone marrow! I was brainwashed! I really thought I dropped that immediately after I left the school. When I'm alone, and not at a proper table I certainly don't eat salad by myself with fork and knife and putting the cutlery down before i lift the glass etc, etc. I guess what bothered me about the films that I mentioned, is that they didn't even pay attention when they are sitting at nice dinner table, surrounded by lots of people. I think there is a time for manners and a time when you can relax it - I.e. when you are alone. But my grandmother sure wouldn't agree! All the more reason to observe table manners if you are alone, she'd say. First of all God sees you anyway.. Secondly, it's what differentiates the truly polite people from the fakes. Personally I guess I fall in the category of fakes since I have a salad in front of me, which I'm eating with a fork in my right hand. While drinking Sprite light from the can. In the sofa!!! While complaining about how people eat in films... You've got to despise yourself sometimes.
