Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I have always eaten like this, and I'm nothing but a dirty Texan. No utensil switching, and must have one bite of everything on my fork at meal's end! It's like a mini eating game - rationing amongst the serving proportions. I guess I never realized most folks don't do it this way - always too absorbed in my own plate. :)

I'd never even thought about this but it is so true. Great post.

I've worked in both pooled houses and non-pooled houses, and I definitely prefer pooled houses. And not because I'm a lazy ass, but because the competition and inequity get in the way of a guest enjoying himself. Of course in a pooled house, one should expect to be fired or yanked by his short and curlies if he doesn't pull his weight! There are many times when one server is free to help another, and in a pooled house she is motivated to do so. A pooled house is ONE ingredient in a well-run place. Excellent product, exceptional staff, and great management are necessary as well, of course.

Hannah, are you allowed to say where your restaurant is located? I am planning a trip to NYC to visit my son over the holidays and am looking for new places to try.

Becca: how difficult can it be to use your left hand to move the fork from the plate to your mouth? The knife is not just used for cutting it is also used as a "blocker" that pushes the food onto the fork when the fork is moved towards the fixed knife.

I second La Farine in the Bay Area. I discovered the morning buns just as I left the bay for college because its photo was featured in a "125 Best Things to Eat" article for San Francisco magazine, and now I have to make the trip there to savor them every time I'm home. I feel like the Tartine ones can't even compare. There's a recipe for them in the La Brea Bakery book of pastries that I've had my eye on for awhile...

oddly enough i just learned of this phenomenon the other day in a strip of the excellent comic Achewood [which often involves food]. everything makes sense now. here is the link, do check it out: http://achewood.com/index.php?date=10272008

Well, I currently live in the US, but I was born and raised in England. Now that I think of it, yes, I always "create a perfect bite" when I eat, which requires creating a perfect plate. I don't pile all my food on one plate though, for instance, I always have a separate salad bowl, etc.

@mh330 - I agree. Until I came to the US 6 years ago (OH is an American) I'd been convinced that what appears to be "the American method" of switching knife and fork from hand to hand as you eat, was either something small children would do or just an indication of poor table manners. Actually, that's not quite true - my OH (born in Brooklyn, raised in NJ) eats the same way I do (his parents don't, which even further persuaded me it was poor table manners:-)), and it wasn't until a similar thread appeared in Talk earlier this year that I realised that what I was raised to consider poor table manners was actually "the American method" (as I had said earlier - my apologies to everybody who eats the "American way", I had no idea, and that would be poor manners on my part).

Growing up in a Filipino household, I learned to eat with a spoon and fork (when I wasn't eating with my hands). I used the fork to guide the food to my spoon, then shovel the food in my mouth with the spoon. No knives -- we used our spoon to cut the meat since we ate a lot of stew-type meals and the meat was usually soft enough. I thought everyone ate like this, until I got older and learned that nobody else ate like this. Now I eat with a fork, unless I'm eating Filipino food. (Not because I'm ashamed or anything, just because sometimes it's easier to use one utensil rather than two.)

I didn't even think about it being a cultural thing until I was reading one of Ruth Reichl's books, when she visits an Asian country (I think it's Thailand, correct me if I'm wrong) and they're all eating like that. I read that part and thought, "AHA! It's NOT weird!"

And then I found this. Apparently a Filipino boy in Montreal got punished in school for eating this way. Unbelievable.

I can see the merits of both ways, actually. In fact, I use them both at various points of time, often because of a lack of elbow space when lunching at the home of someone who has squeezed *just* too many people around the table. If I ate bangers and mash I'd totally do it the way the guy above does it.

Fork shifting has always seemed quite primitive to me. Reminds me of small children where the parents have to split everything into tiny pieces before handing the kid a fork/spoon. Guess the Americans never grew away from that habit. Around here it (Scandinavia) it is considered impolite to cut everything into tiny pieces before starting to shovel away the food :-) We do not pile up everything like the Brits do, but instead we cut one, maybe two, mouth-fitting pieces of the meat/potatoes gently add a bit of sauce (if available) and then send it directly to the mouth. Chewing is done with mouth closed and you don't talk while chewing (another thing I often see Americans do). When done eating, the fork and knife are joined together to make a line going from the middle of the dish and towards the lower right of the plate (4o'clock if you think of the plate as being a clock).

All that switching around of utensils Americans typically do with the goal that one hand rests in the lap seems awkward and contrived. I guess I resorted to the Eurostyle knife in right/fork in left style as a matter of convenience. Growing up in a chopsticks family, I guess I was always free to choose my fork-n-knife technique and ended up choosing the one that puts food in my mouth faster. Also, I typically just pile a couple of tastes together, as opposed to the Leaning Tower of Peas technique of the Brits, which is awesome, though!