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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

I'm an American lefty and I've always eaten in a basic European manner; friend's grandmother and her European friends. Except, I hold my knife in my left hand and fork in my right. I am pretty much ambidextrous about everything but handwriting.

Also, it's very bad manners to cut up all of something before eating. Just as it is bad manners to butter all of a roll/slice of bread (unless it's breakfast toast) before eating. Some Americans just have very bad table manners.

duncan1205 at 3:02PM on 04/26/09

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

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. :)

kingprincess at 11:01PM on 01/21/09

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

How do Americans eat then. I must ask as an Englishman.

mskempster at 12:07PM on 12/22/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

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

alexrushmer at 9:23AM on 12/15/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

I'm an American who has never travelled abroad (not by choice, I assure you). Fork-switching seems perfectly natural to me, because it means the dominant hand does all the persnickety work. Fork concave-side-up - well, it just feels like things are less likely to fall off.

Having said that, I've never cut up an entire steak/chop/meat-thing at once before taking the first bite.

gentlyferal at 7:01PM on 12/12/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

I agree with Becca (and am also named Rebecca, so maybe it's a Becca thing). I'm right handed. My mom's a leftie. When I was little I used to want to copy everything my mom did, but I could not figure out how to coordinate eating with a fork in my left hand.

Perhaps Brits/Europeans are better at the ambidextrous thing over Americans?

AnnaOnTheMoon at 4:28PM on 12/09/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

I'm pretty klutzy. It tends to drop right off my fork.

I think I was meant for the American way of eating.

BeccaMJ at 10:08PM on 11/24/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

I have tried the European manner of eating but as a righty, it was just too awkward. Since the majority of people are right-handed, how do Europeans do it? The fork is used more than the knife, since some foods don't need to be cut. So why would you use your left for the fork if you are right-handed?

BeccaMJ at 9:41PM on 11/22/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

I don't switch. Fork in left hand, knife in right hand. Born in nyc, raised in nj. I never really noticed these variations in how people use a knife and fork to get food from their plates to their mouths. I think that not switching makes it easier to not drop your utensils on the floor.

spaetzle at 10:07PM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

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

redzerostar at 4:50PM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

@brooke29 - I agree im born and raised British (I live in Leeds) i always assumed that the american style was not in good manners because i was always taught as a child that it is bad to use your fork in your right hand. I actually think it has much more to do with tradition and don't think everyone in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter, uses the same method and don't think it has anything to do with manners just culture. I would say though that pushing copious amounts of food onto a fork is not as prevalent as the post and comments might suggest.

Edwardkimuk at 3:54PM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

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).

brooke29 at 1:26PM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

Ok, just for the record, in the American style, you cut a piece of meat, switch utensils, then eat that bite. You don't cut the entire steak into bite-sized pieces before eating, unless you are a child, elderly or very ill-mannered.

Just had to clear up the misconception that seemed to be propagating through this thread!

cyberroo at 12:48PM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

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.

HappyJack at 11:36AM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

This is how my husband eats! I thought he was just a bit weird, but now I'm thinking he picked up the habit from his British/Welsh mother and grandmother.

redhead at 11:21AM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

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.

Stufsocker at 11:03AM on 11/21/08

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Snapshots from the UK: How the English Eat

I never knew the American method was to cut all the food up first, then switching fork hands to eat. Something about that makes me think of a parent cutting up steak for their kid. I've always eaten with the European method. As for piling everything up in one bite, I do that sometimes . . . like if I'm eating a banana split. ;)

OneWallKitchen at 10:51AM on 11/21/08

From Slice

Why Can't You Get a Good Slice Outside New York City? 'Wired' Magazine Says It's the Water

I disagree with the water theory. The best pizza I have had outside of NYC was in North Carolina - two brothers who moved down from the bronx to open up a place. It's how you make it as well as the ingredients.

exvaxman at 1:22PM on 05/04/08

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Why Can't You Get a Good Slice Outside New York City? 'Wired' Magazine Says It's the Water

It may help those engaged in this melee to know that there is no one "NYC" water. Upper Manhattan and the Bronx get it from one source and reservoir system. Manhattan south of 110th St or so (I'm not sure where the boundary line is exactly) get it largely untreated from the Delaware River and southern Catskills through a different reservoir system. Brooklyn and Queens get it from another source, and I don't know where Staten Island gets theirs from. As many have pointed out, you can get good pizza from places other than the lower 2/3 of Manhattan and outside NY City. I'm sure there is water so bad that you can't make good pizza from it, but it's clear that you can do fine with lots of different kinds of water. For what it's worth, Phoenix gets its water from the Colorado River, the source of a lot of Southern California's water. The City of L.A. gets theirs from the Owens Valley, east of the Sierras.

gustoct at 3:09PM on 04/28/08

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Why Can't You Get a Good Slice Outside New York City? 'Wired' Magazine Says It's the Water

Slightly OT...but when I was in NYC for my first wedding anniversary 10 years ago, I had a pretzel from a street vendor that I could swear tasted like smog. Not exactly a good thing, not exactly a bad thing...but distinct and unforgettable. So I don't know if you can rule the water thing out...though I agree that bad pizza is probably due more to user error than bad water. =)

akk328 at 2:43PM on 04/28/08

From Slice

Why Can't You Get a Good Slice Outside New York City? 'Wired' Magazine Says It's the Water

h2o? maybe-I think it's a northeast us thing: I've traveled all over the US and there's nothing like NY/NJ/PA ( I live in Central PA) pizza. California pizza just doesn't have the sauce flavor or the great foldable crust.

benlee: FYI-San Fran's great sourdough is from a decades-old starter, but there are also specific cultures/spores present in the air out there. They've even been named for the city!

foodiemama at 2:08PM on 04/28/08

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Why Can't You Get a Good Slice Outside New York City? 'Wired' Magazine Says It's the Water

i'd say it's the italians.
that and all the tough customers in ny.

norman at 8:23AM on 04/28/08

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Why Can't You Get a Good Slice Outside New York City? 'Wired' Magazine Says It's the Water

FYI, NYC water now is way different than it was when I was a kid growing up in the Bronx. There's way more chlorine now and it just doesn't taste as good.

varasano at 1:05PM on 04/26/08

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Why Can't You Get a Good Slice Outside New York City? 'Wired' Magazine Says It's the Water

As I've been saying online for 4 years, the water thing is 100% myth. I get emails about this several times a week. According to Maggie Glazer, the myth that baked goods are better in NY because of the water goes all the way back to the 1700's when in the rest of the country people used well water and not municipal tap water. Half the time this wasn't too far from the latrine. In other words the original comparison was comparing NY water, which comes from a pretty good aquifer system upstate, to other systems that would be comparable to what the 3rd world uses today. This rumor says more about how rumors and 'common knowledge' are passed down through the ages than anything about your local water system's shortcomings today. As anyone who's read my recipe (http://slice.seriouseats.com/jvpizza/) or tasted my pizza here in Atlanta knows, it's not the water...

varasano at 1:03PM on 04/26/08

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