recently i caught myself recalling my mom's nagging advice for table manners when i was a kid after observing different local eating habits. the following is not meant as judgement but as a summary of german v. us table manners that have been startling me for a while:
i learnt to eat with knife & fork as soon as i understood that the knife is no toy to put into my mouth. i was told to wait until everyone is seated at the table and says "guten appetit" to each other before touching the food. sometimes my mom would cut my sausage into small pieces ("bueffchen") so that i had an easier way to deal with the newly learnt method of eating. later on i cut only a couple pieces at a time, then pushed it with the blade onto the fork to lift the same to my mouth. both instruments are kept in their respective hand at all times during the meal -- usually the knife in the right hand, the fork in the left hand. when i was done eating i placed fork and knife parallelly on the plate to signal that i'm done. then i had to stay well-behaved seated until everyone else has finished (especially mom & dad). plus: you never ever(!) put your elbows on the table. that's the german side of the story.
the american side goes like this: first come, first serve, i.e. as soon as food touches the plate you can dig in no matter if the chef is still rummaging in the kitchen. if a knife is involved in the eating process it only appears in the beginning to chop everything into pieces hence looking like a german child's plate. after that the knife is put horizontally on the top end of the plate. if no knife is involved it can be observed that americans have developed a great skill in severing meats with the side of their fork, tender chicken and juicy meat balls as well as tougher cuts of meat. the eating can be interrupted by getting up several times to get other (food) items and when finished you can leave the table as you please. where you keep your elbows doesn't seem to be a matter of interest to anyone.
i found a good solution for the knife & fork peculiarities in the indian cuisine: just use your hands. :-)
2/21/2008
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4 comments:
Das kann ich absolut bestätigen! Aber ich mag the German way (lieber) :)
What you are observing is the crude manners used more and more by Americans. When I was youger the protocol of waiting to eat until everything is ready was expected. Also you did not leave the table until you were excused by your parents.
Now only on special occasions is a higher level of etiquette observed at the table.
I am a little embarrased by the slovenly manners we are developing.
Spencer Anderson
This is interesting. I wonder if Europe will in its often displayed zeal to be more American also relax table manners in a few decades.
I have to say we are not this crude and rude in my family. My grandmother expected us to keep elbows off the table, napkins in or laps, and wait until everyone was ready to eat before we started. Americans are just lazy when it comes to manners.
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