When I was a junior in college, I went off to London to party study. The week before classes began, everyone in my program was shuttled off to stay with a family somewhere. I was up in the Midlands with a lovely family I feel sorry to have lost contact with. (If we'd had email in those days, I'm sure we'd still be in touch! In fact, I think I will do a little Googling after I write this post. You never know....)
The only child in the family was Jane, a girl of about 8. (That means she's about 34 now! Eek!) She was sweet and very bright. The first night that we all sat down to dinner, she watched with fascination as I cut my meat. I had no idea that there was any other way to handle a fork and knife than the way I'd been taught. It turns out that this is yet another American-only thing. For my foreign readers, here's how most Americans of a certain age were brought up to use our cutlery:
1. Hold knife in right hand and fork in left hand, tines pointed down (by which I mean that the back curved portion faces up).
2. Stab meat with fork and slice off a piece with knife.
So far, so good, right? Well, here's where we veer off from the rest of the world:
3. Put knife down on edge of plate.
4. Transfer fork to right hand, turning fork over so it's facing upward.
5. Shovel meat into food-hole.
Nowadays, I rarely use that method (although it's not unheard of); I nearly always use the Continental method, which begins the same as above, but then:
3. Keeping fork in left hand—and without turning fork over—daintily guide meat into food-hole.
I remember at that first dinner, Jane wanted to try my method, but her parents reminded her that she was having enough trouble doing it "the right way" and to just stick with that. They did indulge me, though, as I was just as wide-eyed as she to see people doing things so differently from how I'd learned. I recall vividly as I cut my meat and then began to turn my fork over, shovel-side up, the father shouted, "No!"
So that was the first of my many cultural explorations. (The second came later that night as I headed to my room, when the father said, "I'll knock you up in the morning!" Yeah, right, just try it, buster! Oh, wait, OK, I get it.)
I don't think I could easily change my fork/knife habit. It is just too ingrained at this point. And isn't that whole "knock you up" difference too funny?
Posted by: debbie | November 11, 2008 at 10:14 PM
You should see my wife with a fork. I try to emulate it but I absolutely cannot!
Posted by: scott | November 11, 2008 at 10:22 PM
So glad you didn't get knocked up!
My husband, who had never been to Europe until we were married, uses the Continental method. I think his father traveled extensively in Europe and that was just the way they did it!
Posted by: Di | November 12, 2008 at 10:17 AM
aRRRG, DID MY COMMENT POST? dARN WEAK INTERNET. i WAXED ELOQUENT ONLY TO HAVE IT DISAPPEAR AND NOW AM TOO SAD AND OUT OF ENERGY TO RE-COMMENT.
kNIVES ARE GOOD.
sTEAK EVEN BETTER.
aND SHIT, AM ON ALL CAPS.
Posted by: Jannie | November 12, 2008 at 11:30 AM
I grew up being taught that a down-turned fork (for any reason) was bad manners. Funny!
Posted by: Tonya | November 12, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Haha, the knocked up part really made me laugh out loud! Also chuckled in the beginning, as I am currently 34. Age 8 seems like a million years ago!
Posted by: Katy | November 12, 2008 at 11:44 AM
Very funny! I'm happy seeing either method used to cut your steak as long as it's not the "stab your meat" method where someone curls their hand over the knife like they're going to murder dinner. Frankly, that's a little unsettling.
Posted by: Erin | November 13, 2008 at 10:22 AM
The night before I left for my study abroad year in Barcelona, my brother-in-law handed me a knife, a fork, and an unpeeled banana and told me, "OK, let's get you started." During the year, I actually loved watching my host father peel fruit of all kinds. Poetry in motion! If you want to see a cute example of this, I recommend the French film "Blame it on Fidel," which starts with a fussy little girl showing younger children how to eat fruit with a knife and fork at a wedding. Not a young-child-friendly film all the way through, but my nine-year-old greatly enjoyed this scene.
Posted by: Sheila McIntosh | November 13, 2008 at 02:12 PM
It is amazing how such a small difference in cultures can feel like a big deal. When I lived overseas in Asia we came across the same types of things -- only there it involved a lot of "family style" dinners with friends and even strangers dipping and eating from the same bowls on the table. Definitely a no-no in our culture.
Posted by: Jane | December 03, 2008 at 09:17 PM