Buttering your toast.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by HarryT

How you use a knife and fork certainly is a difference - and is one of those things which really surprised me when I noticed. Americans generally cut up their food, then put down the knife, and eat using only the fork. British people (and other Europeans too) hold the knife and fork at all times.

I picked up that habit from traveling, and it has stuck. I'll get a strange look sometimes, and feel all sophisticated and snooty when I say, "Oh, don't mind me, that is the way I started eating when we were in Italy. Everyone in Europe does it this way."

What they don't know is that it also allows you to eat more without having to pause between cuts!

[HarryT]

It's one of those strange things, though, isn't it? I know that it never even occurred to me that there were other ways to use a knife and fork. When you see someone do it differently you just think "that's wierd...." .

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's one of those strange things, though, isn't it? I know that it never even occurred to me that there were other ways to use a knife and fork. When you see someone do it differently you just think "that's wierd...." .

one learns something new everyday .... by 'eck some of us even turn our fork over to eat peas and things ...

[DixieGal]

In Canterbury Tales, the Prioress' table manners are described in great detail. How she will daintily turn the cup to a place without a someone's greasy lip print before drinking. Stuff like that. It's a hoot to read her story!

I need to re-read CT. Some of the stories are beginning to blend together in my memory.

[krisk]

Originally Posted by HarryT

How you use a knife and fork certainly is a difference - and is one of those things which really surprised me when I noticed. Americans generally cut up their food, then put down the knife, and eat using only the fork. British people (and other Europeans too) hold the knife and fork at all times.

I came back from my first tour of Germany eating that way. my mother was appalled, having insisted on the utmost of decorum at the table at all times. I informed her that this was the way one ate at 4star hotels all across Europe, and besides which it made SENSE! I eat that way to this day as do my children. how the other style ever cropped up is beyond me!

I rarely eat toast. mostly only for hot sandwiches, and if that is the case, I don't butter it anyway

[vivaldirules]

I like my toast made from fresh whole grain bread, I like it hot, and I don't want anything on it. I want to smell and taste the bread. I recall my first breakfast in the UK when my toast (it was a white bread) was brought out on a rack so that it was completely room temperature and served with all sorts of butter, marmelade, and such. Why toast bread at all if you're going to serve it cold? Sorry, but it was definitely not my cup of tea.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by HarryT

How you use a knife and fork certainly is a difference - and is one of those things which really surprised me when I noticed. Americans generally cut up their food, then put down the knife, and eat using only the fork. British people (and other Europeans too) hold the knife and fork at all times.

I was taught from an early age........you cut your food, then put the knife down, your spare hand in you lap, and eat with your fork.

Elbows on the table, or more than one hand at a time eating got a fork in the arm! Seriously........

And we were pooooor. My mom always said you could be poor, but you didn't have to eat or smell like a pig.

Go figure.

[mtravellerh]

I love those belgian gaufres de Liège, ya know, warm, a little yeasty with a bit of butter. Eat it warm!!

[desertgrandma]

Waffles!!! (fixed link, thanks WDE)

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

.... by 'eck some of us even turn our fork over to eat peas and things ...

I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on the knife.

[maidavale]

I wonder if the difference HarryT describes had arisen due to differences in dishes in the respective cultures. A lot of British dishes seem to have bed (e.g. of mash) under the main ingredient, while American cooking has grilled food, w/ a lot of vegetables on the side.

Watching something like MasterChef on the Beeb (via streaming) certainly shows how the food critics over there gather all the ingredients on the dish using knife & fork - makes sense w/ such dishes, b/c flavor might be too bland if you only eat the meat, for example. You don't see that as a lot w/ people tasting American dishes.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on the knife.

Flashback to 3rd Grade!

[DixieGal]

At a wedding the other evening, I had to explain to my table mates (in-laws) about capers. So then they tried them, and went back for little saucers of them (and large plates of shrimp). They thought that capers were just some sort of raisins and had pushed them aside on their plates because raisins aren't supposed to taste like that!

[Sparrow]

Can anyone still get margarine?

They don't sell it any more in the UK.

[krisk]

Originally Posted by maidavale

I wonder if the difference HarryT describes had arisen due to differences in dishes in the respective cultures. A lot of British dishes seem to have bed (e.g. of mash) under the main ingredient, while American cooking has grilled food, w/ a lot of vegetables on the side.

Watching something like MasterChef on the Beeb (via streaming) certainly shows how the food critics over there gather all the ingredients on the dish using knife & fork - makes sense w/ such dishes, b/c flavor might be too bland if you only eat the meat, for example. You don't see that as a lot w/ people tasting American dishes.

it's used all across Europe, not just the Brits