Americans 'eat' French 'dine'?

poppycock to that!

French son says he cannot remember the rule about arms being on the table or not - he cannot remember but thinks in France you are supposed to have your arms on the table but could be reverse.

The right answer

and he says foreigners who do not use the knife as a tool look barbaric - use the knife to push food, etc - Americans only use the fork - so he = born and raised in France - says this is the main difference.

That said in zillions of times in his house and of his relatives and friends I have never used a knife in this way and never will - just would seem clumsy to moi.

Americans don't use knives to push food? Switch hands when they eat?

I was first told I ate like a European by my boyfriend in high school. I had never noticed people switched their fork around. Then again, I am left handed. But this is the first I have heard about not using the knife as a tool.

I live in a bubble.

That's so French. If you don't do it their way, you look barbaric. What do they think about users of chopsticks?

We admire them, not easy!

lighten up,keroac. We're talking about 16 year old kids hosting their French exchange students for burghers & fries - which in American fast food places are not normally eaten with utensils. Since this particular food chain also serves lots of other foods that do call for a fork, the US kids just made sure no forks were given to their table thus encouraging their guests to eat American style.

I think a typical teen-ager always wants to desperately fit in and thus French teens would want to eat like Americans did and not be a spectacle - thus in this situation I think it proper to inform French kids they will be looked on like dorks if they use a fork to eat french fries and or BigMacs - when my French son was young he did indeed dissect a hamburger - eating its constituent parts separately.

"Burgers and fries" in fast food places are not eaten with utensils in France either, so I really do not understand this discussion.

And in a "real" restaurant, a huge(for example) "mushroom burger with roquefort sauce" is eaten with a knife and fork even in the U.S. unless you want juice running down to your elbows. But maybe some you do.

I grew up on the Gulf Coast where we ate just about every fried greasy or boiled item with our fingers -- shrimp, hush puppies, crabs, crawfish, fried oysters, fried speckled trout, french fries -- so I have probably eaten more with my bare hands than most people here.

Margaret - I think it's funny that the kids asked for utensils not to be brought. And I agree with you - they are kids and kids do silly stuff to each other.

<i>Il existait en 2007 83 points de vente de sandwichs pour 1 point de vente de hamburgers et, à nombre identique de points de ventes, il s’est vendu 0,1 sandwich pour 1 hamburger (90 millions de hambugers au total)</i>

In the sole year 2007 <b>90 millions hamburgers</b> were sold in France. The French eat them with their fingers like you do. I've never seen anyone using ustensils to eat a hamburger in France.

<i>My daugheter still talks about how difficult it was to get the kids from Normandy to eat without a fork</i>
When did that happen? 30 years ago, 40 years ago?

We had friends who ate barbecued ribs with a knife and fork; it didn't look easy.

Whole fish anyone?

Well, I couldn't find the referenced article on Bonjour Paris, but I think I know enough of what it said from the posts here. Good grief, if you're invited to dinner in a French home, enjoy. These prissy, arbitrary rules remind me of Polly Platt -- may she rest in peace -- who warned never to use the bathroom in a French home.

I grew up in a world that may not even exist anymore, for all I know. I know it doesn't exist for me. I had calling cards when I was nine years old. We "called"; it was expected.

I'm telling you this only to emphasize that there are all sorts of ways people live. Arguably, none is superior. They are different -- that's all. I'm told I have a lucid view. My American friends might not agree.

I wonder where some of these ideas about the French arise. They aren't extraterrestrials. I do recall that the first few French homes to which I was invited, they offered me a tour.

Mimar, you might enjoy yourself more if you lose that chip on your shoulder regarding the French.

I am of the school that says, first you learn the rules, then you have license to break them.

I love eating with my hands. I lived in a neighborhood in Washington that harbored most of the first Ethiopian restaurants, and it remains one of my favorite foods.

However, I can dissect a chicken with a knife and fork. I did this in a restaurant in Paris one night, and the patron said, "Pick it up -- you are in France." The idea of the French living in some rarified atmosphere is an American concept.

Enough of that, lest I forget the most important. Kerouac, your tribute to your friend Donna was without a doubt the most impressive thing I've ever read on Fodors, in terms of the photography, the sentiments expressed, the writing. I thank you for sharing it.

Well, we recently served hamburgers to three 17 year old French boys, and when I asked if they'd like a fork and knife, all three of them said emphatically YES!

Another "thank you Kerouac" for sharing the tribute to Donna. I could really feel your loss in your words and photos. It was a lovely memorial, thank you.

Is Polly Platt no longer with us?

Polly Platt obituary | Film | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/...tt-obituaryAug 7, 2011 – Versatile production designer, screenwriter and producer of Hollywood films.

My daugheter still talks about how difficult it was to get the kids from Normandy to eat without a fork
When did that happen? 30 years ago, 40 years ago?

No, Askar01 - this was in May 2000.

The burgers at Johnny Rockets are pretty messy but that wasn't their focus - it was the melted cheese on the fries that gave the French kids pause. And I guess made some kind of impression on them. I met our student guest last year in Paris and we ate a lovely meal at Bofinger's - Sylvain was still laughing about messy fries without a fork.

When you buy poutine in Québec, you are always given at least a symbolic utensil, even at Burger King and McDonald's.

Not arms on the table, according to our former neighbord from Provence: just the wrists/hands. It's automatic for us now.