de<b>s</b> canotiers

I am covered with shame when I think about the solecisms I have committed when dining with Americans.
I see now that I should have worn a hat (does it have to be the baseball type). I didn't tear my chicken apart with my hands and throw the bones over my shoulder. I didn't rub my bread over the butter. I didn't demand a conducted tour or ask how much my host earned. I'm surprised that any of them invited me back.

Josser, perhaps you missed the point of why you were invited back.

They were giving you an opportunity to apologise.

StCirq, I really liked your 4th of July party. It reminded me of a number of years ago when I had three French friends visiting and we served corn on the cob and they have never had the experience. They put a cob on their plate, picked up their knife and fork and contemplated how to attack it. We were at a frinds of mine home and she put a one pound block of butter on the table. She proceeded to show them. She took the cob of corn, rolled it on the block of butter, salted it and ate it, with her hands of course. They all tried it and in a short while they looked like they had been doing it all their lives. They also really liked. I have had a number of foreign exchange students and they all loved corn on the cob.

There had been a lot of discussion on desert forks here, but nothing mentioned about a fish knife. A fish knife is a rare find here in the USA.

I also found it interesting the eating habits of my exchange students. I had a German student who ate mashed potatoes with a knife and fork. He would fill the knife with the mashed potatoes and then slide them off on his fork and eat it from the fork. I just could not understand why he didn't eliminate the knife step.

Once when I was having dinner with my French friend in Etretat, France and we shared a Fruits de Mer. The waiter then proceeded to set up the table. There were all kinds of kinds of knives, forks, and other tools on the right an left, I would think at least ten in total. My French friend said,
"When the French eat, we have tools." It was a large and long meal and in the middle of the meal it was interuped with "le trou Normand", my first, but not my last.

Anybody who has ever been tempted by the <i>plateau de fruits de mer</i> in France but who was afraid to order it out of ignorance (how do you open those little clams? what do you do with sea snails?) should know that a lot of the French have the same problem, and the waiter is happy to explain and/or demonstrate what to do with the tricky items. Do not be embarrassed to ask for assistance!

Hi,kerouac, it's Louis. Yes, they had straight pins to get the meat out of the tiny sea snails.

I must admit I was confounded the first time I confronted bulots. I did ask for assistance and was told to use the straight pins. Works like a charm!

What's truly appalling, though, is that I like to eat them with Russian dressing. I'm sure that would cause a few French hairs to turn grey.

<i>There had been a lot of discussion on desert forks here, but nothing mentioned about a fish knife. A fish knife is a rare find here in the USA.
</i>

They are fairly useless, at least for left-handed persons. My wife is perfectly willing to eat with a utensil in both hands, but the knife is in her left hand. That does not work with a fish knife.

<i>I just could not understand why he didn't eliminate the knife step.</i>

Pure habit. If one is used to eating with knife in one hand and fork in the other, the knife will not be held uselessly. It will be used to stabilize food so that it does not accidentally shoot off the plate, or to push food on the fork, especially if the fork is held tines downward (as when eating steak) and the food, like mashed potatoes, will be placed on the concave part of the fork. But regardless, eating with a utensil in each hand assumes that both will be used to some degree.

It's not all that different from Asians with chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in the other.