Robjame,
THANK YOU for the peas with honey ditty. My husband was sure I made it up all these years!

My grandparents were Dutch and German respectively and they always ate the Continental way. Growing up this this always seemed much more sensible than than the American way my mother insisted we use.

All the "tine up or down", "fork in which hand" flapdoodle really doesn't matter. Discreetly observe other diners if doing the locally correct thing matters so much, but really, so long as you don't clutch your utensils with your fist, wipe your mouth with your sleeve or chew with your mouth open you should be fine.

Don't eat with your fingers if a knife and fork is provided.
If you are expected to eat with your fingers, they'll bring you a finger-bowl.

Josser wrote: "If you are expected to eat with your fingers, they'll bring you a finger-bowl."

My first reaction was to advise people not to drink the contents of the finger-bowl.

Then I recalled that in France you do not often get finger-bowls with dishes like crevettes that you are expected to eat with your fingers. First, they are not very messy and, second, you have bread to wipe your fingers on.

Darn, and I thought that was lemon soup. :-) ((b))

What ever happened to finger licking good?

What ever happened to finger licking good?

I guess they don't make anything like that in Europe!

Hi koukoutzaki,
>Do people really notice or care how other diners eat? ...it does make me laugh when i see tourists trying to dissect lobsters with a knife and fork.<

Well, there is at least 1. :)

((I))

AS usual Ira gets in first!

I rarely spend my time looking at what tourists are doing with their knives and forks. I'm too busy laughing at their clothes.

LAUGHING at their CLOTHES?

Find a hobby.

Robespierre - is it past your bedtime? - clearly too late to recognise irony!

A wink ;) would go a long ways towards indicating irony.

Robespierre wrote: "A wink would go a long ways towards indicating irony."

No it wouldn't. It would no longer be irony.

Irony requires a <u>context</u>. Absent any clues within or outside the post, &quot;I'm too busy laughing at their clothes&quot; has no referent, therefore it can't be ironic.

Here, read up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

Uh, a clue? The context is this thread on this site.

Annhig's &quot;As usual ira gets in first&quot; was a pretty big clue. For that matter, I thought ira's post was pretty ironic (and funny, as well.)

Some people prefer to hold the irony in their left hand and cut with the knife, but others are gentler and lay down the knife before picking up the irony. I prefer the latter kind, myself...

&gt;&gt; Don't ask people how much they make. The French have a strange relationship with money. &lt;&lt;

Very right, and much more important than all this fork and knife stuff. Asking a French person you don't know beyond formalities how much he earns is the rudest move I can think of.

Hi Sup,

&gt;Asking a French person you don't know beyond formalities how much he earns is the rudest move I can think of.&lt;

How about, &quot;What a lovely pin. How much did it cost?&quot;.

((I))

&gt;&gt; How about, &quot;What a lovely pin. How much did it cost?&quot;. &lt;&lt;

Steps down on the scale of rudeness, but still unfit between people on good-morning terms. (Put any item in lieu of &quot;pin&quot;).

Point taken, ira.
Also, last night i ate in a 'trendy' new restaurant which we supply to. For the first half of the meal there were only two of us dining with four waitresses and the owner for company. This thread came to my mind...

Regarding my attempt to write up formal European dining customs as I've observed them in Paris:
Padraig: Thanks for your suggestions; I've tried to incorporate them. Pvoyageuse: Yes, I was trying to hit the formal end of the spectrum, since that's where it seems like one needs the most cultural information to feel at ease. A casual context is more international. That part of the site is in a wiki, so it works just like Wikipedia: click on one of the edit tags and go at it. The great places listings in the main part of the site require signing up (under membership) to post.