How do you eat rice continental style?
 

Are you expected to eat rice with the tines of the fork pointing downwards, too?, if so...How do you do it?

You are expected to eat rice with a fork in the only way possible...please get real.

No no no...you ask for a straw.

or chopsticks..

Use the tines to poke at the bits of rice.

You don't hold the plate to your mouth and slurp up the rice???

ximetmongrut, you don't need to point the tines of the fork down. Just pick it up with your fork in the way it makes sense.

It would be a slow meal if you used the tines pointing down. You'd have to have patience and lots of dinner conversation.

This question took me by surprise, as I've never really thought of it.

depends - sticky or fluffy???

My Singaporean friends asked me how we could possibly eat peas with a fork. They use a spoon.

It depends where you are eating.

Strictly speaking etiquette means you should pick up your knife and fork together (knife in right hand, fork in left)and never put down one without the other - the fork tines always remain pointing down.

Rice is pushed towards the fork with the knife.


OK now for reality - no one is going to mind if you put your fork in your right hand and scoop it up unless you are somewhere REALLY stuffy but unless you have been invited to a banquet with the Queen that's not going to happen.

The trend to eat EVERYTHING with a knife and fork started to decline in the 1980's when we succumbed to Ronald McDonald - before that burgers and KFC were eaten with knives and forks. As a child if we went to a KFC that had 'eating in' the tables were laid with cutlery and proper condiments.


Also it is very unlikely you will get plain rice, it normally accompanies food cooked in sauce.

If you are eating in an Indian restaurant it is acceptable to use a spoon or your fingers - just don't get curry further up than the first knuckle.

You use the fork (tines down) to push the rice onto the knife.

Holding the knife blade horizontal, you shovel the rice into your mouth.

((I))

We ate in a Chinese restaurant in London. There were many Chinese students eating there. Lots of food and low prices. We watched as they ate rice from bowls. The bowl was tipped up and the rice pushed with chop sticks from the bowl into their mouth. Some lifted the bowl to their mouth others left it on the table and bent down to it.

>Some lifted the bowl to their mouth others left it on the table and bent down to it.<

Hmmmmm, is that a North South thing?

((I))

I often see Cantonese lifting the rice bowl...did not see this as much recently in Beijing so maybe it IS a north-south thing! In India many diners just roll the rice into a ball and eat with the hands..

When I lived in Taipei I saw many locals eating the rice by tilting the bowl and using the chopsticks to push the rice into their mouth.

I eat my rice with honey.
I've done it all my life.
It does taste kind of funny,
But it keeps it on the knife.

Bravo!

Neo, my mom always said that to us every time we ate peas! (With peas of course not rice LOL.) Thanks for the memory. :)

I have watched a Parisienne eat sushi with a fork and knife, "continental style". And the most amazing to me was to see a peach eaten with fork and knife, carefully removing the skin from each piece. Both of these were well after the 80's...

You should see a banana eaten with a knife and fork.

Oh and I've seen a bar of chocolate eaten with a knife and fork - but that was at a children's birthday party.

Or pasta, the fork in the left hand, wrapping the noodles around it with the knife in the right.

I am Cantonese and can use chopsticks very efficiently.

I often have the bowl in my left hand, but since I don't usually eat in a hurry, I don't lift it up to my mouth and push the rice with the chopsticks, <b>except</b> for the last few pieces. I also do not bend down to the bowl.

The action of pushing rice into the mouth is called &quot;Pa Farn&quot; in Cantonese. (&quot;Farn&quot; = cooked rice). In Hong Kong, I often hear parents tell their young ones, &quot;Fai Dee Pa Farn&quot; (= Hurry up and push your rice).

Pizza is still eaten with a knife and fork in many countries in Europe.

rkkwan, I'm glad you said that. I'd have never thought to ask on a forum, but I'm lousy with chopsticks and with my hands as they are, unlikely to get better at it. We're heading to Hong Kong in the fall, and I'm so glad to know it's ok to &quot;push the rice&quot;. I think I can manage that!

schuler, I still eat pizza that way despite that now I live in the US.

Kis: Old habits die hard. Get any strange looks doing it?

In the early 80's, my new boyfriend took me to Locarno where we had a pizza. I embarrassed the life out of him when I cut pizza slices and ate them by hand. He married me anyway even though I never changed my way of eating pizza.

Not only do I sometimes eat pizza with a knife and fork (depends on how hot and messy it is), I live in the US south and eat spare ribs that way too, locals can't believe it...

yes Schuler, old habits are very hard to break..:)

thursdaysd, it is the same with me..My DH just shakes his head, but of course, he knows that I will never change, we have been married a long time..and have 3 Lovely grandchildren.

Clifton - Only do it when it's really necessary. Like I said, you can hold the bowl in your left hand, perhaps a few inches off the table. That way, the &quot;distance&quot; your food - not just rice - have to travel is diminished.

You can even do that when getting the food from the communal dishes to your own bowl. Put your bowl (even if it still has rice or other stuff) in your left hand and bring it close to the communal dish. That way, the piece of chicken only has to travel inches in your chopsticks to your bowl - not over the fish, vegetables, pork and your tea.

But the part about pushing rice is only if you're using a bowl. I would <b>never</b> lift a dish of rice to my mouth. No way.

:)

I have clients (very prim and proper) who take me to lunch fairly often. I usually order a salad instead of a sandwich as I like to pick it up a sandwich to eat it.
They both often get club sandwiches and eat them with knife and fork. I don't think they've ever picked up any food with their bare hands.

I thought for laughs I should invite them over some night for spareribs and corn on the cob.

I initiated one of my best friends to chicken wings, spare ribs, fried shrimp and numerous other finger foods which we only eat when we're alone (his wife would freak out), yet he absolutely cannot stand to eat mussels in the shell.

Clifton,
There are little helpers to using chopsticks to make them easier.

Fold a paper napkin until it's like a little square and secure it with a rubber band unto the two sticks in the center. My DH has never gotten the hang of chopsticks either and this makes it much easier, until you get it.

Actually, chopsticks are very easy to use if you use my method. I just recruited my mom to demonstrate.

First and foremost, you need to secure the bottom stick. It is held fairly tight at two points - one is all the way down between your thumb and index finger. Second point is the last bone on your ring finger. Apply some pressure on your thumb AWAY from you, and some pressure on the ring finger TOWARDS you.

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p997958797/?photo=388056475

This bottom stick needs to have minimal movement. <b>That is the key.</b> If you have problem securing this stick, then forget the rest. Use a fork. ;)

Okay, now that the bottom stick is secured, just hold the top one like you'd hold a pen, with your thumb, index and middle fingers. If you can use a pen to write, you can do it:

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p997958797/?photo=329853170

So, the top stick can have huge movement. My mom just showed how wide they can get. But check out the bottom stick in the same picture. It has not moved at all. Because it shouldn't.

Now, to pick something up, just move the top stick:

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p997958797/?photo=25852785

While her middle finger now touches the bottom stick in this picture, it's irrelevant. There's no holding or controlling of the bottom stick with the middle finger at all.

Again, look at the bottom stick. It's remained firmly in the same position in all three pictures. Secured, doesn't move at all.

Either you get the hang of chopsticks, or you don't.

Note that the higher you hold your chopsticks, the more sophisticated you supposedly are.

But there's THREE chopsticks in the pictures, rkkwan.

How many fingers do you have?

What are you talking about maupassant? If you're trying to be funny, it isn't working because both pictures have FOUR not THREE chopsticks in them. Look again. In addition to the pair the hands are holding there is another PAIR on the table below it.

I have to admit, I love eating &quot;continental style&quot;. As a lefty, I am well practiced with the fork in my left hand - and it's one of those rare times the entire table is eating the way I do! :))

Oh, and I too almost always eat pizza with fork and knife, at least until there's only about an inch left of pizza attached to the crust and it can be picked up neatly. And I live in what could be called the pizza capital of the world: New York City, where it's basically a travesty not to &quot;fold and eat&quot; your slice! ;) (US born and bred, but there must be some bit of my European ancestry left in my fingertips LOL.)

rkkwan, thank you so much for the chopsticks demonstration! I have sent this thread to my friends: They were all struggling this past Friday at a sushi birthday dinner for another friend, and my demonstration was completely ineffective since I hold the chopsticks in my left hand!

maupassant - I saw 4 chopsticks in each of those pictures. Not 3. :)

Now, wait till you guys figure out what those chopsticks are made of...

Thanks rkkwan!!! I've been holding the bottom chopstick steady with my middle finger, NOT the ring finger....

rkwan...that is the Best How To Eat with Chopsticks instruction that I have ever read..(<i>actually it might be the only but that is not important</i> ) ..I just wanted to say that I am so impressed with not only your clear easy instructions but the photos with Moms hand to make it that much more clear LOL
It was Just great :D
<i>Please tell mom she made a very good hand/chopstick model ~</i>