ximetmongrut

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

Dukey

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

StCirq

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

kismetchimera

or chopsticks..

mcnyc

Use the tines to poke at the bits of rice.

easytraveler

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

L84SKY

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.

janisj

depends - sticky or fluffy???

kerouac

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

sashh

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.

ira

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.

GSteed

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.

ira

>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?

ekscrunchy

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..

kismetchimera

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.

NeoPatrick

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.

SusanSDG

Bravo!

ggreen

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...

sashh

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.

Toupary

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