Prompted by a post by feanelwa

[karohemd]

What is the correct/proper/non-rude technique for eating peas at a restaurant using knife and fork?

Comments

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Push the peas into a small pile at the edge of your plate well away from everything else, pour lighter fluid over them and set them on fire.

Laughing and pointing is considered by some more formal restaurants to be bad form.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Do you wait before the flames have died down or do you eat them while they're on fire? ;)

[mansunite.livejournal.com]

I eat my peas with honey;
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on my knife.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Hahaha!

[mansunite.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked! i usually just stab as many onto the prongs of my fork as possible, then consume.
Weird people use their knife to mash/splat the peas onto the back edge of their fork's prongs - if I wanted mushy peas I'd have cooked them that way!

[mazzarc.livejournal.com]

My mum used to quote that at me!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

This is what I did except with tartare sauce when the bizarre colleagues told me off for "using the wrong side of the fork" and they were viscerally horrified. I would have tried eating the peas with my fingers next but they might have fainted or something.

[devalmont.livejournal.com]

Bah. I came onto this post specifically to post that poem. :)

[kizzie.livejournal.com]

I tend to scoop them up with the fork

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Which apparently is rude.

[kizzie.livejournal.com]

Ah well, I at least eat the peas, which is more than some people do!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! :)
I have to admit, I'm not a fan of peas, at least not the overcooked, several times frozen and reheated variety you tend to get in pubs and cheap restaurants (and fancy restaurants don't tend to serve them).

[kizzie.livejournal.com]

I like them raw and cooked, and everything. They're just so tasty.

[pinkapplejam.livejournal.com]

I try to order potatoes when peas come with the dish; mash up the potatoes and mush the peas into the potato mash, which stops them falling off my fork. O_o

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

That is probably even more rude but an excellent technique. ;)

[pinkapplejam.livejournal.com]

Oh I do it subtly... I just read on another LJ that you're supposed to mush some peas first to make a glue for the other peas, so substituting mushed peas-glue for potato-glue means I was almost right!

So that makes me posh innit, yeah? ;9

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Indeed it does. :o)

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl5RJjuzAcw (5:50 onwards)

You are in accordance with the Culinary Institute of the Carolinas idea of Continental Style

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I can't believe the "official" American style of eating is switching the fork to the right hand. I thought only hicks did that. :/

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

I don't see the contradiction in that statement... ;)

But what it does show is that what is "acceptable" is rarely inherently logical, but rather a matter of convention. In Germany no one would think twice about scooping food onto their fork, tines pointing upwards- even in "good society". In England that would mark you out as "non U" to borrow from Nancy Mitford. I think Kate Fox actually provided a fairly good explanation in the Telegraph article I linked to on facebook- namely that the etiquette was not designed to allow you to eat the largest amount of food in the most economical manner, but rather that it encouraged smaller mouthfuls & conversation at dinner.

Similarly there is a logical reason for tipping the soup away from oneself, rather than towards (again, cultural difference between UK & DE- if you do tip it away from you, the spoon traverses over the entire plate first, which means if there are any drips from the back of the spoon, they land on the plate, rather than the table...

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

P.S.

Zum allgemeinen Umgang mit gesellschaftlichen Normen kann ich das Buch meines Patenonkels empfehlen, das nicht preskriptiv, sondern eher observativ gehalten ist: http://www.amazon.de/Manieren-Erfolgsausgabe-Asfa-Wossen-Asserate/dp/3821847395

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Wie kommst Du zu einem Patenonkel aus Äthiopien?

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

Weil er in Frankfurt wohnt & mit meinen Eltern (& mir) befreundet ist (Firmpate, nicht Taufpate- d.h. ich hatte ihn mir mit ca. 16 ausgesucht).

Er hatte waehrend des Regimewechsels in Deutschland studiert & nachdem seine ganze Familie entweder hingerichtet oder eingekerkert wurde, ist er dann doch lieber in Deutschland geblieben...

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Interessante Leute kennt ihr. ;o)

[xambrius.livejournal.com]

Ask for a spoon.

--
Tim Harris
The Seeker
Time Lord

[oedipamaas49.livejournal.com]

AIUI, there is no correct way -- which is why it causes so much worry among people who want to be polite.

[sherbetsaucers.livejournal.com]

OK, back of fork. You should never, ever scoop ANYTHIGN with a fork, it is designed for piercing, not scooping, that's what a spoon is for.

Sadly, this rule came about when it was still ok to eat things off of your knife, so there you go.

But yeah, push up onto back of fork and eat. As with all food in fact.

Deserts can get particularly complex if using a fork and spoon, best back away from that totally. ;)

[cleosilver.livejournal.com]

Stab them with the fork

[oh-kimberley.livejournal.com]

Thick gravy glues 'em on!

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I avoid this minefield by never eating peas.

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

Oh, you should really give peas a chance...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

You might end up with peas on earth, if you drop them.

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

Oh come on- seriously? Now you're just taking the peas...

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

It really seems a minefield. o_O