Random thought

[pne]

I usually eat with knife and fork together: I hold the fork in my left hand and the knife in my right hand.

The fork in the left hand usually either "spears" bits of food, or is held with tines horizontal so that the knife can push things onto it. (What I don't do is spear a bit of food [e.g. meat], then shovel on some other food [e.g. peas or mashed potatoes] on top—my father does this.)

If there's nothing that needs to be cut nor small things such as peas, I'll also eat with just a fork, in which case it's in my right hand.

And I've found that while I can eat with the fork in either hand, I can only comfortably use the fork in my left hand if I'm holding a knife in my right hand—even if I'm not currently using the knife! But if I lay the knife down, it becomes very weird to hold the fork in my left hand.

This was prompted by a post of noidd's here, which also linked to a Wikipedia article on the American way of eating (my style is the "European" method mentioned there).

Comments

[robnorth.livejournal.com]

Most people of my acquaintance use both the "European" method (keep knife and fork in same hands all through the meal) and the "hidden handle" method (not holding knife or fork like a pen). Can't say it's true of most Canadians, but it's true of all the ones I know and have noticed.

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

Due to my half-American, half-German upbringing, I do something that's neither American nor European when I eat.

I hold the fork in my right hand, and the knife in my left hand.

When I'm in Germany, I make a conscious effort to do it the other way around, but I've never taken the time to learn how to do it that way all of the time.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Gareth and I have had this conversation, starting early on when we were out at dinner once and I realized how absolutely natural (as in "why would anyone do it any other way?") it is to hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. This struck me as hilarious, because here we're taught it's rude to eat while still holding your knife, and you should put the knife down and shift the fork to the left hand before you start eating.

I wonder how the different styles got started?

[xtremesaints.livejournal.com]

I remember that I used to hold the fork in my right hand and knife in left as well as a kid. Then one day in a restaurant my parents pointed out that I should switch it, so I did. It wasn't that hard, though it was hard at times not to stop using the method of holding the fork in my right hand if I didn't need a knife.

[marikochan.livejournal.com]

I eat American-style (which I suppose makes sense since I've never even been to Europe). However, I do usually spear things with the fork when it's in my right hand, if that's possible (pieces of meat and so forth), not scoop them up.

[asciident]

I eat how you eat, actually. It makes more sense to me to hold the knife in my right hand (considering I'm right-handed), so I can cut better. I can use the fork in either hand equally as well.

[robnorth.livejournal.com]

I forgot...I do fork in right, knife in left.

Mind you, I'm left-handed in many things, such as writing and shooting, so there's not necessarily a surprise there. (I'm right-handed in most sports, though, like baseball, golf, and hockey.)

[angharad.livejournal.com]

I suppose if I "learned" any way of eating with knife-and-fork, it was the American ("switch the fork to the right hand") method. But, out of laziness I switched to "cut everything with the side of the fork". Nowadays, what without the slabs of meat anymore, I just eat everything with either chopsticks or a spoon. I use forks for green salad, maybe, and knives to cook with only.

[tungol.livejournal.com]

I use the fork in my right hand, knife in my left hand too - no switching, I don't think.