pelihu wrote:
1. Think BMW to remember which plates and glasses to use. Bread on your left, meal in the middle, water on your right.
Hah I'd never heard that acronym. Cute.
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2. If you are not confident in this setting, order something that doesn't have a of sauce, and does not require a lot of handiwork. I had a friend that used to always order penne pasta - it's perfect because you just use a fork. Don't order ribs or spaghetti unless you are confident and the setting is appropriate.
In general, if you eat pasta with a spoon, don't order it. I see a lot of Americans do this and I want to reach across the table and stab them. A word of warning about penne - they always have a sauce, and sauce can spray, but penne, as far as pastas go, is a good solid choice.
Personally, I'm a big big fan of soups in this situations. You do risk spills, but there is one particular advantage. If you take a sip of soup and all of a sudden its time for you to answer a question, it takes two seconds to swallow it and start answering. If, on the other hand, you just put a piece of ribeye in your mouth, you'll be stuck chewing it until you can answer.
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3. Do not "plank" your utensils - meaning do not lean it against your plate leading to the table. Your knife should be placed across the side of the plate after you have used it.
A good point. I'd add that, to indicate you are finished with your meal, place your knife and fork together on the plate facing about 4 or 5 oclock. Don't worry about getting it just right - anywhere in the 3 to 5 oclock range is fine.
Don't use bread to "clean" your plate. That is, don't grab a roll, break a piece off and start swiping the plate with it.
It's rare to find it these days, but at especially posh and old-school restaurants, you may recieve a little metal (usually silver) rod that sits on the table. It's intended to be a placeholder for your knife so that you can rest it without placing it directly on the table. I can only remember one place I've seen this in the last ten years, so I doubt you'll encounter it.
While were at it, there is a proper way to hold a fork, and its pretty common to get this wrong. You want to have your index finger at the base of the fork where it starts to curve. Your finger should not extend beyond this point onto the prongs. If so, you're holding the fork too far forward. Another way to tell is if the fork ends in the palm of your hand. If it ends at your wrist, you're overreaching.
Something I also see a LOT of Americans do is death grip the fork like it's a hammer. You don't want to do this. The closest image I could find of this was here:
https://www.koalie.net/Walks/200403_TP_M ... 202038.jpgLook at how he's holding the knife. A lot of people hold forks that way. Especially when eating meat... and they'll turn their arms up so their eblow is high and then stab the steak while holding the fork like this.
Note also that you shouldn't hold the knife this way either. The same rule applies here - held gently with the index finger along the top stopping before the start of the blade.
Here's actually a pretty decent photo of what I mean:
https://www.oread.ku.edu/Oread01/Feb16/F ... quette.jpgHere's another:
https://www.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/9/1 ... 219468.jpgAlso...
No elbows on the table. Ever.
When you go to take a drink of water, don't rest your eblow on the table and tread your arm like a fulcrum, simply reach for it, and raise your arm back over your plate and take a drink.
And another one...
A knife is meant to cut, not tear. That means that you should be moving the knife across the meat, not down into the meat with force. This is really hard to describe, but what I mean is, if you feel like the meat might fly off the table of you take your hand off the fork, it's because your digging into the meat and tearing it rather than cutting it. Try this at home - grab a good sharp knife and cut into a piece of meat without putting any downward pressure on the knife. It's an exaggeration of course, you need a bit of pressure to keep the blade on the steak, but you'll see how the meat does in fact cut off.
Another way to think about it - its the difference between cutting butter (a downward thrust with a little bit of slice along it) vs cutting through a steel pipe with a saw. You cut meat like your cutting through a steel pipe (just not with that much force!) - movements forwards and backwards across the food, not downwards.
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6. Do not cut up your entire meal before eating it. Cut only the piece that you are about to eat. Again, this can be avoided altogether.
Oh god this is a good one. I see this all the time... People who order a porterhouse, cut the entire thing into little pieces and then eat it. Don't do this.
I'll probably come up with more later.