Mind your manners when eating
You have good manners, right? After all, when you were young, you were schooled in the art of eating properly, where, you were taught to keep your elbows off the table; not talk while eating; not to slurp your soup when eating; place your fork and knife at the ‘20 past 4 position’ on your plate after finishing your meal and dare not burp - if you didn’t want to be banished from the table to forgo dessert and reflect on what you did!
But as you get older and travel to other countries you soon realise that in some parts of the world, your usual food habits could be seen differently and may need adjusting within other cultures. What some cultures find polite, others find incredibly rude, i.e. the way you approach and / or eat food and drink may offend locals in another country.
Cutlery is foundational to Western dining and whilst eating a meal using ones hands would be deemed uncivilized, it is a conventional custom across much of the world including the middle East, Africa, South Asia and South America. There’s a reason why people use their hands to eat. It’s not that people from certain cultures didn’t have the idea to make tools. They had fascinatingly complex inventions. It’s because for many, food is very, very personal. It's also just easier to grab what one wants, than navigate all the sauces, breads, and rice with a fork and knife.
And with this type of custom comes different rules and manners, such as washing ones hands thoroughly before and after one’s meal, using your right hand only (never the left, which is considered unclean and to scoop the food with your fingers.
The Japanese ate with their fingers before the seventh century. Along with Buddhism, from China, the chopstick was introduced, and food would typically be cut into mouth-sized bits or sometimes larger. For some reason, spoons didn’t catch on, and the Japanese usually sipped directly from the bowl. In Japan, most commonly when eating noodles and soups, slurping shows your appreciation of the food to the chef. The louder the better!
In China, belches are considered an indication of your satisfaction and a compliment to the chef on a job well done making a mess around the table serves a similar purpose, and leaving a bit of food leftover shows your host that he or she has provided you with more than enough food.
Eating in Thailand can prove challenging to westerners, since the proper way to eat over there is to transfer food from your fork, onto a spoon and then into your mouth. Never put the fork into your mouth.
Americans, who are familiar with the “zig-zag” method of eating where they use their spoons with their left hand to steady the food while cutting with the right hand, then switching the spoon to the right hand to scoop up a bite, might find eating the Thai way less intimidating. That’s because at the beginning of the 17th century, when forks were still uncommon, in the American colonies, the new, blunt-tipped knives they imported made it difficult to spear food, as had been the practice – hence the “zig-zag” dance.
Why one might ask not use the spoon only? Easier said than done…just try conquering pad Thai with only a spoon or even with chopsticks.
While many countries are conscious of not wasting food, others take the concept of waste even further, such as in Ethiopia where individual plates are banished altogether. Instead, people eat their food from a large, communal plate.
Described above are some fascinating food etiquette rules from different food cultures to take with you on your next trip. Remember though, at the end of the day, your comfort level is what matters and as a foreigner it is forgivingly seen differently - but if you’re striving for tradition and to eat like the locals, well, this is some of it.
Ilzaf Keefahs is a freelance writer who enjoys focusing on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike. He delves into the heart of hospitality to figure out both customer service and consumer trends that impact the industry
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