Dining Etiquette

My wife (she really does) and I set table as we had as kids. Knife and fork and condiments on the table. Wife sets if friends here large knives then smaller for entree, dessert spoons just like a restaurant .

Eat with mouth closed, no elbows on the table. That's a grandparent thing with my grandparents.
And ask, please may I leave the table at end.

We are more laid back with our grandkids though. We have a table for adults and a table for wee ones.

Russ
 
My wife's paternal grandmother, she came from a very strict, somewhat prominent family in her part of the state, she went to finishing school, had a debutante ball, that sort of thing, and boy, let me tel you, when she was in town visiting, it was The Queen's Own Rules for dining...and everything else.

That woman could lecture on proper etiquette about anything and everything.
 
TastyReuben said:
My wife's paternal grandmother, she came from a very strict, somewhat prominent family in her part of the state, she went to finishing school, had a debutante ball, that sort of thing, and boy, let me tel you, when she was in town visiting, it was The Queen's Own Rules for dining...and everything else.

That woman could lecture on proper etiquette about anything and everything.
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Our grandparents were something else, my granddad was a p.o.w so despised leaving food on your plate. We were "encouraged" to eat it all. My nana was a softy.

Russ
 
PabloLerntKochen said:
Who eats things that dropped on the floor?
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Never, Unless it dropped in its packaging, if I dropped sealed off, unopened cheese, fully packed, I'd wipe the plastic wrap off, take the cheese out of the package and proceed normally...or a banana, unpeeled...but pieces of food, no.
I do throw a sad look on an almond I dropped accidentally :yuck:, but just throw it out...and that is my home floor.

other floors, like workplace, or street, no no way.

Dishes, plates, if I just rested an apple slice in quarters on a plate, and within 5 min have a peeled banana to slice, no problem to do it in the same dish...but if up to two hours have passed, no. I paid attention to the 2h time span for the bacteria development when I had my daughter and she was a little baby...mainly it was for food left out of the fridge, but food remains act the same...

I am sooo happy with my new dishwasher, but even if I need to wash something off per hand, no big deal, what must be done, must be done...drying off 99% with disposable paper towels or air drying on a dish rack. I will use a cotton towel only to dry my hands if they are clean and just wet, if not, would also use paper towel and discard and then wash off the hands properly...I will use the "wrong" kind of plate, i.e. spaghetti on a cake plate, but it is a clean plate...my kid eats like a sparrow, mini mini quantities, so the cake plate is just right sometimes...:soup::D...but if the right plate is clean, she'll get that...

Ooh, forgot to quote the dishes questions, sorry...
 
LissaC said:
I really have no qualms about eating food that fell on the floor, as long as the floor was reasonably clean.

My grandma used to say kids would be healthier if they ate more dirt and stuff of the floor. She called this vitamin M, the M stands for m#$!a (the portuguese word for s$!t) :laugh:
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I understand. I've heard that before, but reasonably, I would not return a piece of pie that a kid dropped onto a playground to it...but I accept that some people may do it. It is what I would or would not do.
 
Timenspace said:
Sounds cool :ninja:, she was told that in her childhood? Some people have different habits, one should respect that. As long as she does not get sick...all right.
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I don't know when she was told that - it's sort of a universal thing we all grew up with. Drop a cookie on the floor, and someone will say, "Five second rule!" and grab it and eat it.
 
TastyReuben said:
That's my rule about stuff sitting out. MrsT will leave things out all day, and then catch me pouring milk out at 4PM that's been on the counter since 10AM.
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Yes! That has been proven, it is a fact, how life works...that with the milk is quite dangerous really. I am not a freak, but dairy gone bad is bad. Just today, while driving around in the car with my bf he told me how the cook at his workplace had left milk outside, he did not know it, the coffee vending machine was out of milk, so he went and pored that, and she came in and yelled Nooooo!. He threw the whole coffee out. Good decision.
 
TastyReuben said:
I don't know when she was told that - it's sort of a universal thing we all grew up with. Drop a cookie on the floor, and someone will say, "Five second rule!" and grab it and eat it.
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Actually, I remember my Mom telling me to puff away (puff at? blow away, similar to dust off, oh ok, puff off?) at a slice of bread if it fell on her kitchen floor, long time ago, as I was kid, and it would be ok, I think I was skeptical, but did as she said...I was not sickly, so it worked for some reason...maybe the floor was clean enough...I don't know.
I just don't feel comfortable with that idea anymore...
 
TastyReuben said:
Nope, never. I won't even use the same plate for the same meal, meaning that I'll serve salad on a plate, and then, say, a piece of lasagne.

MrsT will eat the salad, rinse the plate, and put her lasagne on it. I won't do that. I won't even use the same fork.

There's an old saying around these parts that you'd hear a lot at Sunday suppers: "Keep your fork, because there's pie coming up." - meaning, don't put your fork in the dirty dishes yet, because dessert is on the way.

That just disgusts me. I can't believe anyone would expect me to eat a piece of apple pie with the same fork I used to eat spaghetti. :headshake:
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Now that you mention this...I never do that at home. I usually wash a dish or piece of flatware right after using them so there are no dirty dishes sitting around.

However, this got me to thinking that they usually don't give you a second flatware set if you order dessert in a restaurant. I never made the conscientious choice to keep the flatware but I guess I've been doing it all along.
 
mjd said:
Now that you mention this...I never do that at home. I usually wash a dish or piece of flatware right after using them so there are no dirty dishes sitting around.

However, this got me to thinking that they usually don't give you a second flatware set if you order dessert in a restaurant. I never made the conscientious choice to keep the flatware but I guess I've been doing it all along.
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One thing my wife does is give me multiple sets of cutlery and sets of plates etc, I prolly have enough for 12 to be served. We also have a huge Thai cutlery set as well.

Russ
 
mjd said:
However, this got me to thinking that they usually don't give you a second flatware set if you order dessert in a restaurant.
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I don't understand what you mean... you mean that a dessert is served without clean cutlery? That wouldn't ever happen in the UK even in a cheap cafe.

N.B that flatware is known as cutlery in the UK and NZ. I think in the USA cutlery generally means knives?
 
Morning Glory said:
don't understand what you mean... you mean that a dessert is served without clean cutlery?
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Good that you extracted this...I read but was unsure what it meant, was too sleepy for research last night...
I thought that referred to the 'underplate'...
And now it is obvious I was totally wrong.
No, that would never happen here either...never heard of such service...
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