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I came across an article about table manners. After I quit laughing, I decided to blog about some of the “rules”. First of all, that pinky business when drinking a cup of tea came about when tea was drunk out of tiny cups and there wasn’t room for the rest of the fingers. It’s now considered rude and pretentious. Of course, that’s why I’ll go out of my way to do it…
It seems most of the following rules are for when you are in a place of dining which is WAY above my budget or are hosting guests who have a budget WAY above mine. If I were ever in that kind of situation, I would try my best not to be considered gauche. Even using the word “gauche” is above my budget…
Some of the rules were just common sense and decency. Here are the ones that caught my eye.
Put the eating utensils in the correct place. I read a little rhyme once that helped me remember: “The silverware had a fight. The knife and the spoon were right. So the fork left.” At our house, we usually put the utensils we’ll be using out. If we don’t need a spoon, it won’t be there. Since both Kevin and Sarah are lefties, their utensils are on the left. For the rest of us, it’s on the right.
Don’t put your belongings on the table. My purse would take up WAY too much room to do this. I think they were mainly talking about phones. At home, I have a tiny electric fan by my place so I don’t melt.
Don’t spit out the olive pits. At home I always have the pitted kind. If you’re at a restaurant though, discretely spit them into your hand and put them on the side of your plate or “in a designated plate or bowl”. There have been times when at a restaurant there were olives with pits still in them. There has NEVER been a “designated plate or bowl” to deposit them. Of course, I would NEVER put them in the end of my straw and shoot them across the room…
Don’t slurp your soup directly from the bowl. I can’t imagine why that rule would be there! Maybe way back before spoons were invented that was the only way to have soup, but really! We’re pretty “relaxed” about table manners at home, but we’ve never done THAT!
Don’t lick the plate. I laughed the hardest at that one! Using a piece of bread to mop up the gravy is OK though. Many years ago my mom and I were at The Sizzler in Chico for lunch. I happened to notice a guy eating by himself at a table in my view. He was having a bowl of pudding. He CAREFULLY scraped the bowl with his spoon to get the last bits of it. I can understand that. I love me a good chocolate pudding myself. But then he went on to RUN HIS FINGER around the sides and bottom of the bowl and suck his finger! I guess he didn’t know he could easily have gone back to get seconds. Oh well, as my grandma always said, “Waste not, want not.”
