In
America, we hold the fork in our left hand and our knife in our right hand to
cut our food (assuming we’re right-handed), then switch hands with the fork to
get the food to our mouth. In Europe it’s simpler, more direct.
Hold the food still with the fork in your left hand while you cut it with your
knife. Then put the food that is already skewered on your fork directly
into your mouth. Sounds simple, right? We tried it while we were in
England. First off, it’s hard to break that ingrained habit of switching
hands with the fork. Second, when we eat American style, we’re moving the
food to our mouths with the fork tines pointed up. The food tends to stay
on it. European style, the fork tines are pointed down and the food wants
to fall off back onto the plate mid-journey. We gave up and went with
what we’re used to, transferring the fork hand to hand.
Another
failure to adapt happened at the pizza restaurant. We could not bring
ourselves to eat pizza with a knife and fork like what was happening at all the
tables around us. That’s just wrong.
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