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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekgvs!jeffma
From: jeffma@tekgvs.UUCP (Jeff Mayhew)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Eating Algorithms
Message-ID: <16@tekgvs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Dec-83 20:41:15 EST
Article-I.D.: tekgvs.16
Posted: Fri Dec  9 20:41:15 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Dec-83 04:48:08 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 25

Although I've never seen a pronounced tendency toward Americans
chopping up their food into tiny bits (with the exception of my
sister), there is one thing that I've noticed when comparing
eating habits in Europe with those in the U.S.:  Europeans tend
to hold the knife in the right (or dominant) hand and keep it there
--the fork is kept in the left hand, and the food usually gets delivered 
to the mouth with the fork-tines pointing downward.  In the U.S. the 
more common practise is to slice with the knife in the right (or 
dominant) hand, and then transfer the fork to that hand for the final 
food-transfer to the mouth.  In my own view the first method is by far
the more practical of the two.

Another interesting tendency:  in some parts of Europe, pieces of
pie are eaten from the crust side, rather than from the pointy part.
Rumor has it that a Russian spy was once caught as a result of the
suspicion cast on him by his "unusual" pie-eating habits (he claimed
to be an American, spoke flawless English, etc.).  Try eating your
pie this way the next time you're visiting a friend's house--you'll
be surprised how fast others will notice.

                                           Jeff Mayhew
                                           Tektronix
                                           !tekgvs!jeffma

P.S.: Is this a topic for net.cooks (the closest thing to "net.food")?