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From: akp@isrnix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: How to eat dinner in England - (nf)
Message-ID: <1256@pur-ee.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Dec-83 07:32:58 EST
Article-I.D.: pur-ee.1256
Posted: Thu Dec 15 07:32:58 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Dec-83 02:44:19 EST
Sender: notes@pur-ee.UUCP
Organization: Electrical Engineering Department , Purdue University
Lines: 24

#R:utcsstat:-152000:isrnix:9700002:000:1223
isrnix!akp    Dec  8 19:56:00 1983

The idea of cutting all your food up at once, then diving in, might have its
roots in the fact that you must do this for children, or go mad. The parent
will cut up all of the child's ham, or steak, or whatever, so s/he need not
be bothered by it every ten seconds. In my house, that was done, but it was
made clear that when we small ones became "real people", we were not to do
that.  I have also heard of THREE schools of dinner-roll eaters. In the first,
and probably the most crass, you slice or break the roll in two, slap butter
or jam (never jam at dinner!) on both sides, and be done with it. Case two:
you cut or break the roll in two, but only garnish one bite at a time, from
the reserve of garnish that you put on your plate when it was passed to you.
Then the third school, where you break off one piece at a time and garnish it
as a fragment.
	All this seems perfectly silly; you should be able to eat however you
like, as long as it is not offensive.  But remember: the upper class in England
used all sorts of manners to seperate themselves from the lower classes,
including dress, headwear, speech, and, of course, eating.

...and so it goes.
								-- Allan Pratt
						...decvax!ihnp4!iuvax!isrnix!akp