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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

In general, upper-classish dining probably used to be more formal in the US in terms of cutlery type and placement and other things. May still be in some circles but no one I know worries about such things and even very decent restaurants don’t. And when was the last time you saw a fish fork?

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My mother-in-law always used to get annoyed at me for using my knife and fork in the European manor instead of the American way. She said it was boorish. I don't know anybody else here in the US who cares in the least which way you use your knife and fork, so I always interpreted it left over behavior from her upper class DC upbringing in the 1930-40's.

(I did try to explain to her that it was more related to my being left handed than my attempting to emulate European behavior. It didn't seem to make much difference to her.)

By American way do you mean cutting the food then transferring the fork to your right hand for eating? Or is there some other distinction?

Just guessing here, I'm left handed also. I don't trust myself to cut a piece of steak using the knife in my right hand. So, after cutting with my left hand, I put the knife down and use my left for forking.

Or, it could be what my English son-in-law does, he uses his fork and knife, in different hands to aid in pushing food onto his fork. (He's right handed, not that it matters in this case.)

That and you hold them in your fists or like a pen, rather than the European manner of holding cutlery.

Lee Van Clyf eating in good bad and ugly. Really underlines the savageness of the wild west.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ctrOZIJni8Q

This explains the difference. The European method seems the most optimal.

I thought this would simply be about the knife and the fork switching hands, but holding the fork tines up or down (spearing vs scooping) is new to me.

On the other hand, I don't think Americans ever pick up food with their fork and switch the loaded fork to the other hand, especially if the food is scooped, not speared. A lot of food would be dropped in the process.

As a non-conformist, I taught myself to use my knife in the non-dominant hand so that the fork is used in the same hand regardless of knife usage.

I typically just forgo the knife and cut food with the side of the fork. Unless it's a particularly thick slab of meat, it works just fine.

Pretty much. I do the same thing with a spoon.

This is bonkers. Just cut the food with your non-dominant hand. If you're so weak that you cannot cut the food with your non-dominant hand then you're either a small child, elderly, or you have a medical condition.

It's just awkward, I've held the knife with my dominant hand all my life.

Nonsense. If you can cut with your non dominant hand, then you can also spear and scoop with it.

Spear and scoop requires dexterity, hence the use of the dominant hand. Cutting is an extremely simple task with no special requirements.

Nonsense

Do you always get fish served deboned? Cutting it with non-dominant hand sucks, especially more bony ones like trout. For me doing almost anything with my non dominant part sucks, my left hand is 20x less useful.

Fish are gross and smell gross. I don't get them served at all.

So you probably only "cut" Chicken McNuggets and shit like that. Why use a knife at all? Just cut it with the fork sideways.

You obviously haven’t done it both ways and are assuming that spearing requires more dexterity than cutting. Hilarious that you could just try it for yourself and figure out that knife in the dominant hand works well but choose instead to bore everyone with your ignorance and stunning closemindedness

You are getting reported but you should be given a medal —or token if you are an AI or otherwise lack the anatomy for it.

To save you a click, the answer is: yes.

> no one I know worries about such things

It went underground - those who know just note that you're nekulturny, and move on.

They don't bother telling you about it, nowadays nothing good would come of that.

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