What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

He was four months into living in Brazil when my friend first asked me:

“Why don’t you know how to use a fork and knife?”

His face could only muster absolute bewilderment. As someone who is prone to gaining weight, he was quite positive that he, in fact, did know how to use a fork and knife.

As an American living in Brazil, he hadn’t quite registered what was already so obvious to the locals who had dined in my presence. We Americans have a rather strange protocol for using our forks and knives that, well, the rest of the world simply doesn’t.

Brazilians (and, well, apparently everyone else in the fork-and-knife-using world) eat in the following manner:

They place the knife in their dominant hand while the fork is held in the other. The fork-wielding hand then delivers food to the mouth while the knife is used to help cut and scoop food onto the fork. Neither is set down during the eating process, nor are the utensils traded between hands. It is very efficient, right?

It explains why he always assumed my new Brazilian friends were so hungry. They always seemed to be eating so quickly. They weren’t, of course. He was just eating an absolutely glacial pace.

American protocol, in comparison, is, well, complicated…

First, your dominant hand holds the fork while the knife sits alone on the plate.

Easy, right? So far, so good.

Your other hand should remain completely off the table, preferably on your lap (otherwise, my Irish-American grandmother will poke you with her fork. Because, I mean, isn’t that how your family taught you table etiquette?)

Ready for another bite of meat? Great. Now, using your dominant hand, set down the fork and pick up the knife. Employ your previously lap-banished hand to pick up the fork to assist while you cut the next piece.

Once you have finished cutting, the knife is once again placed on the plate, the fork is traded back to your dominant hand, and your other hand cast back to isolation below the table. Sooooo easy, right?

After the shocking realization of our patriotic placement of the utensils, I was left pondering :

Why are our utensils dancing in America?

Why do we insist upon this elaborate and complicated plate ballet?

How can we, as a people, be so fat, when it takes us so long just to eat?

Thanks for Scrolling

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