I'm left handed and find it a tad difficult to use a knife with my right hand. I can use a fork and spoon fine though. My mother always told me to hold the knife with my right hand at more formal settings, but at less formal meals don't heed her advice and hold the knife in my left hand.
Is it acceptable to hold the knife in the left hand at all? Or is it better to hold it with my right hand and be a little slower and a bit more clumsy with my cutting?
Yes you are very correct about USA. But, from my observations, they often cut up most, if not all, of their food, and then switch and eat with 'fork only' in the right hand.
The bigger problem I have with being a lefty is when at a round table in a chinese restaurant, especially if a little tightly packed. I use chopsticks in my left hand and tangle with the person on my left (using his in his right hand) hehe.
The only table etiquette I've seen in many chinese restaurants is to talk louder than the table next to you so that everyone on your table can hear you, and to order as much food as possible that your entire table looks fully packed and lavish.
/s
Otherwise standard common sense applies, use your chopsticks right and don't point it at people, and don't stick it into your bowl of rice.
Holy shit yes, the amount of food wastage is insane
"don't point it at people"………..but I assume that hanging them outta your nostrils is ok? :))
You totally forgot to mention the bit about having to fight to pay the bill at the end! It goes against all Ozbargain morals and I admit that I have been guilty of that on many occasions!
I'm left handed and pay with my left hand. Noone has ever complained about that! haha
I'm conscious of where I sit when eating - if I have a choice. If not, I still eat left handed.
Do what's comfortable.
I'll bet you had the type of parents who took toys from your left hand and put them in your right as a child.
Don't let the ridiculous ideals of others govern your life. They'd probably tell you off for making a mess/eating slowly by being clumsy with your cutting.
No, they never discouraged me from using my left hand. They just advised me to use my right hand to hold my knife in polite company. I can only use chopsticks with my left hand and they never cared.
My dad had an earful the last time he commented about me holding my chopsticks 1cm lower than his "ideal" considering how I can pinch them down hard enough to hurt your fingers/use them perfectly.
Never quite appreciated the stigma towards left handers however, if you were to insist on using your right hand it would probably only take a few weeks to learn.
i would have stabbed them with said chopsticks if anyone pulls this sh*t on me. i would hold "my" utensils how i damn well please. thank you very much.
What would you do if you had to dine at a Michelin starred restaurant tonight for Mother's Day?
Just order soup
Order the chinese dishes and eat with chopsticks.
French food unfortunately, googling the menu now to see what I would even want to eat there.
Something that doesn't involve a knife and fork? :p
Serious? It's not difficult are you like 13 years old?
Try cutting food elegantly with your non dominant hand
I'm a lefty, and have taught myself to do a bunch of things right handed, because it was simpler for me to adapt than seek the world to adapt to me. That said, the result is far from mastery for most fine motor skills, though I eat with aplomb.
I am inclined to say follow right handed table etiquette at formal functions, and to follow it all the time so you find it completely natural.
But I was brought up when older primary teachers still had a try to get you to switch to right handed!
Anyhow, I find nothing awkward about eating right handed after doing it consistently for decades, yet I couldn't use chopsticks right handed, and really have never tried.
I use right handed scissors normally, but my youngest kid is a lefty too, and she got some left handed scissors. I am successfully ambidextrous when cutting.
I guess that you are asking at all means you are either a little self conscious in a formal dining setting, or your Mum or somebody else is urging you to be so. If it bothers you, do what etiquette demands. If it doesn't just tell those it does bother to 'get with the times, man' (so you sound suitably hip to the young persons vocabulary).
Eat Thai. No knife!!
I understand some people value the formality of dining with restrictions such as no hats at the table, no elbows on the table etc, but dictating which hand you hold your cutlery in seems wildly excessive.
same. the no mobile phone use at the dinner table is another good one.
I'm a Lefty and I never have these problems at McDonald's.
Look at all the cool lefties coming out of the closet. Unite sinister brothers!
👍
HA HA I didn't know that Maccas had utensils for dining in??
Im a little kachie handed so I just use my fingers n hands left or right, but the fries are eaten with the right hand, now thats being etiquette.
When I was in the defence force I learnt about table settings in the snake pits and pig pens and had to put all
the left handers on a different table.
I have watched some left handeds' do writing, absolutely fabulous the pad is upside down facing in, out side ways all over the shop, but the end result could not be faulted.
My Dad was a left handed mechanic and I remember the drill stand being set up for left hand operation.
I am predominantly right-handed but I can only use chopsticks with my left hand. So in a Chinese restaurant I usually try to sit at the left end of a table so my left arm is free. At a round table I try to sit to the right of another lefty to avoid the 'conflict'. If I am the only lefty, I am just very careful to try and take food when my neighbour isn't taking food.
Eat left handed and if anyone even looks funny at you, give them an earful about discrimination.
this. i mean are our lives so mundane that we have to nitpick how someone was born left handed.
It depends if you're using American or European etiquette.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_utensil_etiquette
"The European style is to hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. Once a bite-sized piece of food has been cut, it is conducted straight to the mouth by the left hand. For other food items, such as potatoes, vegetables or rice, the blade of the knife is used to assist or guide placement of the food on the back of the fork. The tines remain pointing down."
"In the American style, also called the zig-zag method or fork switching, the knife is initially held in the right hand and the fork in the left. Holding food to the plate with the fork tines-down, a single bite-sized piece is cut with the knife. The knife is then set down on the plate, the fork transferred from the left hand to the right hand, and the food is brought to the mouth for consumption. The fork is then transferred back to the left hand and the knife is picked up with the right.
In contrast to the European hidden handle grip, in the American style the fork is held much like a spoon or pen once it is transferred to the right hand to convey food to the mouth. Though called "American style", this style originated in Europe."
However, I define my own style, called Ozbargain-Indo style, in which I eat with my bare hands and fingers because I can't be bothered to wash cutlery.