I'm Only Here for the Food!

I might be overstating the obvious here but, just in case… Last month, I mentioned I might start changing my blogging patterns, i.e., rather than posting every weekday, I might alternate. Well, that is not the reason why I have been publishing my posts every other day. Yes, as some of you might have guessed, I have been on a business trip – in this case, a two week business trip! Since I usually have a one week buffer, I only had enough material for one week. But, rather than posting all of them on the same week, I thought it might be better to space them. Where did I go? Well, you will find out Monday!

As for today’s post… Well, it is sort of an impromptu post (not to mention how to call it correctly). OK, let me go back a little bit: By the time this post goes up, I should be halfway asleep, almost ready to wake up, prep myself and drive to the airport. I should arrive at Vancouver International sometime in the afternoon and, after dinner, and who knows, write a post for Sunday. Reality is, that is pushing it. So, rather than pushing that option, I chose to write this post which is inspired on a post written by shokutsu on F o o d o s o p h y. Specifically, that of a young lady who did not mix the veggies/meat/egg/add chili paste in a dolsot bibimpap. To quote shokutsu:

I felt like leaning over and saying to her, that’s like eating spaghetti noodles without any tomato sauce, or a hotdog without ketchup and mustard.

Of course, I told him that was a bad analogy but that is beyond the point (just check the comments in the post for my thoughts). However, it just comes to me there are some odd habits that people do without thinking too much about it, yet some of us might cringe. So let’s start with things I know I might make Ms. Manners cringe (and to potential in-laws, yes, my parents did teach me, just that I did not heed that part…):

1. Fork and knife: Regardless if you do it American or European style, you should hold your fork with your left hand and knife with your right. Depending then on the style, the fork stays on your left hand (European) or can then transfer to the right. While I sometimes do that, more often than not, I ended holding my fork with my right hand and knife on the left during the whole meal.
2. Eating with hands: Why should I fight with a chicken drumstick?

As for things other people do that makes me cringe…

1. Holding chopsticks on the lower half of the chopsticks. The best description would that be of holding the chopsticks as if they were holding a pen to write, i.e., the “top” half of the chopstick sticks out and the distance between your hand and the food is minimal. Do you know that requires a lot more force than holding it further back? If you are not sure, check the Law of Levers.
2. Adding sauces or condiments… BEFORE tasting the food. Some exceptions are OK, like adding catsup to french fries (though I usually add them on a side of the container).

In the end, I believe it is up to you to decide how you eat your food but, c’mon… Anyway, what are your thoughts? Do you have other behaviours/habits that can make you cringe? How about the otherway around? I can think of others but I would like to read your thoughts!