Three Ways To Eat Food

[August1991]

Long ago I realized (but given modern times it seems germaine to repeat) that there are three traditional/practical ways to eat food:

1. With knife and fork.

2. With your fingers.

3. With chopsticks.

Indeed, there are three broad "cultures" in humanity - and all the others are derivatives.

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Why does this matter? Well, food must be prepared to eat. Food for fingers has one shape/preparation. Food for chopsticks another shape, and food to be cut still another shape.

[Guest]

You could put it all in a blender an drink it with a straw.

I just bought a Vitamix. I do that a lot.

[Bryan]

You could probably get your nutrition by I.V. too if you really wanted to.

[August1991]

You could put it all in a blender an drink it with a straw...

You could probably get your nutrition by I.V. too if you really wanted to.

===

You both miss two key points:

First: Chinese eat with chopsticks, Indians eat with fingers and Europeans eat with utensils.

Second: Other religions/cultures are derivative.

[Bryan]

Chopsticks are a utensil.

Both India and China had spoons before Europeans did.

[cybercoma]

Cultures are a result of the ways in which we consume food? Interesting argument. Care to elaborate?

[bill_barilko]

Long ago I realized (but given modern times it seems germaine to repeat) that there are three traditional/practical ways to eat food:

1. With knife and fork.

2. With your fingers.

3. With chopsticks.

Indeed, there are three broad "cultures" in humanity - and all the others are derivatives

.

This is wank-Thais have an ancient civilisation and never use a knife just fork & spoon.

[August1991]

Chopsticks are a utensil.

Both India and China had spoons before Europeans did.

" ... before Europeans did... "?

Bryan, to you, is life a race?

Cultures are a result of the ways in which we consume food? Interesting argument. Care to elaborate?

By far, most taboos do not concern sex - most taboos concern food. Edited October 31, 2014 by August1991

[August1991]

This is wank-Thais have an ancient civilisation and never use a knife just fork & spoon.

Fork in Thailand?

Traditional Thai food is a derivative of Chinese. It's food prepared for a chopstick - or fingers.

I admit that the spoon is common to Chinese/European food - but not Indian.

(Agreed though that only Europeans use a knife to eat food.)

Edited October 31, 2014 by August1991

[Bryan]

" ... before Europeans did... "?

Bryan, to you, is life a race?

???? You're the one who introduced the topic of how different cultures eat, you even ranked them:

First: Chinese eat with chopsticks, Indians eat with fingers and Europeans eat with utensils.

Second: Other religions/cultures are derivative.

[August1991]

???? You're the one who introduced the topic of how different cultures eat, you even ranked them:

Ranked? I listed them. I could have just as easily put fingers first. [Gawd, some leftist Westerners are truly useful idiots... ]

But I did mention "derivatives" - although I am still not certain whether Beethoven is better than Haydn.

Edited November 2, 2014 by August1991

[Bryan]

You're still talking in circles. YOU applied the eating method to the culture. I pointed out that the thing you assigned to specific people was already widely used by the people that you assigned a different method to long before that.

...and me leftist? What is this, the "August says the opposite of anything that's true" thread?

[overthere]

Fork in Thailand?

Traditional Thai food is a derivative of Chinese. It's food prepared for a chopstick - or fingers.

I admit that the spoon is common to Chinese/European food - but not Indian.

(Agreed though that only Europeans use a knife to eat food.)

You're wrong on two counts- Thais do not use chopsticks.

And many Indians eat with spoons.

[August1991]

You're wrong on two counts- Thais do not use chopsticks.

Thais use chopsticks but also their hands. Thai food is designed for both. (Thailand, go figure...)

And many Indians eat with spoons.

Westernized (colonized, to use a loaded word) Indians eat with spoons.

But traditional Indian food doesn't require a spoon. It's prepared for fingers. (Mulligatawny soup is a British concoction.)

====

By starting this thread, I had no desire to create a target to oppose. I was merely posting an observation from my travels as a Canadian abroad.

Why does this thread raise the ire of Western leftists/the politically correct?

Is it now racist to claim that the Chinese eat their food with chopsticks but the French eat theirs with knives and forks? Would it be a better world if everyone ate the same way?

Edited November 28, 2014 by August1991

[Michael Hardner]

Is it now racist to claim that the Chinese eat their food with chopsticks but the French eat theirs with knives and forks? Would it be a better world if everyone ate the same way?

Why do you ask that ? Nobody has suggested racism on here before your post.

[overthere]

Westernized (colonized, to use a loaded word) Indians eat with spoons.

But traditional Indian food doesn't require a spoon. It's prepared for fingers. (Mulligatawny soup is a British concoction.)

====

By starting this thread, I had no desire to create a target to oppose. I was merely posting an observation from my travels as a Canadian abroad.

I've been to India three times and seen countless locals eat with spoons. And hands.

Whatever suits the grub.

It's not political

[The_Squid]

Some of the oldest spoons ever found come from China.

[Moonlight Graham]

===

You both miss two key points:

First: Chinese eat with chopsticks, Indians eat with fingers and Europeans eat with utensils.

Second: Other religions/cultures are derivative.

Africans are derivatives of Indians???

Other cultures skip utensils/hands for some things (soups etc.) and sip right out of a bowl.

[August1991]

Some of the oldest spoons ever found come from China.

But Chinese mothers feed their children with chopsticks, and European mothers use spoons to put food in their toddlers' mouths. And in India, mothers use their fingers to feed their children.

I've been to India three times and seen countless locals eat with spoons....

And I've seen countless locals in Montreal eat with chopsticks.

Africans are derivatives of Indians???

Maybe Indians are derivative of Africans. But I would argue that Indian food is not.

=====

Posters admirably confront my OP using a simple modern (Enlightenment) version of the "Scientific Method": question authority, and any claim to general human difference. But these same posters miss a broader point.

Edited December 6, 2014 by August1991

[WWWTT]

Long ago I realized (but given modern times it seems germaine to repeat) that there are three traditional/practical ways to eat food:

1. With knife and fork.

2. With your fingers.

3. With chopsticks.

Why do you ask that ? Nobody has suggested racism on here before your post.

Could be racist against the middle east to fail to recognize the skewer?

Some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life was on a skewer!

It's simplicity would suggest that it would be the first ever utensil used!

WWWTT

[WWWTT]

You could put it all in a blender an drink it with a straw.

I just bought a Vitamix. I do that a lot.

Ya it's called a cup.

A cup is also a dining utensil

WWWTT

[August1991]

Some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life was on a skewer!

You can cook food on a skewer (shashlik) but you don't eat food using a skewer.

In general, food in the Middle East is derivative of Indian: people eat with their fingers. Indeed, to skewer food, it must be finger-sized.

IME, Middle Eastern food differs from Indian food in this way: how it is shared. In India, different plates are placed on a table and you choose. In the Middle East (Mongol style), a large plate is placed in the centre and everyone can take what they want.

Of course, there are tremendous variations on these themes: but it's still finger food.

Edited December 16, 2014 by August1991