There are some foods that create very little controversy when eaten with your hands: Onion rings, sandwiches, toast come to mind. And other foods, like steak or pasta salad, are frowned upon. Some of this divide is practical (such as oatmeal) and sometimes it seems rather random: we eat French fries with our hands and roasted potatoes with a fork, for example. Do you have any food you like to eat with your hands that polite society says you shouldn't?
I do. I like to eat salads with my (clean) hands. I'm not sure why exactly, except that somehow for me picking up a leaf here or a tomato there seems to be more in tune with a salad than stabbing at it with a fork. With a salad, I meaner through my plate like I would through a garden, picking up little bits of this and that. I really find it quite pleasurable. So far this activity is usually reserved for home dining only, as I'm sure it would be frowned upon in a more public setting.
Some people I know eat pizza with a knife and fork, and Miss Manners says that eating asparagus with your hands is perfectly acceptable even in formal situations. And of course there are huge cultural issues at play here, including some cuisines in which all the food is eaten with your hands.
What's your secret or not so secret out of hand dining? And wouldn't it be fun to throw a dinner party where all the food was eaten with your (again, very clean) hands?
Related: Slurping Ramen: Unexpected Table Manners Around the World
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Pork chops are best bone in and eaten with the fingers.
I always liked to eat corned beef with my hands, picking the meat out of the little fat pockets... Actually, I like to eat lots of things with my hands that I shouldn't!
sushi
I also eat salad with my hands. I order dressing on the side and like to dip the leaves in, kinds like chips and dip. I do it in public though, because I figure no one will actually say anything to me about it.
Bacon. When it's really crispy, it's just more practical.
And any meat served on the bone. I don't care if it's a fancy resto, I am picking up my lamb shank (or confit duck leg, osso bucco, short rib, etc) and finishing it up by hand.
In many regions of India, it is a norm to eat with your hands. Especially in South India.
I hate going out for pizza and feeling obligated to use a fork/knife because everyone else at the table does. I just ignore it and use my hands unless there's lot of toppings or it's really hot making a fork/knife easier.
+1 for sushi
People in Pakistan and Afghanistan (where I am from) eat with their hands...my mother hates it when I do that- but hey, nothing like having food with your hands, especially a spicy chicken pilaf. shayma
Another for bone-in meats. Even though I really actually dislike eating messy things with my hands. If at home, will pop up and wash my hands as soon as I'm done with the bone-picking.
I don't have the guts Michelle does to actually do it in a restaurant, but that is a pet peeve of mine to serve things in formal situations that sort of force broken etiquette--bone-in meat where you can only get a bite of it without struggling with the bone, coffee without a saucer to rest one's dirty stirring spoon on, or, my favorite, at a wedding I attended: lobster with chopsticks.
I ALWAYS USE MY HANDS
WHAT ARE FORKS?
When my boyfriend moved in with me I discovered he also eats salad with his hands. I have to say, he's pretty much won me over to using this method because... it's so hard to get a cherry tomato on a fork!
I always want to eat pierogies whith my hands but I don't usually have the guts to unless I'm completely alone.
I too prefer to eat pizza with my hands, but I usually succumb to peer pressure when I'm out with a group (even though it's so much easier just to pick up and eat).
I've never thought of eating salad with my hands, but I strongly suspect that I would enjoy salad a whole lot more if I tried that (I mostly avoid it).
+1 for sushi
+1 for pizza
+1 for meat served bone-in
+1 for crispy bacon
Someone said bacon? Who eats bacon with utensils?? And pizza is always a hands-on food.
Didn't someone ask this exact question on here a few weeks ago??
Any yea, to echo mkhobson13, who the heck is eating bacon with a fork???! Or pizza for that matter. I thought everyone eats it with their hands.
My answer last time was baked beans. Started as a kid and stuck as an adult.
Yeah there have been times that I wanted to eat my salad with my hands. Sometimes the leaves are just too big and it's easier to roll them up. Also, it's hard to get everything you want to pair together on the fork at the same time. If you could just pick it all out and eat it it would be a lot easier.
Fried chicken. Not the typical crispy, bone-in kind though, the kind my mother makes - fillets of chicken breast breaded and lightly fried. The rest of my family cuts it up and eats it with utensils, like chicken parm sans parm, but I just can't. Must be eaten with hands.
Also, I have been known to spoon veggies and such out of soup and onto on a saltine before eating it.
You're supposed to eat sushi with your hands, you guys.
I prefer eating things with a fork that most people eat with their hands. Like pizza and french fries. I don't like eating with my hands if I can avoid it.
Who eats bacon with a fork?
I always eats pizza with my hands, unless like PP said, the toppings make it too heavy. In that case, I'll start eating it with a knife and fork and then pick it up once I get to that point.
I actually miss out on eating wings a lot. I hate eating them in public because they're so damn messy, but they're not good if you get them as takeout. :(
Pizza and sushi, most definitely. Crispy bacon or really any kind of bacon-well, of course!
I love to eat pancakes with my hands. Ripped in half and dipped in maple syrup.
I was once at a dinner meeting where the dessert was mini cannoli. Everyone started eating them with a fork and a knife. (Not me of course) It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode when everyone starts eating snickers with a fork and knife.
There's a hamburger restaurant I like that serves big fat cottage fries, that certainly should be eaten with a fork, but I don't. My hands are greasy anyway, so I pick up the fries. I love to eat bone-in pork chops with my fingers. Pizza---it depends on the pie, of course. Bacon---if it's too crispy, it will fly apart if you cut it, so best use the fingers. Pound cake---in my hands, please. I eat deviled eggs with my fingers.
As for salad---I was taught that no piece of a salad should ever be bigger than a 50 cent piece, because it was considered impolite to cut up your salad. But sometimes I am rude, and cut up my salad anyway. I can't stand getting slapped on the cheek with a spinach stem.
heypielady reminded me one a good one- I eat waffles with my hands. When I make them, I make them for everyone else then for mine I pour syrup in the plate and dip torn pieces off mine into it. Gets too soggy if you douse it in syrup.
I second pancakes and waffles. I like tearing them up and barely use syrup, so it's not messy. I still only do it at home, though.
Also, green beans.
Question: At dim sum, are you supposed to eat steamed buns with chopsticks or with your hands? I've seen people do both and would love to know what is 'proper'.
Bacon is always a food to be eaten with your hands!
Salad and waffles (not at the same time.) I usually don't tear up the lettuce leaves when I make salad so I can roll the little stuff up in the leaves and dip the roll in dressing.
pork chops!! definitely, even in public ... but not in a restaurant
asparagus!
and, for the record, i sometimes eat bacon with a fork. i know it's weird...
At home, I like eating salad like some would eat fries - take a leaf and dip in the dressing. Less cleanup and I don't worry about overloading the greens with dressing.
people in Indonesia eat with their hands too, in "plates" made of banana leafs, picking at sambal laden fried chicken or catfish.
my son also prefers to be fed fried fish & rice by hand...
as for western food, pizza is definitely eaten by hand...
I eat boiled okra with my hands so I don't have to cut off the ends. I also eat bacon with my hands, but I didn't know there were people that DIDN'T eat bacon with their hands. Asparagus is also a good hands food. Or getting the last bits of meat off a pork chop bone. However, if I were having company over or eating at a restaurant, I would use a fork.
Forks are 100% optional in my home, but in public we adhere to pretty standard eating habits. I cook with my hands and taste our food with the stirring spoon. Does it really matter if we pick up our steak?
I'm glad others eat salad with their hands. Me too. Let's start a club.
What else are we supposed to do when served a salad at a restaurant with those giant awkward pieces of greens?
caedstrom, nithya at hungrydesi, tamalinn, rosebud-
And thank you pomme for pointing this out that sushi can be eaten by hand.
But, to clarify, most sushi is properly eaten with your hands. Both nigiri (fish on rice) and maki (rolls) can be eaten with your hands, even in fairly formal settings.
If the sushi, has a sauce or toppings that would stick to your fingers, you're supposed to use chopsticks.
And, anything else on the plate or table should be eaten with chopsticks.
As a further note, it is considered gauche to mix the wasabi in the soy sauce, and to dip the rice in the sauce.
Wasabi should be applied directly to the fish (or you can request that the chef use more), and the roll should be dipped fish-side-down into the soy sauce.
Who eats (non-Chicago style) pizza with a fork and knife? I have a tendency to eat barbequed pork with my hands. Also it's quite common in my family and extended family to eat steak at cook-outs with our hands.