Eating habits

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Hoogstwaarschijnlijk
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Re: Eating habits

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2021-02-13, 18:49

Both apples and pears make my ears itching 🤔😅
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Re: Eating habits

Postby linguoboy » 2021-02-14, 15:24

Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:Both apples and pears make my ears itching 🤔😅

"...make my ears itch" or "...make my ears itchy".
That's a bummer.

My flatmate has some funny preferences around fruits. Apparently he's legit allergic to apricots and peaches. But when I tried to offer him some pączki last week, but he refused not only the apricot but also the raspberry and plum. Fortunately, he loves apples and we mostly agree on varieties (though he's more bullish on the ubiquitous Honeycrisps than I am and rather less fond of Galas).
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Re: Eating habits

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2021-02-14, 15:29

linguoboy wrote:
Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:Both apples and pears make my ears itching 🤔😅

"...make my ears itch" or "...make my ears itchy".
That's a bummer.
/quote]

I see it as the perfect excuse to not eat them. I don't really like fruit in general. I eat 1/2 banana in my breakfast and during the summer I like to eat strawberries and blackberries and melon but that's it.

I can handle apple when it's been heated so apple pie goes fine 😎
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Re: Eating habits

Postby linguoboy » 2021-02-14, 15:50

Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:I can handle apple when it's been heated so apple pie goes fine 😎

Makes me wonder what's in there that cooks out.

I have a similar problem with tomatoes. There's something in raw tomatoes that makes me gag. It's not so strong with commercial hothouse tomatoes (though who wants to eat those?) but just the smell of a homegrown tomato can provoke a gag reflex in me. Whatever it is totally cooks out though because I've never had the same reaction to tomato sauce, even when it's homemade from homegrown tomatoes.
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Re: Eating habits

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-02-14, 18:24

Varislintu wrote:I think apples are a bit like potatoes, though, in that there are many kinds and many qualities. An apple can be horrible junk, as can a potato. They can also both be absolutely delicious.

They also seem to be hard and/or crunchy, though, which I don't care for.
Car wrote:I just don't get why they're so popular.

Clementines? Because they taste good?

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Re: Eating habits

Postby linguoboy » 2021-07-26, 23:34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUUc-rp7o3g

I found this video a fun introduction to how chopsticks and chopstick etiquette have evolved differently in different parts of East Asia. Over the years, I've noticed the differences in the shape and composition of chopsticks but I always considered that chiefly a matter of aesthetics; it never occurred to me how these differences might reflect divergences in the types of food consumed and how they were served.

It was also interesting to hear the Japanese woman explain that chopstick etiquette seems generally stricter in Japan than in either China or Korea. I learned a fairly strict standard of chopstick etiquette, but then my silverware etiquette is pretty strict, too. (I wouldn't wave a fork around while I was talking either.)
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Re: Eating habits

Postby mōdgethanc » 2021-08-06, 5:38

I'm pretty careful with chopstick etiquette at restaurants and I think I got that habit from reading about how strict the Japanese customs around it are.
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Re: Eating habits

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-08-07, 19:19

I remember watching that video. I thought my dad might be interested in it as well, but he isn't really. He is very impressed with Chef Wang, though.

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Re: Eating habits

Postby md0 » 2021-08-07, 21:16

Speaking of table manners, my family was simply too working-class to be aware of different types of knifes, how to eat pasta with a spoon, and how juggle utensils between hands.
My partner have been gently trying to teach me those things, and I think I wasn't meant to notice the effort but well, I did.
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Re: Eating habits

Postby azhong » 2021-08-09, 23:57

md0 wrote:...to be aware of different types of knifes, how to eat pasta with a spoon, and how juggle utensils between hands.

I supposed the way to eat spaghetti was just to have it wrapped by revolving your folk against the plate until I googled it just now after I read md0's post and started to wander what a spoon was for. I am a Chinese knowing little about fort-and-kinfe etiquette. I am unsure how many kinds of knifes there are. I don't even know what "jungle utensils" md0 mentioned means. I am very lucky that I'm not a diplomat.

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Re: Eating habits

Postby Linguaphile » 2021-08-10, 1:06

azhong wrote:I am unsure how many kinds of knives there are.

I know, have and use some different kinds: table knife, steak knife, butter knife, paring knife, carving knife. But, like you, I don't know how many kinds of knives there are. I even have a few that I never use, because I really don't know what they are for or what they are called. I don't seem to need them but for some reason I have them.

azhong wrote:I don't even know what "jungle utensils" md0 mentioned means.

"juggle utensils" - to move utensils from one hand to another. For example, hold the fork in your left hand when you are cutting meat, but hold the fork in your right hand when you are using it to eat the meat. IIRC this varies between cultures too.

azhong wrote:I am very lucky that I'm not a diplomat.

Nah, they'd teach you and then you'd know more about it than any of us.
Honestly the etiquette for utensils is a lot more detailed than most people need in daily life. Apparently there are 61 types of spoons. In my silverware drawer I have three kinds, and when I need a spoon, I generally just grab one without paying attention to which kind it is. Unless I have visitors, then I pay attention to the three kinds and use the correct ones, but still, only three kinds. Not 61. :mrgreen:

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Re: Eating habits

Postby mōdgethanc » 2021-08-10, 9:26

I still don't get the thing with spaghetti and eating it with a spoon. My grandfather did it, but I just eat it with a fork.
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Re: Eating habits

Postby linguoboy » 2021-08-10, 14:19

mōdgethanc wrote:I still don't get the thing with spaghetti and eating it with a spoon. My grandfather did it, but I just eat it with a fork.

This is how I learned to eat it as a child. As I got older, I found that I could take away the spoon and as long as I held the fork at the right angle, I could still twirl the pasta onto it without it falling off.

As I child I was very conscious of etiquette generally, even beyond what my parents taught me. Even now, the thought of simply grabbing a random plate or spoon to eat something instead of, for instance, consciously choosing a soup plate and a soup spoon to eat soup or a butter dish and a butter knife to serve butter just irks me, but I know that's rather unusual in this day and age.
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Re: Eating habits

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-08-10, 19:28

I'm South Indian. Table etiquette of any kind quickly becomes baffling to me. About a hundred years ago, we just ate with our hands on the floor of the front porch.

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Re: Eating habits

Postby azhong » 2021-08-11, 2:23

I was impressed when I saw for the first time a young Indonesian man having his meal by grabbing with his bare right hand on his plate. Culture shock is rare to me for I've grown up in the country and never been abroad, and it is impossible to see a Chinese dining that way. It was not just a drumstick, a stalk of corn, or a pack of cookies; it was a full plate of rice, vegetables and meat, chicken or fish!

When a Chinese occasionally grabs with fingers a piece of meat or something from the plate at table, their behavior might be teased with a Chinese idiom: 五爪下山, literally "five claw descend mountain", implying it belongs to only beasts.

I found my Indonesian friends were quite skillful; they could finish their meal keeping their hands clean all the way. I tried it once or twice when dinning together with them; the stickiness of my fingers made me uneasy. It is, however, a special experience to disobey a rule which I have been following unconsciously, just as to eat while walking.

I believe this manner to dine must be the simplest, and the most environmentally protective.
Last edited by azhong on 2021-08-11, 8:33, edited 6 times in total.

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Re: Eating habits

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-08-11, 3:30

Yes, this is how we usually eat at home, too. That is how I just ate about five hours ago.

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Re: Eating habits

Postby mōdgethanc » 2022-03-05, 8:56

Eating with only hands still weirds me out a bit. I got into it from liking Ethiopian food, but can't shake the feeling that my hands need to be washed right after doing it. And that's food which has lots of bread, which is a thing in Western food (like, say, sandwiches or hamburger buns). Eating rice with the hands seems so odd to me, unless it be sushi or something like that. Does any culture on earth eat noodles with their hands?

Then again, I've never tried it.
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Re: Eating habits

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-03-05, 14:30

mōdgethanc wrote:Eating with only hands still weirds me out a bit. I got into it from liking Ethiopian food, but can't shake the feeling that my hands need to be washed right after doing it.

I feel like that goes without saying? :hmm: Of course you need to wash your hands right after, uh, eating with your hands. :) EDIT: Well, when you're done eating, anyway. :hmm:
Does any culture on earth eat noodles with their hands?

Yes! We do! We eat everything with our hands, even liquid foods.
Then again, I've never tried it.

It takes getting used to, like anything else, pretty much.

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Re: Eating habits

Postby mōdgethanc » 2022-03-08, 19:30

vijayjohn wrote:I feel like that goes without saying? :hmm: Of course you need to wash your hands right after, uh, eating with your hands. :) EDIT: Well, when you're done eating, anyway. :hmm:
That didn't come out right. I meant that I feel like I need to wash my hands during the meal. After picking up anything. Or at least, at first it felt like this.
Yes! We do! We eat everything with our hands, even liquid foods.
How does this work if it's liquid?
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Re: Eating habits

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-03-08, 19:34

You dip your hand in it and lick it off? :whistle:

(Or just hold the bowl/plate/wherever the food is and drink it. Ig that isn't really "eating," though :P).


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