Dinnertime Annoyances!

Post Reply New Topic

I'm betting I'm not the only one that has the following problems:

Basic tablesettings. Fork on left knife on right? What was the person that invented that; left-handed?

The 'proper' way to hold a fork. I CAN'T do it. It's too awkward and painful. I MUST grasp the handle of the fork in my fist. My hands are sore 24/7 but somehow the 'wrong' way is better for my hand.

I am really annoyed by when people wipe off their knife onto their fork and whatever food. The sound drives me crazy and I don't like how it looks.

I can't stand to listen to a person slurp soup, but it's even worse for me to see them using bread to eat soup. I don't have any clue why. Same with bread and chili.

That whole 'cutting with the right hand with the fork in the left, and eating with the 'wrong' (left) hand annoys me too. I found I cannot do it. I am NOT left handed and refuse to try to eat off a fork in my left hand. I must cut all the food first and then swap the fork back to the proper hand after putting down the knife.

For the most part I can't stand to watch elderly people eat. Mainly because some of them (that I have seen) keep their mouth open way longer than they need to when conveying food to it.

I also can't stand to hear really audible chewing. Neither can my brother, although he seems NT. If he hears someone chewing loudly he says, "Having trouble chewing?"

Conversation at the dinner table. POINTLESS. I'm trying to eat, dammit. And didn't they say you shouldn't talk with your mouth full?

And worse than conversation at the dinner table...someone going on and on about how something is 'delicious'. I have a grandparent that goes, "Mmmm, delicious" like every five minutes if she's invited over for dinner and in the middle of eating. OK GRANNY WE GET THE POINT, AND YOU ARE NOT SHRAPNEL (the Insecticon) OFF OF TRANSFORMERS. At least, that's what her doing that reminds me of. Isn't one "mmm delicious" enough? The whole phrase just turns me off now because she overuses it to death. And the thing is, I never know whether she's actually saying it's delicious because it's delicious, or she's just being polite. ARGH I hate it when people basically lie to be polite. Not just where it pertains to foods, but everywhere.

The whole 'cleaning plate' phenomenon. My dad does it to an EXTREME. Either with a fork or with bread. Either way drives me nuts, as does seeing the results. Everybody that I know that does that extreme-clean-your-plate behavior is overweight. With a fork is worse because it makes a horrible sound on par with scraping nails on a chalkboard.

...and my mother wonders why I'd rather eat in my room, in front of my computer.

The only thing I found annoying was missing my TV shows because I had to eat at the table. So I'd eat quick as possible to get back to my show.

Snap.

Don't have any.

Maybe it's a kind of vocal (NT) stimming??

Why not just hold the fork in your right hand and cut with your left? Just because the fork is placed on the left side of the plate at the start of the meal doesn't mean that the fork has to stay on that side. When I go out to eat with NTs they'll just switch the fork and knife if they need to, the ones I hang out with don't think of this as a big deal.

I am left-handed so I don't have this dilemma.

I was brought up with this one. "Complimenting the cook." Not only that, but we're supposed to ask how it was made. The women in my family (except me) think cooking is the most fun and they love to talk about it, so a good guest lets them.

But then my brother got married, and the 3rd Christmas that I asked my sil how she made that dessert, she said, "You ask me that every year. Go in the kitchen and look at the box, the recipe's on the side."

I tried that. My left hand doesn't want to cooperate.

You know, I can understand your Sister In Law's reaction. Probably a bit too blunt of her though. I'd be driven to distraction if I'd already told someone once how something was made, and the very next year they ask again as if I'd never told them. Perhaps your SIL is on the spectrum?

Complimenting the cook is one thing, but going on and on about it grates on my already frayed nerves. Especially if it's the same phrase over and over again, like it's by rote rather than spontaneous/sincere.

Another thing that bugs me is if Granny says some meat is nice and tender when it's dried out to all heck. She likes her roasts well done, but when she makes them they are rather on the dry side. Yet she calls it tender, and will do the same if somehow a roast made here at our place is of the same rather dry tough consistency.

Hmm, I've always noticed that the knives and forks were always placed on the right side at every restaurant I've been to. But they usually wrap it all up in a napkin.

Except for the fancy restaurants. They always had it set up like this:


As you described. But I've never had a problem with it because I am left-handed. Except I switch the knife and spoon, and cups to the left side, so I cut with my left hand and hold the fork with my right. But I eat and drink with my left hand.

I think the purpose, since the majority of people are right-handed, was to have people cut with their right hand. Most people do, indeed, eat with their right hand as well, and have no problem switching the forks to the appropriate hand.

Good manners is all about lying, I think. If it was about truth, why would they make rules?

Probably to prevent hurt feelings. But I abhor frivolous dishonesty for that. I'd rather people were upfront about stuff if they could do it in a non-blunt way. If there's something wrong with the roast, I can usually figure it out, so I don't appreciate it if people claim it's wonderful when it may in fact be mediocre.

Ugh, it is indeed very annoying when people dishonestly compliment bad food. That would encourage the chef to make MORE of the bad food!
Why not just say nothing if they don't want to outright insult the chef?

I remember one Thanksgiving, Grandma made some white bread, and everybody was making a fuss about how wonderful and tasty and moist it was. So I thought, "Gee, if it's so good, I want some of this bread too!"
So I got some bread, and guess what?! It was flavorless and very, very dry. Store-bought white bread actually tasted better than this crap! I couldn't even finish my slice, it was so terrible. I said nothing to compliment the bread, but I did not make any negative remarks about it either.

I asked a few people whether they really liked the bread (when Grandma was no longer at the house, of course), and they said, no. They agreed that it was really bland and dry. But they were just trying to be polite!

Now Grandma will bring more loaves of that disgusting bread for future Thanksgivings because she thinks that everybody loves it! People will force themselves to eat it and utter more false compliments just to "be polite."

What a waste of time, money, and ingredients!

That's how I eat. It's different depending on what country you're in - it's done one way in the US, and the other in the UK. I forget in which country it's appropriate to switch hands though.

What annoys me is that all the 'manners' books around here say it's bad manners to cut all your food first then eat it. I don't for the life of me understand why that would be. Or that it's bad manners to cut your dinner roll in half and butter it, and that instead you rip it into small pieces. Sorry, but I don't like making a ruddy mess like that.

And no elbows at the table? I need to prop myself up!

And no reading at the table? I am a fast eater and the only way to slow me down is if I'm reading and eating at the same time (or watching TV).

The American way is to switch hands. That's how I was brought up, being American. My husband is from England, though, and I had him teach me. I had seen people do it, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work. He was very patient with me, though, and I got it. You have to hold the fork in your left hand differently that you'd hold it in your right. Now, depending on what I'm eating, I often prefer to do it the UK way, but it did take a lot of practice to get good at it. It also took someone to actively and patiently show me how.