The funny thing about eating...

Well I have to say, Americans are not very adventurous nor efficient while eating.

Proof of this are the meals I have eaten in the States and the meals I have so far eaten here in Norway.

1. Americans do not know how to use utensils correctly. Have you ever noticed when you need to cut up your food, you never just put the fork in your left hand and have the knife in your right...like this:



Americans are always switching hands, putting the knife down to switch the fork to the right hand, etc. I'll admit, I am a hand-switcher too--you are a product of your environment after all.

This funny habit us Americans have created became obvious to me the other night at the fancy New Years Eve party. I found myself trying, in hopes to fit in, but felt really awkward having the fork in my left hand. I don't think my wrist moves in the right positions to have it feel comfortable. I decided I would tell everyone at the table about this unfortunate habit and they were all astonished..."Doesn't that take a lot of time?", "Do you lay the knife down before you switch, or just switch in mid-air?", etc. Most of these questions, like any good habit, are unanswerable. We just do it!

2. Americans keep our food separate on the plate.

Now this might not apply to everyone, but the more I see Norwegians eat, the more I think about how boring and uncreative us Americans are with food. For instance,tonight we had tomato soup. But not just tomato soup, here's what was in it:
hard-boiled egg quarters
pølser (I think that translates to hot dog)
pasta
cheese
and some green leaves (some sort of garnish--wonder why I don't know my garnishes?)

You might be thinking, well that's not that weird. When I think about the meals I would eat at home...for instance potatoes, steak, vegetables, I never really ate those things together. I always just ate some potatoes, then switched to the steak, etc. The other night I saw people eating all three together, in the same bite! That fascinated me! Who does that!!

Maybe we could all learn a thing or two from the Norwegians.
I'm practicing, but old habits are hard to break.