Community Chat

[GraceLady]

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

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@Krimpette wrote:

It is such a waste to leave a good sauce "un-sopped"!!!!!  Doesn't bother me a bit if I'm sitting at a table with "soppers" or "moppers".  They look like they are thoroughly enjoying the food.....which is what it's all about to me!

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I agree.  And it's a compliment to the chef!

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So is belching loudly at the table in some cultures.  It doesn't mean I would excuse a person for deliberately belching.  

[Anonymous032819]

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@GraceLady wrote:

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

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@Krimpette wrote:

It is such a waste to leave a good sauce "un-sopped"!!!!!  Doesn't bother me a bit if I'm sitting at a table with "soppers" or "moppers".  They look like they are thoroughly enjoying the food.....which is what it's all about to me!

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I agree.  And it's a compliment to the chef!

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So is belching loudly at the table in some cultures.  It doesn't mean I would excuse a person for deliberately belching.  

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So, if you were in a country, where belching at the table was considered the norm, and everyone at your table did it, you wouldn't excuse them for following tradition?

Just asking.

[viva923]

i have seen so many gross things. adults that have no idea how to hold spoons, how to cut meat, how to hold a fork. the other things that just gross me out is blowing your nose at that table, not quietly i mean blowing your nose loudly. the other talking with your mouth full of food. I see children eating out,they are playing with their food (flinging it around with other kids at the tables). just grosses me out.

when i was younger, dh and i would invite young people (military) over to the house to eat with us and stay overnight. one young man was so gross I told dh to get rid of him. he just turned me off, he would pile everything on his spoon,slop it in his mouth and begin to talk. I just couldn't take that.

[SeaMaiden]

I could care less what someone else does when eating out or at home. Some people

worry too much about what others are doing wrong....  

[GraceLady]

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@Anonymous032819 wrote:

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@GraceLady wrote:

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

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@Krimpette wrote:

It is such a waste to leave a good sauce "un-sopped"!!!!!  Doesn't bother me a bit if I'm sitting at a table with "soppers" or "moppers".  They look like they are thoroughly enjoying the food.....which is what it's all about to me!

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I agree.  And it's a compliment to the chef!

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So is belching loudly at the table in some cultures.  It doesn't mean I would excuse a person for deliberately belching.  

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So, if you were in a country, where belching at the table was considered the norm, and everyone at your table did it, you wouldn't excuse them for following tradition?

Just asking.

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If I were in that country, I would follow the customs the best I could.  Personally, I don't think I could muster a belch no matter how hard I tried to.  My father-in-law did quite a lot of business in Korea and Japan many years ago, and he told us about the custom of belching at the table.  As much as he wanted to be polite and complimentary, he was unable to go against his upbringing.  I am not sure he ever got used to it.  Here in the US I find it inexcusable.  For the record, he could not push little old ladies out of the way to make it on an elevator either.  That was also perfectly acceptable -- everyone pushed everyone.  Nor would he support bullfighting if he had been in Spain.  Not all customs need to be supported. 

Now, decades later, manners have devolved to such a level that our younger generations would probably consider this perfectly normal.  Sadly, I have a relative that says, after belching at the table, "Better than coming out the other end."  (Younger, and no blood relation to me.)  No one ever took this person to task for that behavior when they were growing up, and this person was never taught table manners.  Now an adult, I cannot eat in public with them anymore.  Their loud, boisterous behavior calls attention to our party.  I was brought up very differently as were my children. 

I think basic table manners are a must and one should do their best not to call attention to themselves.  I know a lot of people here have said they don't notice what other people are doing when they are eating.  Neither does this relative I referred to.  But other people sure do.  I think the OP may have hit a nerve with some of the people that responded.  Personally, I don't look around to inspect others when dining out, but sometimes something will draw the attention of other diners.  When you are guilty of bad manners, clearly you don't think there is anything wrong with it and don't notice it in others.  When my relative is called out for embarassing the group, the reaction is not unlike some of the posts here. 

[occasionalrain]

If you're miffed about not being invited or invited back, consider it may be your table manners. The same reason for not being asked on a second date or not being promoted... 

[Gorgf]

I was in Sacramento ,Ca. in Old Town at the Fire House restaurant five years ago while at a conference. President Reagan had his Governor party there and it was white table cloths, courses, so a nice place.. I met an old friend to eat there.

A woman was sitting across from us with  a boy and girl, Elementary School age. The boy spit out meat pieces on his plate he did not want to swallow. He this several times. I thought how could you sit there and allow this? The woman never said a word. 

[occasionalrain]

@Gorgf  Perhaps if she had said something it would have set him off into a screaming tantrum and chose the lesser of two evils.

[Lindsays Grandma]

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@shortbreadlover wrote:

when did we lose our table manners?  i eat out sometimes and i am shocked by what i see as a lack of good table manners.  some people will drink, their soup rather use a soup spoon.  they don't even know how to correctly use a spoup spoon.

then there is the sopping up of sauce with bread.

i know we all use these thingswhen weare at home but in public?

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I'm sorry you got slammed, we take a chance when we start a thread.  You just never know which way it will go.  

[Lindsays Grandma]

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@shortbreadlover wrote:

i did not mean to be mean.  i just was commenting on how much we have changed in terms of what is considered good manners.  andi like to sop up sauce as well as anyone with good bread.

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You weren't being mean and you don't have to explain yourself or apologize.  You stated your opinion to which you are entitled.  If others don't agree with you they too are entitled to voice their opinion but being nasty is not the way to do it.