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I got curious about the origins of the sandwich, said by an earlier poster to be only 150 years old. Several sites have pointed out (quick google there) that it goes back at least to the first century before Christ - lamb and herbs between two slices of matzah - and that in some form it likely predates that. So much for only being 150 years old. Apparently some version of the sandwich existed throughout Europe for quite a long time.
In several sites dedicated to European table manners, I could find no mention of the cutlery never coming into contact with the mouth, though when eating "Continental style", one is supposed to convey food to the mouth on the back of the fork (including such foods as mashed potatoes, which are specifically mentioned, by the way), using the knife, if necessary, to get the food there.
Mashed potatoes, to a European, fall into the Yukk category with sliced Wonder bread. Aside from soups and casseroles, Europeans tend to prefer things cooked in discrete and recognizable forms. Even the classic European noodle (gnocchi/knockerl/nokedli) is cooked as a bite-sized chunk, eaten one at a time dipped in the sauce.
European dining styles originated in a time when a typical meal was a chunk of roasted meat, a loaf of bread, and a pile of boiled potatoes. Table manners existed for the purpose of distinguishing the elite from the bawdy ruffians in the tavern. Montagne once described his own table manners as so barbarian, that he sometimes injured himself biting his his own hand.
If you pay attention, you will observe that in American movies, in any formal or semi-formal dining environment, the actors generally eat European style, putting the food in their mouth with the fork in their left hand, tines down.
My German girlfriend always used to complain about my manners. I eat European style, but with fork in right and knife in left. But in the Middle East, it is considered a revolting faux-pas to eat with your left hand visible at any time above the table. However, allowances now have to be made for eating European style meals, which require cutting at the table. Actually, if one travels, one needs to learn to be very flexible and ambidextrous.
This should have been opened as a new thread on table manners.
And even Germany has Kartoffelbrei or Kartoffelpuree (mashed potatoes by any other name). It was somewhat difficult finding a page that was NOT in German to show what those names refer to.
I'm beginning to suspect that it was your girlfriend, and not Germans, or even Europeans in general, who has that prejudice regarding mashed potatoes.
Nope, that's not what your original post said. It said (here it is in its entirety so that it will be clear that I did not pick and choose):
Note that you start off with a preliminary assertion that you won't eat food that you can't see where it was prepared, and then bring in the potluck at work and various co-workers with what you consider to be deplorable hygiene habits. (Not having seen them, and only having your word on it, I can't judge, personally, whether they actually have bad hygiene habits or whether you're OCD - could go either way when talking with someone in an online forum and getting one side of the story filtered through their eyes.) How do you know, by the way, that these co-workers allow cats and dogs in the kitchen or how they cook their food? Have you eaten in their homes, and have you refused to eat the food while a guest in their house?
By the way, you would not die if you ate cat or dog hair. You probably actually have, and worse, at some point or other in your life, and yet here you are alive to say that you'd die if you did.
I have no problem with people eating what's in their comfort zone, as long as they don't make a public issue of it and use it as a way to make it all about them and an excuse for rudeness.
But you DID post this question in a public forum, asking for commentary, and you're getting it. That some of the feedback is not to your taste doesn't really change that fact - it's the nature of forums, and it's not making a federal case out of it to comment on a public discussion forum (which is designed, after all, for exactly that).
Just Breathe! Whoooooosa!!!
Though I don't choose to further "dignify" your comments with a response, I hope you feel better!
Thanks for your thoughts!
Last edited by Atlanta Georgia Peach; 07-01-2010 at 11:55 PM..
Though I don't choose to further "dignify" your comments with a response, I hope you feel better!
Thanks for your thoughts!
Ya gotta have some dignity before you can "dignify", so that ain't happening. Perhaps there's a forum elsewhere that you can go to and try to get along with people, since you clearly cannot here. Back on topic> I don't have any kind of rule for what food I eat or not, I just decide as the situation arises. One time I was at a restaurant for breakfast and I saw the cook standing outside smoking a cigarette - after I had ordered my food. Then he came in and continued making my breakfast up.....cooking it and putting it on my plate, without washing his hands - not even a quick little wash... I ate it and I didn't complain, but I'll never go back. Had he found a good spot to smoke, so that wouldn't have seen him, I wouldn't have known, so it wouldn't have bothered me.
Isn't that how you are supposed to eat bread? That is how I was raised and I rarely see anyone gnaw off a piece like a beaver. And I was raised by folks from New Jersey and Arkansas not Europe.
I shouldn't have to "gnaw" at it. It should be soft enough for me to bite into.
And even Germany has Kartoffelbrei or Kartoffelpuree (mashed potatoes by any other name). It was somewhat difficult finding a page that was NOT in German to show what those names refer to.
I'm beginning to suspect that it was your girlfriend, and not Germans, or even Europeans in general, who has that prejudice regarding mashed potatoes.
Exactly. That is where we Americans go mashed potatoes from in the first place!
Ya gotta have some dignity before you can "dignify", so that ain't happening. Perhaps there's a forum elsewhere that you can go to and try to get along with people, since you clearly cannot here. Back on topic> I don't have any kind of rule for what food I eat or not, I just decide as the situation arises. One time I was at a restaurant for breakfast and I saw the cook standing outside smoking a cigarette - after I had ordered my food. Then he came in and continued making my breakfast up.....cooking it and putting it on my plate, without washing his hands - not even a quick little wash... I ate it and I didn't complain, but I'll never go back. Had he found a good spot to smoke, so that wouldn't have seen him, I wouldn't have known, so it wouldn't have bothered me.
LOL! "Bless your heart"!
You know what they say about opinions!
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