TABLE ETIQUETTE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8241, 9 September 1905, Page 7

TABLE ETIQUETTE.

A few hints as to the usual method of eating different articles of food will undoubtedly prove interesting to many. As a general rule, if the dish is unusual and the guest is uncertain as to the correct method to be adopted in partaking of it, the safest plan is to watch the hostess or some other guest. Fish knives and forks are almost always provided nowadays, but if they are not laid on the dinner table a silver fork and piece of bread must supply their places. The forkmust be held in tlie right hand, and the bread in the left. Soup should be taken from tlie side of the spoon as noiselessly as possible. Certain articles of food are always eaten with the fingers. Olives should be taken from the dish with an olive fork, not lifted from the plate to the lips with the fingers. Celery should be taken from the dish v. lth the fingers and eaten with the fingers. Water-cress and lettuce are taken and eaten with the fingers. If the lettuce is mixed with oil and vinegar it would, of course, be served with a spoon and fork, and eaten with a knife and fork. Fish is occasionally served with lemon, and pancakes are very tasty with lemon juice. The lemon juice should be squeezed over the plate by holding the piece of lemon between the fingers. Bread passed round should be taken in . the fingers. Asparagus may be eaten by taking the white stalk in the fihgers. It is always eaten thus when served alone as a separate course. Sugar must be taken in the fingers if tongs are not provided, though these should always be in the sugar bowl. Fruit may be eaten with the fingers, but most kinds of fruits are usually taken with a desert knife and fork. In eating pears, apples, or oranges, it is better to peel them first by placing the fruit on the fork and holding it in the left hand and the knife in the right, and afterwards to cut the fruit in small pieces with the knife.