Becasue of my job, I have been invited to my students' house for dinner from time to time. I found out that the ways people eat, that is, the table manner, really distinguish a lot bewteen China and other countries. I guess the reason for this is probably because of the different dining tools ( fork & knife VS Chinese chopsticks) and menus.
I think the biggest difference is that Chinese people use chopsticks, obviously. The chopsticks are not designed to cut food, so we usually just use our teeth to act as knifes. I was quite embarrassed for the first time I used fork and knife. I had no idea where to start. At the end I asked my French student for a pair of chopsticks to eat the steak.
The other differnece is when you eat at a Chinese home, the host will always keep giving you food into your bowl. (we use bowl not plates) or pour the drinks to your glass. This is to show their hospitality, while in western culture, you will have a separate plate and you just help yourselve. Also the etiquette in the West requests that when eating, bowls and plates cannot leave the tables. While in China, we can. But it's not considered as rude here.
Views (12043) Replies (7)
Latest Responses to this Blog
Chinese Mandarin : Registered on : 2008-08-31 Language : None Posts : 148 Responses : 113 Comments : 0 |
| | Lee Kong hotmail.com
2009-07-29 / 11:00PM | | In my country and culture, we eat almost everything with our hands only. Traditional food here, except for rice, cannot be eaten using knives, spoons, forks or chopsticks (just like burger is eaten using hands only). Sometimes, this is considered a little awkward by many westerners, because you have to wash your hands before every meal to avoid any health risks.
Instead of spoon, we use “naan” or “roti” (a form of traditional bread you can say, it’s a thin flat round bread made without using any rasing agents like yeast). We tear a piece of a naan or roti, using our both hands, use the piece as a spoon to scoop curry and put it in our mouth using right hand only. If you use the left hand to put food in your mouth, it is considered bad manners.
Moreover, using our hands to eat something also came to our culture because of some religious influences, we are encouraged to use our hands, because it is believed that the food tastes better and it aids in digestion. Also, after washing our hands before every meal, we are discouraged to dry them with towel, as it may contain bacteria, instead we should let the hands dry by themselves in the air. Some people also eat sitting on floor, just like Japanese and Koreans do. | |
|
Chinese Mandarin :Registered on : 2008-08-31 Language : None Posts : 148 Responses : 113 Comments : 0 |
| | Lee Kong hotmail.com
2009-07-29 / 11:16PM | | I always found Chinese way of eating so interesting. I like the chopsticks very much, because it feels so unique. Chinese people have their own way of doing things. It is very interesting to know more about their culture. Thank you very much Benny for letting us know about the Dinning in China. | |
|
Chinese Mandarin :Registered on : 2008-08-31 Language : None Posts : 148 Responses : 113 Comments : 0 |
| | Lee Kong hotmail.com
2009-07-30 / 01:10AM | | In China, I like to see things having 中国特色. Eating food with chopsticks, especially noodles, not instant noodles (方便面是垃圾) but the ones made in traditional way (really really long noodles) in a bowl is one of the many 中国特色. | |
|
| | claudia calisti(claudita) tiscali.it
2009-08-04 / 10:43AM | | In my country and culture, we eat almost everything with our hands only. Traditional food here, except for rice, cannot be eaten using knives, spoons, forks or chopsticks (just like burger is eaten using hands only). Sometimes, this is considered a little awkward by many westerners, because you h… I like very much chinese food and I am able to use chopsticks very well.Sometimes when I eat my country food,I use chopsticks also, especially to eat “spaghetti” or “short pasta”. I find this way more good to taste the flavour of food not to put hurry in eating. More difficult is to eat with chopsticks a steak if you do not cut it before in small pieces or slices as they use to do in chinese cooking.So I laugh very much to imagine Benny laoshi eating a steack using his teeth as a knife!!!! About arabian cooking, I like particularly eat Kus Kus in the different versions: with vegetables or with meat.But in both cases I use a spoon, cause I don’t like use my nude hands. Even when I have to eat some foods of my country as roasted chickin or some kind of fishes that they use eat with hands and it is not considered rude, I can’t! untill I avoid to eat this food where nude hands are requested..Anyway we have different use if you are eating in your family or if you are eating at restaurant or out of your family.For ex.: at home you can use a slices of bread as a spoon and helpyourself to eat spaghetti…or can use a slices of bread to “clean” the tastefully sauce in your dish…as well you can dip slices of bread or biscuits inside milk or cafee or tea or cream. Or slices of bread in wine!Or vegetables as carrots or others uncooked vegetables in a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper: but warning! not to do this out of your family cause people’ll look at you as a very rude fellow! And to close this show I’ll give you a last curious info about eatingfood manners… | |
|
| | claudia calisti(claudita) tiscali.it
2009-08-04 / 10:53AM | | In China, I like to see things having 中国特色. Eating food with chopsticks, especially noodles, not instant noodles (方便面是垃圾) but the ones made in traditional way (really really long noodles) in a bowl is one of the many 中国特色. In Sardegna (Italy) they use to pour in their own mouth, a mix of olive oil, vinegar,salt and pepper, moving all as it was a mouthwash and then to spit it on the salad they want to eat to add taste to this dish….
The same people use to eat a kind of cheese with worms jumping up and down the slices and if you refuse this food you are considered a stupidfellow without taste… | |
|
| | claudia calisti(claudita) tiscali.it
2009-08-04 / 11:00AM | | In China, I like to see things having 中国特色. Eating food with chopsticks, especially noodles, not instant noodles (方便面是垃圾) but the ones made in traditional way (really really long noodles) in a bowl is one of the many 中国特色. But the worst experience in my wine&food lover traveller life,was in Ungary. They give me a cup with a lot of pieces of different meats, very very spicy. I put my spoon inside the food but suddendly I sow… an EYE looking at me! I cried! but they told me it was a wanderfull cooking and eating that eye(ox eye, I suppose) my future ’d be successfull!
This is the reason why I am living an unsuccesfull life…. | |
|
| | thosft tbdhnq.com
2012-08-03 / 09:43AM | | CgnW6e <a href="http://pqfasixflvir.com/">pqfasixflvir</a>, [url=http://ubrxrvaqrdgu.com/]ubrxrvaqrdgu[/url], [link=http://zflcmqheualk.com/]zflcmqheualk[/link], http://xonwnbekondg.com/ | |
|
