Knife fork and spoon

[Undertoad]

It's a little amazing: as much as we are innovators, nobody has improved on the basic tools of eating. They're damn near perfect.

Sure, people have futzed around with the handles, and the sizes, and the materials and the blade sharpness and the number of tines - rudely suggesting that 3 gets it done better than 4. But it always comes back to the basics, because there's nothing better.

Some people around here like to eat with chopsticks when they're eating something culture-appropriate, but deep down inside they know that the basic three would get the job done better.

We can agree that while some foods have been made finger-appropriate over the years, eating with your hands is basically a sick practice. Unless you go through some sort of surgeon-like pre-meal cleansing. And maybe even wear latex gloves after that.

But then there's the opposite practice, of imagining that your butter knife needs to be separate, that you need two different spoons, etc. Maybe a salad fork makes sense. After that, let's just agree that a little of your jelly in my butter isn't going to end the world.

The finger foods are decadent, and maybe fun, but the best meals seem to be those that require all three of the tools.

All hail knife fork and spoon.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

We can agree that while some foods have been made finger-appropriate over the years, eating with your hands is basically a sick practice. Unless you go through some sort of surgeon-like pre-meal cleansing. And maybe even wear latex gloves after that.

I disagree! If it wasn't culturally unacceptable I'd eat most food with my fingers, and I don't think any implement copes as well with rice.

Food is prepared by people, eaten by people, digested by people. If my hands do the cooking they are certainly clean enough to do the eating. If someone else's hands do the cooking then why suddenly take against my own at the end of the process?

We evolved eating with our hands and I'm pretty sure our guts can cope with what we may perceive these days to be an insanitary act. I'm happy enough to eat a peck of dirt before I die.

[DanaC]

I'm with Sundae on this one.

[lizzymahoney]

If you prefer knife fork and spoon, then how do you eat steamed conch in the shell? It necessitates chopsticks. Well, chopstick anyway. A fork would not do unless it was perhaps an olive fork. Something long and slender to skewer the conch and twist it out...

[lizzymahoney]

Please don't get any jelly or crumbs in my butter. just sayin.

[Cloud]

certainly a lot better than simply one's fingers, or a knife. I'm sure there are several billion people who would argue with you about chopsticks, though.

One thing I will say: Never buy a cute fork that has a smooth, cylindrical handle--like a straw or a bamboo shaft. I bought several of those and they are functionally useless--you cannot put pressure on them to cut food with the side of the fork.

and they fall through the dishwasher basket.

[Flint]

What about the spork?

[DanaC]

The utensil of the devil.

[Flint]

No, that's a pitchfork.

[Sundae]

I like a bit of spork.
When I worked in promotions, giving free food samples in the local supermarket, I half-inched a packet to use at home. Shames me now (workplace theft, disposable culture adding to the landfill sites etc) but they served me well for a couple of weeks. I saw it as my just reward for days spent hawking melons.

[Flint]

"half-inched" ??? is that the five-finger-discount?

[Sundae]

Aye - to my eternal shame.
Rhyming slang - half-inched = pinched

[DanaC]

hate sporks.

[Flint]

I like those "grapefruit spoons" with the serrated edge. Put one of those serrated edges on a spork, and you'd really have something.

[Happy Monkey]

A snork.