Asian Spicy Recipes - Formal Dining Etiquette

If you are looking forward to spice up your life........then you have come to the right place!

Table manners play an important part in making a favorable impression. They are visible signals of the state of our manners and therefore are essential to professional success. Regardless of whether we are having lunch with a prospective employer or dinner with a business associate, or with family or friends our manners can speak volumes about us as individuals and also as professionals.

Eating Soup

Soup, usually the first course, shows you off as a savvy diner or someone whose manners could do with polishing! Soup is served either in a wide, shallow dish, or a smaller bowl, resting on an under-plate.

Spoon the soup away from you, towards the centre of the bowl

Sip from the side of the spoon. Never put the whole spoon in your mouth or slurp. Noisy eating is never on the dining table!

Tip the bowl away from you and spoon the soup across the bowl to get at the last bits

Napkin Use

The meal begins when the host unfolds his or her napkin. This is your signal to do the same. Place your napkin on your lap, completely unfolded if it is a small luncheon napkin or in half, lengthwise, if it is a large dinner napkin.

Typically, you want to put your napkin on your lap soon after sitting down at the table (but follow your host's lead). The napkin should NEVER be tucked under the chin. The napkin remains on your lap throughout the entire meal and should be used to gently blot your mouth when needed. Don't clean the cutlery or wipe your face (or your nose) with the napkin.

If you need to leave the table during the meal, place your napkin on your chair as a signal to your server that you will be returning.

The host will signal the end of the meal by placing his or her napkin on the table. Once the meal is over, you too should place your napkin neatly on the table to the right of your dinner plate. (Do not refold your napkin, but don't wad it up, either.)

Breaking Bread

Bread is usually the first food served at all, but the most formal of meals. Help yourself to as much bread as you want, but remember that this is just the beginning of the meal and not the meal itself. Good manners also demand that a piece of bread be left back in the basket.

Bread is served either in a basket, which is placed in the centre of the table, or served individually. Take a piece and place it on the bread dish, which is to the left of the dinner plate. Wait for everyone to be served before you start eating.

Break off just a bite sized piece of the bread. Don't cut the bread, don't butter the entire slice, and most important, don't dunk it in your soup!

Butter is usually placed in an individual container, just above the bread plate. Take some butter, using the butter knife, if there is one, or the meat knife, and place it at the edge of the bread dish. Butter only a single, bite-sized piece of bread at a time.

If butter is served in a bowl, which is kept in the centre of the table, a separate butter knife always accompanies it. Use this, and not your knife to help yourself. Other diners will certainly not appreciate having to share crumbs from your bread!

Use of Silverware

Choosing the correct silverware from the variety in front of you is not as difficult as it may first appear. Starting with the knife, fork, or spoon that is farthest from your plate, work your way in, using one utensil for each course. The salad fork is on your outermost left, followed by your dinner fork. Your soupspoon is on your outermost right, followed by your beverage spoon, salad knife and dinner knife. Your dessert spoon and fork are above your plate or brought out with dessert. If you remember the rule to work from the outside in, you'll be fine.

There are two ways to use a knife and fork to cut and eat your food. They are the American style and the European or Continental style. Either style is considered appropriate. In the American style, one cuts the food by holding the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left hand with the fork tines piercing the food to secure it on the plate. Cut a few bite-size pieces of food, then lay your knife across the top edge of your plate with the sharp edge of the blade facing in. Change your fork from your left to your right hand to eat, fork tines facing up. (If you are left-handed, keep your fork in your left hand, tines facing up.)

The European or Continental style is the same as the American style in that you cut your meat by holding your knife in your right hand while securing your food with your fork in your left hand. The difference is your fork remains in your left hand, tines facing down, and the knife in your right hand. Simply eat the cut pieces of food by picking them up with your fork still in your left hand.

When You Have Finished

Do not push your plate away from you when you have finished eating. Leave your plate where it is in the place setting.

The common way to show that you have finished your meal is to lay your fork and knife diagonally across your plate. Place your knife and fork side by side, with the sharp side of the knife blade facing inward and the fork, tines down, to the left of the knife. The knife and fork should be placed as if they are pointing to the numbers 10 and 4 on a clock face. Make sure they are placed in such a way that they do not slide off the plate as it is being removed.

Once you have used a piece of silverware, never place it back on the table. Do not leave a used spoon in a cup, either; place it on the saucer. You can leave a soupspoon in a soup plate. Any unused silverware is simply left on the table.