Howcast

How to Follow Chopstick Etiquette

Howcast — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:45:53 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Don’t rub Don’t rub your chopsticks together, unless they are disposable and you can see splinters. Doing this with quality chopsticks insults the host by indicating that you think the chopsticks are cheap.
Step 2: Refrain from play Refrain from using your chopsticks for anything other than eating. Don’t roll them on the table like drumsticks or use them to stir your food.
Step 3: Don’t stand them up Don’t stick your chopsticks upright in your rice. Buddhists do this only when making a solemn offering to the dead at a temple.
TIP: Place the pointed ends of your chopsticks on a chopstick rest when one is offered – it’s the most polite way to set down your chopsticks.
Step 4: Never spear food Never use a chopstick to spear food.
Step 5: Use serving utensils Always use serving utensils to take food from a communal plate instead of using your chopsticks.
TIP: Reverse your chopsticks to grasp food from a communal plate with the unused ends if serving utensils are absent.
Step 6: Don’t act overly hungry Don’t suck on your chopsticks.
Step 7: Be discreet Don’t point at people or things with your chopsticks –it’s impolite to point.
FACT: Confucius preferred that people eat with chopsticks instead of knives to avoid associating meals with the slaughterhouse.

You Will Need

Chopsticks
Serving utensils
Social tact

How to Set a Formal Table

Howcast — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:02:03 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Start with the main plate Place a large plate, known as a charger, in the center of the place setting. This plate serves as the underplate for courses that precede the entree, and is taken away when the main dish arrives.
Step 2: Lay the napkin Lay a folded napkin on top of the charger.
Step 3: Add a bread dish Place a bread dish to the upper left-hand side of the charger, at the 11 o’clock position. Lay a small butter spreader diagonally across the top of the plate, handle on the right at 4 o’clock and blade facing down.
Step 4: Get out the knives and spoon Place the dinner knife to the right of the charger. If there’s a fish course, place the fish knife to the right of the dinner knife. If you’re including an appetizer or salad knife, place it to the right of the fish knife. Make sure the blades face the plate.
Step 5: Put out the forks Arrange the forks to the left of the charger in the order in which they will be used, starting from the outside and working in. The only exception is an oyster fork, which is placed on the right side of the plate, to the right of the knives and spoon.
TIP: An oyster fork can be used for any shellfish, not just oysters.
Step 6: Add a spoon If you are serving a fruit or soup course, place the appropriate spoon to the right of the knives.
TIP: Don’t put more than three types of one utensil on the table, except for an oyster fork, which can join three other forks. If more utensils are needed, bring them with each subsequent dish.
Step 7: Set out glasses Place a water glass above the dinner knife. If you’re serving champagne, a flute goes to the right of it. Place wine glasses, ending with a sherry glass, in front of the first two glasses.
Step 8: Bring on dessert Bring dessert forks and spoons along with the dessert plate when that course is served.
FACT: Erasmus, a Dutchman who wrote the first popular book of manners in 1530, suggested that diners wipe their fingers on the tablecloth, rather than licking them or wiping them on their clothes.

You Will Need

Chargers
Napkins
Bread dishes
Butter spreaders
Knives
Forks
Spoons
Glasses
Dessert plates
Dessert utensils
Oyster forks (optional)

How to Send Food Back at a Restaurant

Howcast — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:04:22 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Evaluate the error Make sure the problem is on their end, not yours. If your food is undercooked, overcooked, the wrong temperature, stale, has a foreign object in it, or is not what you ordered, send it back. If it doesn’t taste the way you thought it would, however, try to deal with your disappointment.
TIP: If you’re at a business meal, don’t send food back unless it poses a health risk.
Step 2: Notify your server immediately Notify your server as soon as possible. Don’t eat half the meal and then complain.
Step 3: Be polite Be polite. Call over the waitperson and, in a calm and friendly voice, tell them exactly what is wrong with your meal and what you would like done about it. Do you want the meal to be fixed? Cooked from scratch? Replaced with something else?
Step 4: Insist that everyone else eat Insist that everyone else begin eating while the kitchen remedies your complaint.
TIP: Orders that are sent back to the kitchen usually take priority over everything else.
Step 5: Be persistent If the food comes back and it’s still not up to snuff, ask that it be taken off the bill. If your server refuses, ask to speak to the manager.
Step 6: Don’t expect a free meal Unless the restaurant’s made an egregious mistake, don’t expect your meal to be on the house.
FACT: Sixty-eight percent of restaurant goers polled cited poor service as the thing that irritates them most when dining out.

You Will Need

An inedible meal
Diplomacy

How to Split the Bill

Howcast — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:04:28 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Ask for a separate check Don’t be shy about asking for a separate check – especially if you’re fearful of getting stuck paying for everyone else’s extravagance. Just be sure to do it at the beginning of the evening.
TIP: Allay the awkwardness by suggesting separate checks for everyone, unless you’re in such a large group that it would be a huge imposition on the server.
Step 2: Be gracious If the group has agreed to split the bill evenly and everyone’s share is in the same ballpark, don’t insist on breaking down the bill to the last penny.
Step 3: Pay your fair share Offer to pay your fair share if you ordered more lavishly than anyone else. If, on the other hand, you were the person who just had a salad, announce, “here’s my share,” plop down what you owe, including money for the tip, and don’t feel bad about it.
TIP: If you are estimating your share, always err on the side of overpaying.
Step 4: Don’t penalize singles Don’t penalize singles. If three couples are dining with a solo, the check should not be split four ways – it should be divided based on seven people.
Step 5: Do account for children Do take children into account. Childless dining companions shouldn’t pay for your kids just because they order from the children’s menu and don’t drink booze.
Step 6: Man up If you’ve invited someone out to dinner on a first date, expect to pay, especially if you’re a man. After that, you can split checks or take turns picking up the tab.
Step 7: Treat people right Don’t treat anyone to their meal if you can’t afford to treat everyone.
Step 8: Give them the business If it’s a business meal, pick up the check if you extended the invitation – unless the other person is trying to get your business. In that case, it’s appropriate for that person to pay.
FACT: Seventy-five percent of survey respondents think that a man should pay for dinner if he has invited a woman out on a date; eight percent think the couple should split the check; and two percent think the person who earns the most money should pay.

You Will Need

Separate checks
Common sense
Courtesy

How to Have Top-Notch Table Manners

Howcast — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:07:23 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Know the basics As soon as you take your seat at the table, place your napkin in your lap and obey the basic rules: Sit up straight, keep your elbows off the table, don’t begin eating until everyone has been served, chew with your mouth closed, and silence your cell phone.
Step 2: Act “well-bread” Your bread plate is to your left. Place a chunk of butter on your plate—enough so that you don’t have to keep dipping into the communal butter dish. Break off one bite-sized piece of bread at a time, buttering it just before eating it.
Step 3: Know what’s yours Take the water glass to the right of your plate. (Remember, the ‘DR’ in ‘drink’ stands for ‘drink right.’) As courses arrive, use the utensil farthest from your plate first, and then work your way in.
TIP: If a spoon and fork are at the top of your plate, use them for dessert.
Step 4: Sip your soup Eat soup by skimming your spoon along the surface of the broth, away from you. Then, bring it to your lips and sip it, without slurping, from the side. Should you find it excruciatingly hot, don’t blow on it; simply wait for it to cool off. When you’re done, rest the spoon on your plate. If the soup bowl came with a saucer, lay your spoon on it.
TIP: Never let a used utensil—including the handle—touch the table.
Step 5: Enjoy your salad days Cut your salad if the leaves are too big. Just don’t hack up the entire salad at once.
Step 6: Don’t hold the salt hostage If someone asks for the salt or pepper, hand it over immediately—even if you need to season your own food. Always hand over both, even if your dining companion only requests one.
TIP: Don’t season your food without tasting it first. And don’t over-season, especially at a business meal: It looks childish.
Step 7: Spit happens Remove something from your mouth the same way it came in. You can remove an olive pit with your fingers, but a bone or piece of gristle should be daintily spit onto your fork and then placed on the edge of your plate.
TIP: Artichokes, crisp bacon, small fowl like quail and squab, strawberries, and shrimp served with a tail may be eaten with your fingers.
Step 8: Send the right signals When you’re finished eating, lay your utensils parallel, the tops pointing at 11 o’clock. If you’re merely pausing, cross your knife and fork on your plate like an ‘X’ with the knife on the right. If you excuse yourself from the table mid-meal, put your napkin on your chair. When you are ready to leave, place it on the left of your dinner plate.
FACT: In Japan, slurping your soup is a sign of good manners—it shows your host that you are enjoying your food.

You Will Need

A crash course in dining etiquette

How to Set a Classic Dinner Table

Howcast — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:14:35 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Space plates around table Space dinner plates around your table, leaving enough room in between to accommodate cutlery.
Step 2: Place bowls or appetizer plates When applicable, place soup bowls or appetizer plates on top of the dinner plates.
TIP: If you plan to plate individual food servings in the kitchen and serve them to the table fully assembled, start each place setting with an artfully folded napkin where the dinner plate would otherwise go.
Step 3: Fold napkin If you haven’t used the napkin in the middle of the place setting, fold it and place it to the left of the plate
TIP: If you have the origami skills to turn the napkin into a tea rose or a Great Blue heron, simply placing the napkin to the left of the plate is a waste of your talents. Put your creation on top of the plate.
Step 4: Place silverware Place the knife to the immediate right of the plate with the blade facing in, the dessert spoon to the right of the knife, and the soup spoon on the outside.
Step 5: Place dessert silverware If you’ve placed the dessert-spoon above the plate, place the dessert-fork directly under it, with the tines pointing right. If not, place the dessert-fork to the immediate left of the plate. Place the entree fork to the left of the dessert fork, and the appetizer or salad fork on the outside.
Step 6: Place salad & bread plates Place salad plates to the left of the outermost fork, and bread plates above the forks.
Step 7: Place glasses Put water glasses just above the tip of the knife, and wine glasses to the right of the water glasses. If you’re serving more than one wine, put wine glasses in order of use with the glass to be used last next to the water glass and the glass to be used first on the outside.
TIP: When in doubt, remember LERD: Left for eating, right for drinking, and start at the outside and work in.
FACT: In Medieval times, diners used large slices of stale bread, called trenchers, as plates. It made it much easier to clean when one could simply eat the plates afterward.

You Will Need

A table
Enough place settings for everyone

How to Use Chopsticks

Howcast — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:45:31 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Position chopsticks In your right hand, traditionally used even by the left-handed, rest the thick end of one chopstick on the webbing between your thumb and forefinger so that about an inch of it sticks out beyond your hand, and rest the other end on your ring finger. Keep your fingers loosely curled.
TIP: Successful chopstick use depends on stabilizing this bottom chopstick, which doesn’t move, to leave your thumb and forefinger free to maneuver the top chopstick, which does.
Step 2: Grip bottom stick w/ thumb Grip this bottom chopstick with the bottom of your thumb so it is immobilized and sits firmly on your ring finger.
TIP: You can use the tip of your middle finger to stabilize the ring-finger end of the chopstick.
Step 3: Grip top stick w/ fingertips If you’re holding the bottom chopstick correctly, your entire index finger and the top joint of your thumb are free to move around. Grip the top chopstick between the tips of these fingers so that its tip lines up with the bottom chopstick’s tip.
Step 4: Maneuver top & bottom sticks To pick up a piece of food, maneuver the top chopstick to grasp it with the tip and brace it against the bottom one.
TIP: Etiquette requires that you use chopsticks neither to chop nor to stick. For that, use knives and forks.
Step 5: Lift food w/ chopsticks Now, carefully lift a piece of food with your chopsticks, taking care not to let it slide out. Sweet success.
FACT: Many sushi aficionados insist that sushi should be eaten with the fingers—an excellent fallback position if you have trouble mastering chopsticks.

You Will Need

Chopsticks
Patience