Difficult foods
As difficult dishes are dishes whose occupation of eating difficulties with respect to compliance with the table manners bears or the purely technical masters of eating for untrained people. This includes whole artichokes or spaghetti, for example.
Recognizing and coping with difficult dishes is considered to be the identification of high social class in the western world .
use
The term is limited differently in the literature, which is mainly a guide to compliance with social etiquette . Crustaceans , especially lobster , as well as mussels , especially oysters , fish and poultry with bones, are considered classic difficult dishes . In the case of lobster and fish served as a whole, the difficulty of properly dividing the food is emphasized in order to get the not only decent but also safe enjoyment of the edible interior. Inedible items such as bones must be recognized and disposed of, whereby if it is already in the mouth, it "leaves it via the fork and is placed on the edge of the plate or on a plate provided for it".
It is advisable to ask friendly advice from a restaurant waiter if you feel overwhelmed with the task. The request should be made with a positive connotation that welcomes the court. With the artichoke , it is often assumed that the individual may not know where the edible pulp is.
According to popular etiquette, bread from the bread plate is not cut, but broken into bite-sized pieces. The whole slice of bread is not coated with butter, but rather bite-sized chunks are broken off and coated with butter in flakes (flake-flake rule ).
In the case of spaghetti , sucking it up with the mouth is just as inappropriate as cutting it with a knife. Rather, the spaghetti should be rolled up with a fork into bite-sized portions. The use of the spoon in this process is considered permitted, although the connoisseur only rolls up spaghetti with a fork. This gray area between “allowed” and “desired” can also mark a dish as difficult. On the homepage knigge.de , on the subject of difficult dishes with regard to asparagus consumption , it is stated, for example, that while it is "permissible" to "eat asparagus with your hands, [...] it is not [...] very plausible, as it is for eaters and viewers." should lead to an aesthetically satisfactory solution ”.
A difficult dish can also be present if it can be eaten with a knife and fork, but appears to be foreign because it is consumed in a different way according to local customs. One example of this is the Munich white sausage , which is sucked out of their intestines by traditional Munich residents ("zuzelt").
Individual counselors also address dishes that raise the question of whether you use cutlery for consumption, and if so, which, including above all different types of finger food (and their labeling as such at the table, on which a finger bowl and / or additional napkins), side dishes such as bread and salad to soup, which should always be consumed with a spoon and not “blown or splashed”.
Difficult dishes are not to be confused with heavy dishes , a term for rich and / or difficult to digest dishes.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d knigge.de - Difficult dishes ( Memento from October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Quittschau, Tabernig: Business Knigge , Haufe-Lexware 2012, p. 206
- ↑ Birgit Adam: Knigge für modern women - feminine, stylish, sovereign , Südwest-Verlag 2009, p. 49
- ↑ Mastering the rules. Retrieved July 28, 2019 .
- ↑ Horst Hanisch: Knigge , Freiburg 2009, p. 86 ff.