Dear Dr. Dave and Dr. Dee, While having breakfast in a restaurant, I noticed a lady eating bacon with her fingers. Was this a faux pas? Signed, Surprised Dear Surprised, Bacon is one of those foods that can be eaten with either the fingers or with a fork. If the bacon is very crispy, it would be easier and practical to eat with fingers. In brief, CuisneNet at www.cuisinenet.com offers the following list of foods that can be eaten with fingers. FINGER FOODS 1. Artichoke: to eat it, pull a leaf off, dip it, scrape the flesh from the base of the leaf with your top teeth, and discard the leaf on the plate provided for that purpose. Continue eating the leaves until the prickly "choke" is revealed. Switch to fork and knife, first to remove the choke, then to eat the heart and base. 2. Asparagus: may be eaten with the fingers as long as it is not covered with sauce or otherwise prepared so it is too mushy to pick up easily. 3. Bacon 4. Bread 5. Cookies 6. Corn on the Cob: butter one or two rows at a time and to eat across the cob cleanly. 7. Chips, French Fries, Fried Chicken, and Hamburgers: may be eaten with fingers at a barbecue, picnic, or fast food restaurant. A particularly messy hamburger could be approached with fork and knife, and steak fries (the thick-cut, less crispy variety) may be best eaten with a fork. In a nicer restaurant, fried chicken is best eaten with a fork and knife. Just leave the remainder on the bone, do not eat with fingers. 8. Deviled Eggs 9. Hors d'Oeuvres, Canapes: almost everything that is served at a cocktail party or during a pre-meal cocktail hour is intended to be eaten with the fingers. 10. Nuts 11. Olives 12. Pickles 13. Sandwiches: any sandwich that is not open-faced, not too tall to fit in the mouth, not saturated with dripping sauces or loaded with mushy fillings -- is intended to be picked up and eaten. Otherwise use fork and knife. 14. Small Fruits and Berries on the Stem: strawberries with the hulls on, cherries with stems, or grapes in bunches. Otherwise, as with all berries, the utensil of choice is a spoon. For more information, see www.cuisinenet.com |
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