It seems silly to me to criticize those from another culture or country as lacking in etiquette because their eating habits differ from those in your culture or country.

To many Europeans, the way Americans switch knives and forks from hand to hand and eat food on forks with the tines turned upward may seem uncivilized. Here's a little secret: it is equally true that to many Americans, the way Europeans don't switch their knives and forks, and use their knifes to push food onto the backs of their forks, and raise food to their mouths on forks with the tines turned downward, seems uncivilized. Really. To a typical American that seems rather vulgar and medieval. We might do it occasionally, say, when eating steak, but generally, and especially when eating food other than meat, pushing it onto the back of your fork with your knife and trying to lift it to your mouth before it falls off seems, well, a bit coarse.

I recognize that I have this ingrained attitude toward the custom, but I also recognize that it is unjustified. It's just a different custom, no better or worse than mine.

People who eat mostly with utensils believe that it is more civilized than eating with one's hands. In many cultures around the world, people do eat exclusively with their hands. We don't ridicule them for it. But in DiningBuzz, as in so many places on Flyer Talk, Americans are a much more socially acceptable target for derision.