Which implements do you use when you eat?

[Kerala]

In Kerala we use our fingers. Yoghurt, rasam and sambar are mixed with rice and eaten by hand. Payasam is eaten off the leaf by hand, but in recent decades may be served in small bowls and eaten with a spoon.

I sustained a gory injury to my right arm when I was a house officer 35 years ago and the median nerve didn't grow back quite right. Not only do I lack the fine dexterity to eat rice elegantly with my fingers, but I also suffer sensitivity to hot food on my fingertips. Sadly I now eat Indian food in the English manner.

Chopsticks are impossible for me to grasp properly since the accident, so I use them cack-handedly. I just endure the ignominy.

Worst of all, I sometimes eat Indian food with my left hand. I'm sure people think I lost my culture growing up in the UK!

 

[liuzhou]

I'm not usually ambidextrous but can use chopsticks in either hand. My party trick is to use two pairs of chopsticks simultaneously.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

6 hours ago, Kerala said:

Not only do I lack the fine dexterity to eat rice elegantly with my fingers, but I also suffer sensitivity to hot food on my fingertips. Sadly I now eat Indian food in the English manner.

I have no good excuse for my inability to eat rice elegantly with my fingers except that it’s a skill I never learned. I mastered chopsticks as an adult and there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do the same with my own fingers! I need to use the surfaces of my fingertips with greater precision and may need to ask my Indian friends to correct me like a child!