(American) Eating habits?

I am the only one in my family who cannot stand their food touching. I take a bite of the protein, chew, and swallow. Then I take a bite of one of the sides, chew, and swallow. Then I’ll take a sip of water. You get the idea.

It’s still eating. I’m still getting all of the flavours. I just don’t like mixing the textures. If it’s a stew that cooked together, then I don’t mind meat and vegetables together, but if I have chicken and a side of rice, then I want to eat them separately.

My significant other will take a bite of egg mixed with potato and sausage, and then chase it down with coffee. It doesn’t bother me at all when other people eat this way, but it’s not how I eat my meals.

I like a lot of things touching too.
Mashed potatoes with corn, peas, gravy, steak.
Stuffing with corn, and Turkey with cranberry sauce….Yum!
The only things I don’t like touching are fruits or salad dressing bleeding into other things.

(Vietnamese) eating habits? ~

Just kidding. I heard somewhere that when it comes to burgers, Americans tend to eat vigorously without talking. Is it right?

I generally don’t mind mixing flavors, but I’m fussy about texture. Broccoli doesn’t really go with anything, so that gets eaten separately, but things that feel good together are freely combined.

Some people are OCD about food touching. I don’t see how you can eat stir free w/out different foods touching. Or soup. Or a salad. Or a quiche. Wow, most food you really need to have all the components touching.
Broccoli goes great in mashed potatoes with sauteed onions and BBQ chicken.

@Dan_Lyons :: It depends on the food. I had lasagna for dinner and soaked up the extra sauce with garlic bread. But when things happen like the syrup on my pancakes hit the hash browns is when we have a problem.

Personally I really don’t care if the food touches. Hell I’ll even eat food that fell on the floor and I’m not even joking.

First of all, the US is a stew pot. Some of us are peas, some are potatoes, some are meat. We have all cultures represented here, from all sources, so there is no one accepted way. I used to be absolute about non mixing of foods. I loved lots of gravy for my potatoes, but DON’T LET IT TOUCH MY MEAT! NOOOOO! There is catsup on my corn, ewww. It may be because I was young. I wanted to taste each food, and savor the one flavor alone. As I got older, I learned that I enjoyed some things together; gotta have cornbread to sop the last bits if broth! I still don’t care for veggies mingling with other stuff. I thought I hated broccoli. It turns out I only the ways it had been presented to me. I had my first teriyaki chicken bowl, and found I like my broccoli sweet, or plain.
@Mimishu1995, as to cheeseburgers, I have seen them eaten in so many ways. I have seen people use knife and fork to cut bites, bun and all. Some people stuff all kinds of food in their mouths and gobble in a hurry. When my daughter was little, she liked to eat the bread first, then the meat. For a while she switched, and had the meat first. Now she leaves it the way it was served to eat.
I think the worst eating habit Americans have developed is not eating together. Not many families eat meals together more than occasionally anymore.

My son hates certain foods touching & often eats a meal on separate plates.
I love to mix up the foods, hello millenium dome made out of bangers n mash.

I am not neurotic about my food. It can touch. Also, I may eat all of one thing and then move on to eating all of something else (saving my favorite for last).

I wasn’t aware this was an “American thing.” I don’t like when wet foods touch dry foods. For example, I like unsweetened applesauce with my pork chops, but I don’t want apple sauce in my black beans and brown rice side dish. Therefore, I put the applesauce in a separate dish (usually the measuring spoon I measure it out in.

I do mix my corn and mashed potatoes (and sometimes meat) together, though.

It’s a thing. But if you mix your mash with your peas and roast, no one will care. They hold the knife and fork where they cut it up, then switch the fork to their right hand and eat it. We are taught fork in left, knife in right, cut, fork it up and eat it. It’s just the way they do it. I always found it sort of puzzling too but whatever it’s ok.

I mash it all up and mix it into one single mushy mass.

I agree with @trailsillustrated. It is the use of cutlery that is more interesting. Watch an American try to use a knife and fork at the same time. They look so awkward it is so unnatural for most.

The fork is usually held in the left hand with the tines coming out from the bottom of the hand in a stabbing manner and that is exactly what they do; stab the food, pinning it to the plate like it is still alive and attack it in a hacking manner with the knife. Once a chunk has been cut off the knife is put down and the fork put into the right hand to pick the food up and place it into the mouth.

Thinking about it, maybe this is why we also have a reputation of eating things separately. When you use both utensils you can press the foods together on the fork with the side of the knife. When you are only using a fork it is difficult to add veg to the meat or to scoop more than one item (corn, peas, etc) at a time; particularly if you have something impaled on the tines.

In general – except for people with OCD, it’s not about foods not touching on the plate, it’s about not mixing everything on a forkful the way many English do. We tend for the most part to only put on type of food on our fork at a time. And we put down our knives between cuttings, we don’t hold the knife and fork in our hands the whole time or push the food onto the back of the fork like many English do.

Where have you guys observed Americans eating, at the caveman café? We’re not all barbarians. Food can touch if you’re not OCD and the fork is held between the thumb and forefinger. Fuck it, some of us have a little class. See my fine language skills.

Yes, @Adirondackwannabe you are correct. Those who watch a lot of PBS and BBC. or live up North

I have not observed this eating trend amongst my fellow Americans. I love it when I hear stuff like this about how people view us Mericans. Some people around the world still think we ride horses with six shooters on our hips.

Just to add…I love to cook and will prepare each item of the meal both to taste amazing individually and together as a food symphony so you can enjoy the taste, texture and flavor individually and even better when combined. I do server certain items on separate plates like salads or soups and I do not think that is an American trend.

I don’t find this an American vs. other cultures issue, it seems to me to be a personal preference. I am OK with some food mingling, and during the same meal with eat just a bit of the steak and just a bite of the mashed, but also eat some bites with the mashed on the steak. I like to try the flavors individually and in combination, to see which I like best within that particular meal.

Same with some yanks who assume us brits eat nowt but fish & chips, drink copious amounts of tea & stand whenever the bloody awful national anthem is played…not on my fucking watch!

@rojo: When I see people (and of course, in a restaurant, we don’t know what nationality other diners are) having trouble or looking awkward with their eating utensils, I attribute that to them not being taught properly by their parents. My mother spent many a dinner and took great pains to teach me how to properly hold my knife and switch the knife and fork.

Usually, what I see in restaurants is people holding their fork in their left hand with a fisted grip, like they’re stabbing something with it (while cutting with the right). Yes, I am judgmental when it comes to watching people’s table manners.

Stereotype. When I was a kid I was so grossed out that my aunt’s jello salad melted and touched her ham. Now? Not so much. I still tend to separate sweet and savory, but I remember the time my nephew was dipping his cheddar cheese sticks in blueberry yogurt and my sister and I was thoroughly disgusted. Until we tried it, and it wasn’t half bad!

I don’t mind if my food touches. Some foods really compliment each other when eaten together. Imagine a fork-full of rice, a thin slice of pork and teriyaki glaze. Yum. They are so much better when eaten together.

I do like to keep cold foods (salads) separate from hot foods. In that case I will use two plates.

@ragingloli

Haha, check this out. Your stomach won’t know the difference.

When I still ate meat I preferred to cut the meat up, make a pile of veggies, a pile of potatoes, and with gravy. I’ve never cared for sweet salads, so that’s a non-issue. But, yeah, hell, throw a little savory salad on the gravy if you like.

I DO admit a fondness for sausage and syrup. Fried eggs topped with ketchup and covered in fried eggs. Add a little cheese and slather the toast with butter!!

@ibstubro Now that’s a man who knows how to eat. :)

Yeah, I do the disgusting egg + ketchup thing mesself. :D

^^ Eggs + ketchup reminds me of caramel corn. lol Yum.

One of the few things I will avoid mixing is my sausage and pancake syrup. I will ask for a separate plate just to make sure it doesn’t even happen accidentally.

O love syrup on sausage!

I also use my knife and fork like I have good sense. As long as my right hand is needed for my knife, my left hand feeds me.

I don’t think it’s an American thing. However, I prefer my foods to be separate (unless it’s Thanksgiving, then bring it on!) but I’m not as anal about it now as I was as a kid.
When I have pancakes I put the syrup on the side and dip in one piece at a time, because I hate the texture of soggy pancakes. Bleh.
I’ll put the syrup on firmer foods, like French toast and waffles.

My husband mixes his stuff up. Sometimes it’s gross!

As for the steak, I only cut off and eat one bite at a time. That way the rest of the steak stays warmer longer.

^^^^^^^^ I totally agree with you about dipping the pancakes. I haven’t eaten many waffles with syrup though. I love the way the butter soaks up powdered sugar, so I eat them that way pretty often, mostly though, I love to dump frsh or canned fruits on them, and on special occasions, top all that with whipped cream.
So far as steak, I have no problem with cutting and eating without stabbing. For a Loooong time I would NOT eat anything on my steak except its own juice with a little salt sprinkled in. That was probably due to where I got my lived. The grass is so sweet in that part of the midwest, it is tasty to nibble (no biting or swallowing), and so our cattle were VERY sweet and delicious. Nobody in their right mind would want to cover that flavor with anything. BTW my dad had a standing order with the town butcher. The steaks had to be cut at least 2¼” thick.

My father would have a stroke if we put anything on our steak except salt and cracked pepper. Barbque sauce and such was invented to kind of cover the gross taste of cheap meats. Steaks are stand alone delicious. (Did your dad measure them to the quarter inch @Jonesn4burgers? :)

I hear that @Dutchess_III. We got ½ of a grass fed cow every year, and Gourd forbid there should ever be a bottle of A1 in the house. Salt.

Same with fish. What is up with tarter sauce?? We had fish fries a couple-few times a year and it was always the same: river catfish dreaded in seasoned cornmeal, fried in lard. If you have to cover the taste of the fish with tarter sauce, eat something else!

They were more flexible with the pork.

Dredged

Tarter sauce story! When my son was about 4 he was invited to eat dinner at a friend’s house. At one point the mom called me and said Chris didn’t want to eat his dinner. She said, “He almost acts like he’s afraid of it!”
I’m thinking “Whaaa?” My son was not a picky eater. So I asked what they were having. She said, “Fish sticks.” I continued to be confused. He eats fish sticks! So I asked to talk to him. I asked him what was up.
He said, “Well, she asked me if I wanted tarded sauce and I didn’t know if I should eat tarded sauce.”
I laughed as assured him it was ok to eat tarter sauce! He chirruped “OK!”
I guess if I was only 4 and someone tried to give me retarded sauce I’d want to talk to my mom too!

Dredged

Cute story, @Dutchess_III!

@Dutchess_III, my dad had an eye for detail. It was our own cattle, so the butcher wasn’t being paid for the meat, just the cutting. He always aimed to please, especially since my dad would throw in some of the cowfor the butcher to have for himself. He did poke fun at the man though, when buying other meats, he would kid the butcher of having his thumb on the scale. When I first heard this, being only five or six, I was horrified. I thought my dad was saying the man had gotten clumsy, and sliced off his own thumb, and left it in the meat! LOL. I chastised him for it on the way home. He got a real belly laugh as he explained to me that some people would press down the scale with their thumb to make it cost more. I felt kinda dumb, but much relieved!

Oh, that’s really funny @Jonesn4burgers! For a split second though, that’s actually what I thought. But because I’m a grown up now I quickly realized that “thumb on the scale” meant he was cheating on the weight. But I can sure see how a little kid couldn’t make that connection!