7 Table Manners Nobody Talked About

Table Manners and such etiquette-building stuff have been ubiquitously discussed in humongous numbers. It is there on our lips, on the web🕸 , in journals & magazines📃 , as curriculums in etiquette-teaching schools, workshop programs and the like. But, but, but, the table manners I’m going to list are the ones which’ve been barely touched upon. I wonder why nobody talked about them or if they did, did it scantily. Was it because they were taken for granted, looked unimportant or were they too trivial to catch notice? 🤔🧐 Whatever.

My inventory of table manners consist of the ones which pinch me the most. They come by way of my experiencing them and not from some Tabloid/Book of Etiquettes 📖 that I read. So, take a look at these 7 table manners and decide if they are key & worth taking in & talking about. Note, these apply essentially when one is at home or as a guest to someone else’s home.🚪

1) ‘The Insides Out‘ table manners-

Whilst serving food, what you first do is take off the lid of the serving bowl & uncover the divine world inside ( not always divine though! 😜 ). Now, if you’re not holding the lid, you put it down somewhere on the table. Note, while doing this, keeping the inner side of the lid, facing upwards. Even if you’re holding it, I would suggest, hold the inner side upwards. The stained/ steamed/ frosted side of the lid/cover should neither precipitate on the table nor should touch it, or else- mess, mess, mess !!💦

People, sheer logic here! What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas (idiom*)😜😎 !! Similarly, what is in the bowl, should also stay in the bowl! Agree?!

2) Courtesy of Picking up Your Dishes-

This one irks me the most.😬 After the lunch/ dinner is wrapped, I’ve seen ladies & gentlemen leaving behind their dishes on the table. They care not picking up their eaten-in plates 🍽 & this is sometimes done even if there is no attendant/house-help in sight.

Obviously, they don’t expect the hosts to do it for them. Then why, why, why 🤦 ?! Forget gratitude, even basic chivalry demands of guests to walk up to the kitchen & place their respective dishes in the sink, if not clean them. Kids too, if old enough, should practise this👍🧒👶 , why corner adults always 😅 ?! 

However, there is adequate talk & increasing awareness 📣 on this table manner & so I’m not vigorously complaining!

3) The Elegance of Approval-

While eating, it is expected that you pay some attention, some regard to the food and not stay mindlessly engaged with the things, ‘not on your plate’, aka TV 📺 , phone, the kids or in totally engrossing conversations🗣. After all, whoever has cooked, has spent hours in his hot domain for you 🌶😥 & has chipped in oodles of effort too.

So shy not of complimenting👌 or at least, acknowledge the food- maybe its taste, presentation, the idea, anything about it. Just don’t look indifferent & avoid hurting sentiments; taken?

Let me exemplify; say on a bad day of yours, at a meal, the salt is a little on the higher side (I pray not though 🤲 ). What do you do? Criticize, walk away?

😏😜 I darn you. Think thrice before taking that dare-devil approach! 👹🙅 I’d suggest, cool off💦 and casually mention, or just say,`Darling or whoever; Nancy, you’ve always been so generous- be it love or be it salt’.😝

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4) Fold, but with Imperfection-

Okay! So most of us already know that one is supposed to fold his/her table napkin at the wind-up of the meal (right or didn’t you?!). But the fascinating part is, did you know that the right way of doing it, is, folding the napkin loosely and not into neat & crisp folds.

Perfect folding would look too deliberate; we’ll pretend here, its in-born in us when it comes to manners 🤣😉 . Do it casually, like its no big deal; we do it every single day !😉

*add on: hide away greasy marks on the cloth, if any, by tucking it in the inside folds of the napkin; will avoid napkin look grubby from the external.

5) Leftovers are a Big No-No ❌❌-

To people leaving extra food on their plates, `How about taking a little lesser?’ and suppose, if your tummy finds it yummy😋 , ask more from Mummy (😄 sing it in a rhyme, for fun)!! That is to say, should you desire a repeat🤤 or if you still feel empty, you can always come back for more.

Vices of wasting food is common knowledge you’ll say, but what is not, is the other reason behind it. We already know this, but now, realize it! It breaks the heart 💔 of the person, one who has cooked the food, to see his hours & hours of toil ⏱ & sweat, going down the drain🗑. This should bother the diner, even if he/she is inconsiderate enough to overlook the significant wastage part of it.🙁

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6) Don’t Judge too Quickly-

Behold!; for this is a new one, you’ve probably less heard of it. Now, I do fathom that we all have distinctive taste preferences and that not all home chefs are master chefs👩🏻‍🍳 & cannot be, that’s understandable.

Nevertheless, you’d still be unjustified in altering the whole chemistry of that so ‘painstakingly prepared meal’, even if it’s not a gourmet. You can’t just thoughtlessly be adding sauces, sugar, salt or other condiments🧂 even before taking a bite or two from the original concoction.

To the least, what we can do to uphold the chef’s respect is taste the food appropriately-two bites minimum, before bathing the food in ketchup🍅 or dressing it with lemon🍋 . I beg, give the chef, that much leverage, that much honour.🏅

The kitchen squad, my friends, may have spent, months or years in learning the art, this culinary skill, so keep faith & show it. They mighty well deserve a chance to deliver a taste they’re confident of.

7) Share the Best Parts-

This last one is ultimate, both in numbering and in atrocious comicality. It is an `incredible’👌 & the funniest amongst my 7 table manners, one which people don’t follow or follow only when they are in company of other people.

Please don’t tell me you know not a mischievous person who stealthily scrapes away the top cheese layer of a baked gratin👊 ; or someone who selectively digs away as many paneer (cottage cheese) cubes he is able to, from that paneer dish. What he leaves behind folks, is only the ‘unsuspecting curry’ for the guests to follow.🥺

In any faith & by any understanding, keeping all the goodies for your own self is an act of crime; particularly when it’s cheese.🧀 Any cheese tampering for that matter will be looked upon as an act of evil👺 ; it is utterly selfish. Period.

But I’m so tempted to exemplify this further. Yet another interesting phenomenon is when guests scoop away the fruit or vegetable exoticas like broccolis🥦 , the red/purple cabbages🥬 , asparagus and the mushrooms🍄 , leaving in abandon their poor carrot-bean & cucumber brotherhood🥕🥒😩 . This could’ve been acceptable as long as the vegetables are tabled separately but if in an assorted dish/salad🥗 , I’d genuinely pity the people who would dine later.😌

It’d almost work like, First come, First served; and that’s not a noble idea at all ! At a restaurant buffet where you’ve paid for it, it would still be deemed `acceptable’ but certainly not, homes.

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Closure is Mandatory !

Well! These, I find are the 7 table manners nobody talked about adequately! The other usual tips like how to hold your fork & knife🍴OR how to hold the wine glass by its stem & not by its bowl🍷 OR how to burp & fart in public💨 can be learned from copious other sources. You don’t need any more material on that!😂

Yet on a more sombre note, etiquettes should be followed☝ & consistently! As it may otherwise seem, they’re not that difficult to imbibe , because etiquettes, I believe are things spontaneous, self-reflecting & no hard & fast set rules in a framework. Most etiquettes will reflect automatically in you if you are considerate & if you are willing to show empathy and respect to those around you.💝

By the by, looking at the sheer length of these tips, it nowhere looks like a post giving freebie tips easily away😀 . Somehow, I believe, there must be some chatter, some noise💥 & some engaging conversation on the topic taken up. Now don’t fret over, on them being one-sided; you can always make use of the comments section! 🗣😄🙈

Again, without a shred of doubt, many of us, knowingly/unknowingly, are already practising such civilities, at the table & elsewhere.I’m nobody to question🤷 , so, take no offence my dear friends & specially my hitherto guests😍 at home. But same time, you will agree & you must, that good things are meant to be shared, again & again, always. Aren’t they?

Liked What You Read? Do let me know in the COMMENTS Box if you know of more such table manners that nobody talked about & which you want to draw attention to. 

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