Dip your salad in dressing?

Seriously. My daughter just got berated by mom because she dipped pieces of salad in her tiny cup of dressing rather than pour it all on her salad and eat with a fork.

I'm not seeing a problem here. It's not THAT fancy of a restaurant!

 

You should have the same manners at home , in a fast food joint , and in a high end restaurant. No time like the present to instill those skills!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

moms rules are law.

 

What did you do/say?
Regards, GF.

 

Well, I didn't say all that much. I think I may have mentioned that I too preferred to dip since you can get that just right amount of ranch dressing on each bite.

How is it any different from dipping fries in ketchup? I don't think most people spread the fries out on a plate, smother them in ketchup and eat them with a fork...

It's not a huge deal, and you know you have to pick your battles, but you can eat chicken nuggets, or chicken strips with your hands. You eat hamburgers and hot dogs with your hands. So why can't you dip salad??

Don't people pick up mussels and oysters and eat them with their fingers?? I'm guessing that's at least as messy as lettuce.

 

I would assume someone would squawk at me for pouring the dressing out and using a fork to toss the salad so everything was coated before eating it. I assumed it was quite polite to dip. But in reality, I don't care and helicopter mom should relax…and maybe have one of your home brews.

 

can we do that with spaghetti too?

 

Vegetables and dip is not too far from a salad that you dip.

BLASPHEMY!!

Kill all the nonbelievers and salad dippers I say........and all of the people who eat chicken.

 

I would have a great time watching a whole family with bowls of sauce and bowls of spaghetti and eating each individual noodle by dipping in the tomato sauce.

 

Everyone knows you slurp spaghetti! (But you can pick it up with your fingers to get it started...)

 

dip and then slurp!

 

Vegetables in stick form, namely celery and carrots that have been sliced into sticks, are appropriate vehicles for dipping. Any vegetable with a predisposition to floppiness, particularly those in the leafy family, are not to be dipped but rather smothered.

A piece of, say, frisse when dipped can form something of a "springboard" when brought up to the eater's mouth, causing dressing to splash up and then down in an arcing motion... literally raining dressing upon other diners.

Other less springy salad fixins such as mushrooms are less likely to springboard, but more likely to drip on the table or clothes of the eater, making dipping inappropriate again.

Now, here's a little known caviat. Salad greens and other vegetables that would normally be no-dip can be rendered dippable through deep frying. Deep fried kale can and should be dipped, and the same goes for the underloved and rarely dipped yucca.

These rules, though thought up by me mere moments ago, are ironclad and not to be debated.

 

This is what I was going to say. I don't, but figured someone would tell me I should

 

Perhaps the difference is in how my wife and I were raised. I can state with certainty that I was raised by parents who weren't well verse in "propah" table manners. The usual I suspect. They may have known which fork to use, and when, when in a fancy restaurant, but there was ZERO opportunity in my childhood to utilize such knowledge. We were plain old American Upper Lower Class, looking back.

On the other hand, I also spent a lot of time at my friend's house, where our hoity toity manners were sometimes derided. My friend's dad was southern. I was teased for eating ribs with a fork at their house. I quickly learned the only possible way to eat certain foods was to get hands-on and sometimes dirty. So for me it was balance between the two.

My wife, though, was raised (If I may interject my own viewpoint here) to be a bit more respectable at the table. I'm not sure she was raised in a household with a much higher class status, but I think her mother tried real hard to be that way. And there is nothing wrong with that. The only thing about it is, it makes eating ribs not only much more difficult, but kind of comedic as well. I think that kind of upbringing just naturally carries on through, as it should.

I try to be practical. I would fart out loud at a restaurant. I wouldn't shout at the waiter when I wanted my water refilled. But dang it, I don't see much difference between dipping chunks of bread in the pre-meal soup and dipping the salad in the dressing!

I am fairly well versed in veggie dipping. Carrots are fine. Broccoli and Cauliflower are fine. Cucumbers are tasty dipped, but the dressing tends to slide off and this makes it a hit or miss if you are going to drip on the way to your face.

Ok, what about chopsticks?? They are pretty much just extensions of your fingers, so should they get a pass??

 

STICK IT TO THE (wo)MAN! FIGHT THE POWER! DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM! ANARCHY FOREVER! DIP THE SALAD! FORKS ARE THE TOOLS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT'S OPPRESSION!

 

Actually... you used the term berated... is that hyperbole or did she really give your daughter the business? I'd think "use your fork!" would be enough to get the point accross.

 

Well, to be fair it was more of a rebuke than a berating. I don't think finding the most accurate term for her course of corrective action is relevant to the topic of discussion here, though.

The fact remains, that it appears a sin to her eyes to eat lettuce with the fingers, rather than with a fork.

A peach. Consider. A peach is definitely more messy to eat with the hands. The juice runs all down your fingers, and possibly even your chin if you aren't careful. Yet they remain a popular and accepted food to eat with your hands.

 

Just wait till mom and daughter agree against you, then you will have an issue.
Its tough being a Dad

 

http://youtu.be/VfEG15CLTqo

I dip all my salad and I'm sure it has to do with seeing this a million times during saturday morning cartoons.

 

I've never been presented with a whole peach on a plate at a restaurant before, but if I was, I guess I'd eat it with my hands. But would you also say it's acceptable to pick the peaches out of a piece of pie with your fingers?

Salad is a dish to be eaten with a fork. If you want to dip the pieces in dressing, that's fine, but you can accomplish that with a fork as easily as with your fingers.

 

BGBC makes a good point. If the goal here is even dressing distribution or the enjoyment of eating a singular element by itself with some dressing, using a fork to dip said element would be a socially acceptable compromise.

 

Isn't there a Simpson's episode about this?

*edit

Haha, nope. Totally different show. What did people do before forks?

 

I cut peaches up but still eat them with my fingers. This surprises many because I've been pointed out as someone who eats so well with a fork and knife that it would make a surgeon jealous. Obviously this is an embellishment but their point is often that I have amazing table manners. I think they're just shocked that someone like me doesn't eat her meals in one bite and without any regard for flatware!

Either way, I'm sticking with helicopter mom having a drink and relaxing. Let you parent your child.

 

Probably used lettuce leaves to pick up food. Every time I see middle eastern cuisine in the 'traditional' manner, they eat everythign with their hands and use things like cabbage/lettuce/banana leaves/grape leaves (some are consumed with the picked up food, some not).

I could totally dig a dipped salad, but whenever I eat salads I take a cue for cows. I get about 1/4th of the plate in my mouth, then chew.

 

'Nuff said.
Regards, GF.

 

She's definitely not a helicopter mom. Just happens to have strong feelings about eating with your hands, I guess.

As far as peaches go, I didn't mean to imply that you would get a peach at a restaurant, but that eating things with your hands is common, and there shouldn't be a differentiation for eating at home or out at a restaurant. I can't imagine how watching someone eat with their fingers would cause someone undue anxiety or discomfort.

You don't eat a snickers bar with a knife and fork, do you? It's the classic question.

Oh look, I'm eating shrimp cocktail with my fingers! Egads! And I'm dipping it in a cocktail sauce! The horror!

 

I got a hankerin' for a hunk a cheese!

 

I think your point is beginning to be muddled a bit. Just because other foods exist that you eat with your fingers doesn't mean that all food should be eaten with your fingers. I don't think that's what you're saying, but then I don't know why it matters that people don't eat candy bars with a knife and fork.

The better comparison is to look at similar types of food. I can think of examples to support both cases - fingers & fork. I guess if the salad is served pre-dressed, the case for the fork is clearer - avoid getting your hands dirty. If it's undressed, who knows, maybe your daughter will be viewed as an innovator some day.

I think what it really comes down to is you and your wife getting together and deciding how to raise your daughter. Consistent messages and all that. If this is something your wife feels strongly about and you don't really care that much, maybe give this one to her.

Grain of salt here - no kids and only married for one year, haha.

 

I'm not sure my message is muddled. Lettuce is not a messy food until it gets the dressing. Until then it's like an apple, or carrot stick, or celery. Just a natural food that tastes better dipped.

There isn't any reason to assume our marriage may be at stake. The kid is nearly 15 and our older is going on 20. We've been married for 22 years. It's not that I even care if the kid eats her salad with a fork, I just wonder why it is we choose certain things to be especially polite about, and other, similar things, are handled differently.

I think that if we go to Wendy's and get chicken nuggets, then it's ok to dip. If we go to a slightly fancy Italian restaurant it's suddently not ok to dip your food. It's not messy food like ribs, either, and everyone knows you eat ribs with your fingers.

The snickers bar analogy was a reference to a Seinfeld episode. I thought everyone would get that one.

What will happen is that when the kid(s) and I are eating without the wife, we will most likely celebrate the freedom and order salad just so that we may dip our lettuce in a small container of ranch, where we can get just the right amount of dressing for each piece (Provided the lettuce is cut to the proper size). Then we will likely honor the wife's aversion to handling certain foods with our hands by using silverware when we are in her presence.

I can see myself ordering a side salad with my order of ribs. She may get away with controlling the plant matter, but she canna' take away my ribs!