Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Right is "right" - The adventures of eating with one hand






One of my favourite experiences in India was.. the eating. Of course the food was delicious, so that in itself was enough, but the really great part was trying to eat like a local. In our earlier days we would draw  a lot of attention while at restaurants, as we clearly had no sweet clue what we were doing.






We eventually got the hang of it though (with the help of some sympathetic families and servers). Two examples in particular come to mind. The first being when we arrived in the South of India, where the food is served on a banana leaf. The South, we found, was also a little more strict or at least conscious of the only using your right hand to eat rule. So as we sat down to our first breakfast dosa on banana leaf, the waiter stood beside our table and watched as we struggled. He eventually spoke up, to our embarrassing coordination and informed us we were only to use our right hands.







A second example was when we met an amazing family in the small town in the South, Chidampuram. They insisted we come to their house, even though they spoke no English, so they could make us lunch (as well as breakfast the next morning). When they served us our lunch one of the women poured the daal over the rice and as we waiting for it to cool she leaned over our shoulders and just jumped right in there, mixing it all in for us. I felt like I was a child and my mother was getting my food ready for me. I was almost expecting her to put in on spoon and airplane it towards my mouth.. thankfully that part was not included.




By the end of our trip though we seemed to finally get the hang of things, it only took two months. We were having lunch one day and as it was rice Erin considered whipping out her portable cutlery, but we looked around this local restaurant and decided it would be rude. Afterwards a family came up to us and starting praising us for our great hand eating skills (Mum, you must be so proud). They were very impressed and said we had picked it up quickly. I guess we finally got this eating thing figured out!
Well, that was at least until we got here to Hong Kong and now we have no idea what we are doing. Chopsticks?! Can't I just use my hands?







1 comment:

  1. Bridget is on her way to India, she never did get the hang of that cutlery thing! I love the blogs. You two are fabulous and it is so nice to share in your adventure. You are looking happy and healthly and this Mom is very Proud. Good luck with the chopsticks.I hope it is sticky rice or you are in real trouble.

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