Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 27, 1994 TAG: 9404250007
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SUSAN PHINNEY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Etiquette experts adore it. They see every artichoke, asparagus stalk, corn cob and fried drumstick as fodder for a how-to lesson. And they're conspiring with messy-food marketers to get Americans not just eating those foods, but eating them nicely.
The California Artichoke Advisory Board, for example, has produced a brochure called "Artiquette, or The Art & Etiquette of Eating California Artichokes." They've even hired Marjabelle Young Stewart, author of 17 etiquette books, to travel from city to city spreading the word.
"Artichokes are so romantic," she coos. "And you simply must eat them with your fingers." She says they're turning up at toney cocktail buffets in her hometown of Washington, D.C., and they're being served as a first course at fancy dinners.
She tells of watching a couple share an artichoke at a party, biting off leaf tips in a suggestive manner. "Then they went off together," she smiled.
Stewart is high on artichokes because they beg to be eaten slowly. Each bite can be savored, diners can talk as they nibble. It's so civilized.
She says the leaves should be stacked neatly on the plate if a container isn't provided. If butter, mayonnaise or sauce accompany the artichoke, leaves should be dipped only once. "Never double dip a food," Stewart admonishes.
That goes for everything from artichokes to carrot sticks. Taking a bite, then sticking the bitten end back into the dip is unsanitary. It's also social suicide.
Stewart says she's seen too many powerful people in their Rolex watches and Gucci shoes have what she calls "power failure" when dining. In her book that means holding a fork incorrectly, eating limp asparagus with their fingers, or, heaven forbid, fumbling with the finger bowl.
Finger bowls? Aren't they almost extinct?
No way. Stewart says to be prepared for more of them. Although they're usually presented just before dessert, they're sometimes seen before the fruit course.
"The finger bowl usually comes with a dessert spoon and fork. ... If the finger bowl arrives without utensils, it means `use me now,"' Stewart explains.
She's not the only one promoting finger bowls. Deborah Kane-Wood teaches etiquette workshops in suburban Seattle. Kane-Wood, an American who spent her teen years in an English girl's school and then lived abroad, teaches children how to use them.
"It's the doily that gives them away," she says of finger bowls.
Children in her classes are taught to dip the fingertips of one hand into the bowl, then put the fingers onto the napkins in their laps to dry. The process is then repeated with the other hand.
"Ninety percent of my children have never seen an artichoke," Kane-Wood says. "They look at it and say, `Now what?" She shows them how to remove and eat one leaf at a time, how to put leaves on the plate if there's no bowl for them ("A good host always supplies a bowl for the leaves"), then demonstrates how to remove the "hairy bed" above the artichoke heart with a knife and fork. The heart is then cut into small bits and eaten.
It's difficult to imagine these well-meaning women kicking back with a bag of Cheetos, but while they may seem out of touch with day-to-day dining rituals, they do know the right way around anything from corn on the cob to spare ribs to cherry pits.
Bet you didn't know, for instance, that corn on the cob is buttered one or two long rows at a time. Those rows are then consumed before butter is added to another row or two. This prevents butter from running and dripping.
Small pieces of fried chicken - basically anything but the whole breast - can be eaten with the fingers, unless the hostess is using a knife and fork. Then guests are expected to use utensils, too.
In spite of what Nancy Kerrigan does in those Campbell Soup commercials, soup and broth is to be spooned away, toward the far side of the bowl, before being lifted to the mouth.
The mouth is not to be opened until just before the soup spoon, or any other utensil bearing food, arrives. To spoon up the last bit of soup, the bowl is also tipped away.
If a spoon or fork has been used to transport a pitted food (olives or cherries, for example) to the mouth, the pit can be gently deposited (never spit) from mouth to spoon, and returned to the plate. If it has been a finger food and no utensil is available, make a fist, deposit the pit into the top of it (in the circle made by thumb and forefinger) and transfer it to the plate.
Stewart says crispy asparagus can be picked up, but "avoid fingers whenever you can." If it's limp, it's fork food.
Spare ribs are another matter. They're meant to be held in both hands, daintily. "Nibble, nibble, nibble," Stewart says. "Handle delicately. Don't gnaw. And never throw bones over your shoulder. That's what King Henry VIII did. They have paintings of him throwing his ribs."
One last bit of advice from Stewart: "Dining is an art. Animals feed. Humans dine."
To obtain a copy of "Artiquette," send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: California Artichoke Advisory Board, P.O. Box 747, Castroville, Calif. 95012.
by CNB