I'm interested in communal eating experiences at sciforums. By communal eating I mean something like this: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! or like this: http://www.rickmann-uk.com/wp-content/uploads/Elina,-Sonia-and-April-Comm.jpg or like this: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Have you ever eaten communally with friends or strangers? Are you comfortable with sharing dips with friends or strangers? Would you eat a half eaten piece of food offered by a friend or stranger? Do you normally taste from the dishes of other people? Are you comfortable with other people tasting food from your dish? Would you share a drink with a friend or stranger?
I guess it's weird that I have a prudish hangup about eating communally. I have zero inhibitions in pissing in public. While I prefer privacy for evacuating my bowels, I don't have any hangups about doing so in a public restroom or in an area that isn't entirely private. But, the thought of digging my hands into a communal bowl sorta grosses me out. ~String
I often can't eat in front of other people. I lose my appetite. Not that it grosses me out, it might be an autism thing. But if I'm alone in a crowded restaurant, that's fine, as long as no one is at my table. There is an Indian restaurant I like, but when it's crowded at lunch, they try to sit other people with me, but I refuse. For some reason Sushi bars are OK. I can't pee in front of other people, either.
I think its culturally ingrained. Its not something you think about until you are in a situation where its the only option. In India, for example, its considered an act of love or affection to share food intimately. Its common, when you go for community meals to eat from a communal dish [especially in Muslims]. Its common to share food between family and friends with people freely adding to or picking out stuff from your dish. Since Africans and Arabs have similar traditions, its only I went to the US that I "discovered" that some people consider it unsanitary to share food. It was a very novel notion. We quickly learned not to invite Americans for hot pots at home or make separate dishes for them. Thankfully most of the people I lived and worked with were Chinese Korean or Indonesian who were used to eating communally. Do Europeans eat communally? The only time I ate informally with Europeans was when some Irish students threw a party and they had no problems with sharing at all.
If people are using a serving spoon to put the communal food on their plate, no problems. But strangers digging their hands in the communal food bowl? Ermm no. Family and friends I have no issue with because I know they wash their hands before eating, etc. But complete strangers? No. I wouldn't eat from a communal food bowl where complete strangers were shoving their hands in there. Using a serving spoon, no problems. Hands? No way.. As for dips and the like - complete strangers sure.. so long as they don't go in for that second dip after sucking on the carror stick or cracker.. Amongst my family and friends, we always pick stuff off each other's plates and bowls.. Or grab their drink for a sip. But strangers? No.
I am a Breatharian I eat sunbeans and Qi, I don't dine with humans. (PS I voted yes for strangers and yes for friends) Peace.
I voted yes for both with friends and with strangers, I wouldn't eat with them without asking them all some questions first though. If any of them eat Pork and worship idols I will not place my hands in their troths. Peace.
Lol you scout out in double dipper watch, a friend of mine is a "people watcher extreamist" that's exactly the kind of thing he says. peace.
So its only hands you object to? What about mouths? Almost all the Chinese meals I had with friends, although we ate in individual bowls, we used our chopsticks to serve ourselves. Especially for the hotpot where you add stuff to the hot pot at different times while eating then swirl it and pick it up when its ready to eat something like this: http://china.villagepages.org/files/2009/07/img_7615.jpg Would you be okay with that? From here Depends on the reasoning. Many Muslims/Jews do not take food from Christians for the same reason that many Hindus/Jains do not take food with Muslims. Food taboos. We don't get offended, we just provide them with disposable dishes and catered food. One of my closest friends in college was Jain and while she never ate anything I brought from home, she was fine with sharing food in veg restaurants. We had a sepoy mutiny with the British over unclean bullets because of food taboos in India. I doubt you understand how seriously people take this stuff.
Okay, those pictures look really gross because they are all like sticking their hands knuckle-deep in a pile of slop, lol. I've shared appetizers with people that we both fork at or nab things from... but we don't like rub our hands in the food as they are doing in those pictures. Not like in those pictures. I'm sort of infection-conscious for occupational reasons. I hate when people don't wash their hands. Yes, as long as we don't double dip. With a fork, I would eat a dish that was half-eaten by a friend who used a fork. I might bite something that was bitten. It depends on what it was. Sure, but we usually ask if we can have a taste. If someone asks for a sip, I'm okay with it. If they want to finish half my drink for me, I suggest they get another. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I'll bet most Americans are OK with eating popcorn out of a common bowl, fruit or sandwiches or sausages from a common platter, pieces of fried chicken from a common bucket, corn on the cob from a common pot, etc. That's all common, anyway. I wouldn't be comfortable eating some of that food in those pictures with my own hands, no sharing involved.
I'm still not 100% sure what you mean by "eating communally". If you mean there are dishes of food in the middle of a table and everybody has their own plate and takes some food from common dishes in the centre then I can't see any major health issues with that. If, on the other hand, you have complete strangers licking their hands and repeatedly dipping them into the bowl that everybody is sharing, then I have reservations about the hygiene of that experience. Seinfeld did an episode on "double dipping", where a person takes some dip from a communal bowl on a chip or biscuit, takes a bite and then goes back with the same biscuit for a second dip from the bowl. I think many people would find that quite distasteful. Friend, maybe but it would depend on what it was, what exactly was "half eaten" about it, etc. Stranger, very unlikely. What does "normally" mean? Every meal? And what do you mean by "dishes of other people"? Do you mean their own plates, or communal plates? I occasionally share food with members of my immediate family - for example if somebody has finished eating and doesn't want any more but still has food left over and offers it to another person. But that isn't what I'd call "half-eaten" food. Half the serving might be eaten, but the half left has not been in somebody's mouth. Again, it really depends on exactly what you're envisaging.
Before I figured it out as a cultural rather than an individual thing, I offended quite a few people by picking out stuff from their salads. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Not in places where they take turns biting out of the same food. I used to share my meals with a Korean girl and we always used the one bowl for our dipping soya sauce. She would frequently tease me by grabbing whatever I was eating and taking off with it for herself. I've shared cho pao/wontons with my chinese friends. Sometimes we ordered only one soup between two of us and dipped into it. Korean meals come accompanied by some kind of side dishes like Arabic/Greek mezze [something with P] we usually shared them wrestling for our favourite ones. It was a novelty to eat with friends who were grossed out by common dips and shared bites. It definitely made a difference to the level of intimacy in the relationship.
But Sam even in countries where people eat communally such as they do in Asia it would be considered rude to eat from someone's plate without asking. They eat communally by having a set of dishes where everyone removes their food and places it on ones plate. Koreans never give you a dish of food to be eaten alone for example its all a collection placed on a table and then you pick what you want with your chopsticks and spoon. I have never seen an Asian place their hands on cooked food from a communal plate except for in India.
Not among friends, usually, although it is more common to offer rather than ask. I always ask my friends to share when we eat together and because so many of my friends in the US were Asians there was an expectation that I felt to share. If that makes any sense. I can't remember a single meal when we did not taste each others dishes or drinks. I have eaten informally with hands with people in Saudi. Often our drivers would treat us to a meal at their homes and we would eat communally with their families. I have also eaten similarly with Moroccons, although this was in an informal setting, formally they too serve the various dishes and then use individual plates. Hence my distinction of friends and strangers.
When I was staying with a Korean family and a few japanese people also, We would all take turns to prepare a Dish and cook for the others. Korean people always grab their bowls shove everything in together grab a pair of sticks or a spoon and mush it all together. I was like *No stop Koreaning up my bowl this is a chinese Dish more than once lol" Whatever is served will be made into baby food :shrug: Kimchee and Bibimpa was always good though. Peace,
If you mean using our hands or other utensils to eat a dish that is shared between many people then no. Since I've never done it before I couldn't tell you. When I was married we did this sort of thing from time to time but never with anyone else. I've done this with sushi when at a restaurant. If I drank half of it first then I'd give the remainder to another.
When I was a kid, I went to a birthday party for a friend. His mom covered the table with saran wrap, and then dumped a giant bowl of spaghetti in the center....no utensils provided. It was fun as hell to eat spaghetti with our hands...etiquette be damned!