A matter of taste

:When the thali made way for the china plate, eating with one's hands was replaced with spoons, forks and knives. But is it kosher to eat a...

:When the thali made way for the china plate, eating with one’s hands was replaced with spoons, forks and knives. But is it kosher to eat a roti with a knife and fork? And what do you do when you are wining and dining a foreign client in an Indian restaurant? Dig into your dal-chawal with gusto and forget about shaking hands with him thereafter?

As the style of eating has changed, so have table manners. And while an Emily Post-type of guide to social etiquette has not yet emerged, some guidelines for the right way to eat have been established. For instance, when you are with your foreign guest, roll up your roti, hold it in your left hand and spoon up your sabzi and dal with your right hand. But if you are in a business meeting with Indian clients, please stick to breaking the roti with your hands — otherwise it comes across as pretentious. Remember, a knife, fork and a different spoon for each course isn’t always the more civilised way to eat. It’s just a handy tool for different kinds of food.

Indian non-vegetarian food is also most conveniently eaten with your hands as it is rarely boneless. If you try and use a knife and fork for your meat, chances are your chicken leg will end up on somebody’s lap. Most knives and forks are built for steaks or boneless-diced meat.

Story continues below this ad

Also the buffet system, which has became very popular in India, is best avoided for Indian food. Our food is not meant to be eaten all heaped up on top of the other. Most buffet spreads don’t have katoris, which is okay for European cuisine as it’s dry but Indian cuisine is most definitely not. If you have a gili sabji, dal and raita all in one plate, it gets messy.

The other thing to avoid while serving Indian food is soup. A popular starter with continental food, the closest we get to soup is rasam and dal (which is lentil soup). And soup should not be served in a katori or a cup, as it is not meant to be sipped but to be eaten. Some restaurants, especially ones serving thalis, have modified the table layout to accommodate Indian tastes. Instead of placing the glass on the right, they place it on the left, so that it doesn’t have to be picked up with the hand you eat with. But five-star Indian food restaurants like Tanjore at the Taj Mahal Hotel don’t subscribe to this point of view. Says its assistant food and beverage manager, Sarabjeet Singh, "A lot of Indians are drinking wine with their food nowadays. So, we usually have two glasses placed — one for water and one for wine." Also in a thali, it makes better sense to place the achar and the salt towards the right hand so while reaching for them, the person doesn’t soil the sleeve cuffs with dal or sabji.

The seating at Tanjore has been made more user-friendly too. Most of us, instinctively end up sitting with our legs crossed on the chair — a leftover habit from sitting on a wooden patta. One wall of the restaurant has sofas with divans on them so that everybody can sit back with their legs up and enjoy their food.

"At Tanjore, we also have a lot of guests who prefer to eat with their hands and they ask for a finger bowl before starting their meal. So, it’s wrong to say that our way of eating is unhygienic," adds Singh. But some practices which are not acceptable anymore are washing hands on the plate and burping your approval of the food. Otherwise almost anything goes. So don’t be too conscious about entertaining and eating out.The important thing is to enjoy the food without getting lost in the dos and don’ts.