Comments on: Germans eat 1.7 times faster than Americans

By: Rolf

Rolf — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:28:28 +0000

There is a saying with an ad that puts it on the point:
“Power is nothing without control.”
Eating 1,7 times faster just means nothing, it is first of all just a number. But eating faster, more efficient, without devastating what the chef provided, before eating it, is the aim - well than using a cutterly set proper is not that extraordinary.
Doing the American style of eating (well remarked, Atompilzkopf!) just reminds me of this funny scenery at the Monty Pythons Flighing Circus and maybe for some this bucket thing could be just an improvement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlK62rjQWLk

By: Also John

Also John — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:56:54 +0000

Now that you mention it, Ami’s DO have a thing about cold drinks! The colder the better. No warm beer allowed - must be served at just above freezing! Even stouts and other “dark” beers. Have you had “ice tea”? My father ordered it in a Montreal restuarant and they didn’t know what to do! I know people who pour wine over ice, red wine included…

I think to us “cold” is as important as “taste”. Indeed (@Stefan;->)we will chill Coke in the refridgerator and then serve it over ice! I know it makes no sense, but that is how we roll in the USA.

By: Stefan W.

Stefan W. — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:57:49 +0000

I think I shouldn’t use “indeed” that much.

To be clear: No, I am [i]not[/i] Teal’c!

By: Stefan W.

Stefan W. — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:55:47 +0000

Well, you’re indeed right with that Coke thing, after all. For some people, the watering down of oversweet drinks is indeed a desired effect.

Also, some cocktails depend on that effect. Juleps, for example.

By: Atompilzkopf

Atompilzkopf — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:07:00 +0000

Ah, yes - Nachtrag: Drinks with ice. You can’t drink something that has frozen water in it - ice cubes destroy every taste a drink might have had (but maybe you want that, if I think of coke it is probably better not to realise what you drink).
What do you do with a really good cheese before you eat it? You take it out of the fridge an hour or more before you serve it, in order for it to reach room temperature and for the flavour to unfold.

A drink with ice in it makes your teeth hurt, and tastes of nothing.

By: Atompilzkopf

Atompilzkopf — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:00:14 +0000

Eating fast in the canteen prevents you from having to spend too much time with your colleagues in a situation where you are expected to talk to them about soccer (which is utterly boring) or some movie you haven’t seen, or retreat to talk about work, something you would love to avoid more than anything else over a meal. That’s why everybody eats as fast as they can, because nobody feels like a stupid boring conversation with people you normally wouldn’t look at with your arse, as we say.

However, watching Americans eat is disgusting: First they massacre their food by cutting everything into tiny little pieces until you can’t distinguish a steak from a potato anymore. Then they put one hand under the table (to do what? Pick stuff from between their toes? Scratch their private parts?), bend over the plate and shovel the butchery they have created before into their mouth.
And you call this civilized?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:08:35 +0000

In wirklich jedem zivilisierten Land hält man das Messer in der rechten und die Gabel in der Linken.
Ich kann nicht glauben dass Amerikaner selbst dafür zu doof sind.
Hätten wir den Krieg gewonnen, könntet ihr jetzt wenigstens gesittet dinieren.

By: RiRi

RiRi — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:53:32 +0000

I’m European originally but I’ve been living in Canada for the past seven years. Everyone here knows how to use a fork and a knife at the same time. Everyone also uses a fork and knife at the same time, when needed.

On a side note - eating super fast is unhealthy. There’s a reason your mom told you to chew before you swallowed your food!

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:11:06 +0000

It is an Illusion, to think that European always eat with a knife in one and a fork in the other hand and more than this, all of them eat with the fork, just. But it is a matter of their age when to stop doing this.

As a German or better said as an Bavarian, I would like to assure you, that I had a time, when I ate with a just using the fork only – must be around the age of two years but just for some months and then I learned to handle the knife. Our parent cut the larger pieces for us as long we are not able to do it our selves.

The negative effect of cutting everything in small parts is the increasing surface and so the quicker cooling of the food. Have a steak been cut to small pieces and with the fact, that the temperature wenting down, the flavour does as well. Compare the lasting time of eating with American and European style and you end up with the result, that the E-style is the quicker but it is not the more bustling. E-style is practicable multitasking – you keep on preparing the next bite while you eat and you place what you are planning to eat more precise on your fork than it would be possible with the A-style.

It is confusing but for most European, even if the don’t realize, watching an American using a fork just, means look back in their own past. The only different might be, that you expect to face al little kid in its development but not an adult. Hope you don’t mind my clearness, since I don’t want to puzzle you with this facts, others simply wouldn’t tell.

I learned to eat with my right hand when I was in India and it tooks me time to maintain this but it was worth not to keep up with already known habits and having asked for a cutlery. Eating with chopsticks in Thailand totally differs from doing this in Japan. It’s a multiple world, so enjoy!

Best!

Pete from Augburg, Bavaria

By: M.

M. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:08:33 +0000

when in the army (Bundeswehr) you may feel the need to fill your one hour lunchbreak with as much sleep as possible.
therefore you must learn how to minimize the time for the way to the casino, waiting in line, eating, then the way back from the casino to your bed and after sleeping the way back to where you need to be to pick up your work again.

i managed to get a good 45 minutes of sleep.

this efficiency in minimizing the time-consuming factors remains -due to constant training during that year in the armed forces- in the muscle memory, thus enabling you to eat Über-fast when in the cafeteria years later.