Why the fork-ing question?

[figmo]

When Warren and I go to Mel's in San Francisco, we have always found it peculiar that they serve us pie with an iced tea spoon. We have gotten into the habit of hoarding forks so we don't have to ask for them. We've also noticed most of the table servers and even one of the managers are all foreign-born.

The other day we were at a Denny's where the waitress was also clearly foreign-born. She gave Warren his apple pie (which was not a la mode) with an iced tea spoon as a utensil.

Neither of us grew up eating pie with a spoon -- even if topped with ice cream. Both of us were trained to eat our pies with a fork and find it just wrong to try to use a spoon, especially a long, tiny iced tea spoon. I was asking the question as a sanity-check for both of us.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

wonder if it's a regional thing?

Cultural assumptions ..

[(Anonymous)]

... I kept wondering if there was some cultural significance for why they were chilling your cutlery ... it wasn't until I got to the end I realised you weren't saying they were chilling the tea spoons, but that it was an "iced tea" spoon (doh!)

[cellio]

I'd find eating pie with a regular spoon a little weird (but if that's the utensil I'm offered, I'll use it); an iced-tea spoon, however, is completely wacky. I wonder where they got the idea and how it's spreading.

[tiggerypum.livejournal.com]

And I like to eat most of my desserts with a _tea_ spoon. I like to have my soup that way too, actually... I use tablespoons in my house for serving stuff. A long handled iced tea spoon, that's weird except for ice cream in one of those tall glass thingies ;)

I honestly don't know if my German mother tended to use teaspoons as dessert implements most of the time or not. Don't know if this was practical (not enough forks, or maybe handing kids spoons made sense) or cultural.

[silverstorm2013.livejournal.com]

growing up we always used forks for eating pie.

I also hold my fork with my left hand when cuting meat and then switch hands to eat it (I.E put kinfe down take the fork from my left hand, put food in mouth, put fork in back in left hand pick up knife repeat)

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

That's what pastry forks are for! Then again, I often try to cut my food with my fork, and would
prefer to eat everything with a pastry fork!

[singing-phoenix.livejournal.com]

Here in Kenya, dessert of any kind arrives with a spoon, including the fabulous Black Forest cake available at the local Java House.

I assume this is a holdover from colonial days,as I had similar experiences in Ireland and the UK.