to think that an adult shouldn't be blowing on their food to cool it down?

[Grockle]

Just wondering.

I think it's not really ok for an adult to blow on their food rather than waiting a bit for it to cool down. DP thinks it's perfectly reasonable. AIBU?

At least buns are already room temp, so there's no need to blow on them before hurling them.

How is blowing on your food going to affect anyone else at the table?! You're not blowing on their food!

Mouth open whilst eating sounds disgusting, moving around is distracting and physically disruptive, blowing your nose is unhygenic and noisy, slurping your drink in again noisy.

Blowing on your food... practically silent unless your blowing a raspberry whilst doing it.

I cannot see how it could possibly affect anyone else. Other than meaning they're not having to wait around for someone to finish their meal because it was too hot.

I HATE sloppy eating, its a real bug bear for me but I have never once been disturbed by someone blowing on their food.

The only people who follow etiquette out of Debretts or Miss Manners deserves to be laughed at heartily. Frankly, if you are reading up on this stuff then you are going to get it wrong.

If you're risotto is a bit hot, there's no need to wolf it down straight away like a dog anyway.

Arf at risotto being the food of example here.

But I would take a small amount from the edge with my fork, blow on it gently and then put it in my mouth.

I don't throw my cutlery to the ground blow as furiously and loudly as I can on my meal and then stick my face in it.

well, it's generally considered to be poor table manners for anyone over five,

Clearly it "generally" isn't from this thread. Only by a minority.

Well, it's not in the same league as eating with your mouth open, treating everyone to the sight of your molars and spraying your fellow diners with gobbets of mashed potato, but I also don't think it's a particularly outré or obscure idea that blowing on your food to cool it, rather than waiting thirty seconds, is a bit juvenile/greedy. Unless your food and plate has somehow been heated to the temperature of molten lava, it's not going to take longer than that, surely.

(IF you are eating in company, obviously. Huffing on your baked potato when you're alone at home on the sofa with one eye on a bad romcom doesn't count. Or eating chips in a bus shelter at 2am.)

Debretts probably doesn't have a firm position on eating chips in a bus shelter.

I AGREE WITH THE OP!!!!!!!!!!

Initially, I thought she was BU - then when I thought about it I don't blow on any food other than soup.

I, too, was taught to take forkfulls from around the side and from the top where it is naturally cooler.

However, I can honestly say I have never noticed whether other people blow so have no opinion on it other than being that I was unaware of my non-food-blowy weirdness!

On another forum, I was once electrified to be told that it's bad manners to butter your roll before you bite into it. Apparently you should crumble or tear the roll into small pieces first, then butter each one, then shove the small buttered piece into your gob in one go. Picking up a buttered half-roll and biting a bit off is disgusting.

I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now, but several other posters made it very clear that I had revealed myself as the lowest of the low by my roll-buttering practices.

I can't believe somebody suggested ice cubes. and blowing on the food is bad manners compared to that? Really?

if you wait for your food to cool sufficiently, you risk having cold food. Take a plate of risotto as an example. If you wait for the outer layer to cool sufficiently, then your first bite of outer layer will be the right temperature, but the last will be too cold.

sorry. not going to happen with me. I will blow away. Frankly my enjoyment of the food trumps this most trivial of "manners".

Isn't it also considered absolutely beyond the pale to cut a scone with a knife? I'm sure I read that only a peasant would do such thing and every non savage knows it should be broken with one's fingers.

Debretts probably doesn't have a firm position on eating chips in a bus shelter.

I think the latest edition has an added chapter 'Regulations concerning being pissed, consuming kebabs, and snogging on the night bus home.'

I'm sure you're right, squoosh. That's another area where I am as common as muck. You'd waste a lot of good scone by crumbling it and that's more important to me.

I think I must be doing something odd to my risotto because it's not a dish I ever serve so hot that it requires waiting times or blowing. I actually think it cools a little on the quick side compared to many foods (although doesn't suffer in taste for it).

Anyway, I see most "table manners" relating to restraint in eating food. Waiting for others to pass you the butter, taking small pieces of bread roll and buttering individually, not blowing on food, and so on. These rules seems to actively discourage any wolfing, which I think is perfectly reasonable in general company.

As long as it's through the mouth I'm relaxed with people blowing on their food.

The ice cubes are for hot drinks not hot food

YABU - only because I blow on my food sometimes

But one thing I noticed, last week I think,which did make me go was Kate (I think...the woman with blonde curly hair from Brighton on the Bake Off) was cooling down some concoction by blowing on it. HUGE puffs too. Mmm tasty...) Bet Mary and Paul didn't get sight of that before they tucked in...

MaidofStars, yes, I'd agree it comes down to 'no wolfing', which is reasonable enough in company, IMO.

There are, of course more outré areas of table manners which are shibboleths designed to weed out the non-U. The classic being the All Souls, Oxford dinner where prospective fellows were faced with cherry tart with the stones still in the fruit - do you spit them out under cover of a napkin/ put them on the side of your plate with your fingers? A dessert fork? A spoon? Or served an apple or pear on a dessert plate with a pause before you're supplied with cutlery to peel it.

YANBU it's bad manners, just talk to the other people at your table while you wait for it to cool...

The thing is when I blow my food I don't wolf it down. I take a first fork full it is hot so I blow.

It isn't a continuous series of blow, shove in mouth, blow, shove in mouth as infinitum.

I'm panicking now that I'll be faced with a cherry tart and 20 pairs of beady, expectant eyes watching as I FAIL!

I think the thing to remember is that in real life - no one gives a shit

Blimey. We're quite hot on table manners at home but we would never sit primly waiting for our whole dinner to be cold enough to start eating the first forkful. That takes manners to Hyacinth Bucket levels.

I agree blowing all over your plate like it's a birthday cake is rather uncouth but blowing your spoonful of soup or a forkful of cottage pie? That is not rude. Or disgusting FFS.

I don't blow on my food but I really don't have any issues with anyone else doing so. I can't see why anyone would care to be honest

I am forever amazed by the things MNers get judgey about.

Squoosh, I believe the correct All Souls way to deal with cherry stones is to convey them discreetly out of the side of your mouth on a fork and range them on the side of your plate. While conversing in impeccable Latin epigrams, obviously.