To eat a burger with my hands?

[Happytobefree17]

In a gastro pub?

My friend is aghast that I didn't use cutlery. Thinks I'm some sort of Neanderthal for eating with my hands.

Who is right?

Haha! I think it's absolutely fine to eat a burger in public with your hands.... and that's coming from someone who uses cutlery to eat a dirty kebab ;)

If your chief concern about wooden plates is hygiene, then just don't go there. My beef is that the food skitters all over the shop

Always a burger with hands. Have a friend that ate prawns thing in chinese restaurant with heads on with knife and fork. I'd had delved in and done it by hand.

Actually it's pretentious to use a knife and fork to eat a burger

No it's not. It's just not the way you want to eat your burger. As it happens, I eat with my hands too. But I wouldn't necessarily scorn someone for doing it with utensils.I might look a bit askance at someone getting out the cutlery to tackle a McDonalds, but that's about the size of it.

Well it is if you do it because that is how you think it is more correct, or because of how it looks to others. Then it is pretentious.

If in a restaurant as opposed to a takeaway I eat burgers/pizza/chips with cutlery and prefer it this way - keeps fingers clean, no need to lick etc. It's nothing to do with pretension or snobbery. I don't care how others eat as long as they chew with their mouths shut!

Many years ago, my friend's mum, who was Dutch, showed me how to eat mussels.

You take a smallish empty shell in your dominant hand and use it like a tweezer to pluck the flesh out of the mussel in your other hand and put it in your mouth. You then chuck the disused shell into the debris bowl and pick another one out. Repeat to fade,

Everyone who sees me doing it is impressed by my sophistication. So thank you, Jacqueline's mum.

Wow. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but I'm shocked how many people say they eat burgers with a knife and fork. Assuming you mean 'complete' burgers with the bun (and not just a loose patty), In all my mumblety-one years it's never even crossed my mind. If the burger's too tall I separate top and bottom halves and eat each separately - although the idea of cutting it vertically and eating it like some kind of ersatz sub has merit.

I lick my fingers after eating a burger. I've paid for what's on them after all.

It's impossible to be dainty and enjoy a good burger.

Actually it's pretentious to use a knife and fork to eat a burger and I would assume someone doing so to be ill mannered or trying to "better themselves".

I think you need to get that burger and chips off your shoulder.

If I saw someone eating a burger with a knife and fork I'd think they were a pretentious arsehole 😂

Has debrett's been mentioned yet? Apparently sandwiches have to be eaten with your hand (as in just held with one hand). I do realise that this is very difficult with some of the bigger, messier burgers- but I thought I'd mention it as I know some of you care about these things

HTH

Has debrett's been mentioned yet?

Ages ago in relation to Pizza

Hands are the perfect tools for burgers in buns.

Buns are never eaten with knife and fork - if they are too unwieldy you can cut them in half. Alternatively, if you cannot eat it without spilling it, then don't order it. That is at least how I was taught as a child and I am assuming that the "bun" rule applies to burgers as well

Many years ago, my friend's mum, who was Dutch, showed me how to eat mussels

This perhaps answers the three seashells mystery.

This thread has made me crave a big dirty 15 napkin burger! Chosen the non-chain burger joint - We're in France at the moment so I'll keep an eye on how everyone else is dealing with the mess and report back. The things we do for research, eh?

With cutlery, how would you eat the salad etc usually served with the burger?. We have been brainwashed with the fast food outlets where it's standard hand eating.

Salad isn't the burger though. 🤔 It's not an all or nothing scenario, I'd use my hands for the burger and chips and a fork for salad which I usually eat after everything else.

Anyplace that serves burgers isn't going to be a Michellen starred or equivalent so get messy!

Anyplace that serves burgers isn't going to be a Michellen starred or equivalent so get messy!

You get a burger at the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal's place. 3 * Michelin.

Cool, I'd expect Heston to come out and stab me through the hand with my fork if he caught me eating his burger with a knife and fork.

I'm of the opinion that if you are in a place where cutlery is provided, then it is meant to be used.

@CosmicPineapple I love curried goat! My OPs best female friend is Jamaican and taught me, but its so hard to get goat

Knife and fork for a burger? Never ever no matter how posh the place was.

If a place sells a burger it's by definition not posh, therefore hands are OK.

And doesn't the salad go in the burger?