Food faux-pas?

[NancysGarden]

Just been out for dim sum and ordered sticky rice as had fond memories of eating sticky rice in Thailand (by hand, out of a bamboo tube).
Anyway, food arrives, all delicious, but said rice is rolled up in copious vine leaves. Dilemma: do I unwrap the parcels to eat the yummy sticky rice (thereby risking looking like a total pleb, as vine leaves are possibly an integral part of the dish), or do I attempt to chew through the wads of vine leaves (thereby also risking looking like a pleb, if the parcels should be unwrapped?)

What would you do?

(Am I being a pleb, even considering this as dilemma: I am paying, surely I should just eat the food the way I fancy eating it...

ps, I have eaten Turkish vine wrapped morsels before, and had there not been so much of the leaves, I wouldn't have given it a second thought...

if you pay for it - eat it how the hell you want

I would have thought unwrap. Are you sure it is vine leaves, not banana leaves to keep the rice hot and stop it from drying out?

could have been, not sure, was a bit browner than vine leaves now you mention it...

Isn't it usually in banana leaves in thailand? (Ie not edible)

Really? I only ever had it from street sellers in bamboo. You see if I had had it in banana leaves I could have saved myself a bit of awkward embarrassment

Did you unwrap it then?

I think that even if you were supposed to eat the leaves, it would be acceptable to remove them as you may not like them. SO you could just take them off and pretend you know what you are doing.

The chinese sticky rice dish is completely different from the thai sticky rice type dish. Yes you are suppose to unwrap it and just eat the rice.

Chinese sticky rice: Steamed in lotus leaf with usually meat and seasoning unless you ordered the sweet variety.

Thai sticky rice: Usually steamed in bamboo and usually sweet.

HTH :)