In Thailand, don't put food in your mouth with a fork. Instead, when eating a dish with cooked rice, use your fork only to push food onto your spoon.
Traditional Indian cutlery does not recognize the use of forks and knives while eating, limiting their use to the kitchen only. Spoons were made of wood in ancient times, evolving into metallic spoons during the advent of the use of the thali, the traditional dish on which Indian food is served.
Eating with your hands is the norm in some countries of Southeast Asia like Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. It might seem strange for westerners who are used to using utensils, but usually once a visitor tries “hand eating” they really enjoy it and say that the food tastes better!
First, Thai food is served with long grain rice, most commonly jasmine rice, which is a little bit sticky but they don't really hold together all that well. So using a fork will result in half the rice falling off of your fork. Second, and and I think most importantly, Thai food involves a lot of runny sauces.
In Thailand, people eat with a spoon in the right hand and fork in the left. The spoon is the primary utensil; the fork is only used to manipulate food. Only items not eaten with rice (e.g., chunks of fruit) are OK to eat with a fork.
Don't use the chopsticks like a sword and "spear" your food. The Japanese consider this behavior rude. If the food is too difficult to pick up (this happens often with slippery foods), go ahead and use a fork instead.
Knives and forks are used only for Western food. Spoons may be used with certain Japanese dishes such as donburi or Japanese-style curry rice. A Chinese-style ceramic spoon is sometimes used to eat soups. Click here for more information about Japanese table manners.
There are knives and forks in China, but they are not used on the dining table. The Chinese use knives and forks much earlier than the West, and even earlier than the Chinese use chopsticks.
Cutlery. One of the first things you may notice upon sitting down to a Korean meal is the cutlery. Korean place settings will always have both chopsticks and a spoon. Unlike their Chinese or Japanese counterparts, Korean chopsticks are flat, not rounded or pointed, and are typically made from metal.
Especially with nigiri sushi (single pieces of sushi with meat or fish on top of rice), it's totally acceptable. Miho: “Really, you can eat all sushi with your hands. Some people now use chopsticks because they think it is cleaner, but in most Japanese restaurants you wipe your hands with a hot towel first.
Across Southeast Asia, the widespread practice of using a spoon and fork together is a product of centuries of European colonization: the French in Vietnam, the Dutch in Indonesia, the Spanish in the Philippines, and so on.
Germany. When you walk into most German restaurants, seat yourself instead of waiting to be directed to a table. Once you get dinner rolls, you should break them apart by hand, but that is the only time Germans allow eating with your hands — even fruit and sandwiches are eaten with a fork and knife in Germany.
Chopsticks are technically the major eating utensils for the four East Asian countries -- China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Many Southeast Asian cultures use spoon and fork for many dishes and may employ chopsticks for noodles.
“As Australians we eat Continental English style, which is different to many countries in the world; we follow England and their table etiquette rules. This means our fork goes in the left hand and knife in the right hand, with the tines of the fork always over and never up.
Muhammad said: "the best of alms is that which the right hand giveth, and the left hand knoweth not of." Left handers have to learn to use their right hands. Some people keep heir left hand behind their back when they eat. Arabs in the cities generally eat with a spoon or fork but sometimes eat with their right hand.
Prior to the adoption of the fork, the custom in Europe was for all food to be conveyed to the mouth by the right hand (using a spoon, a knife, or fingers). When the fork was adopted, it followed this rule; it was held in the left hand while cutting and then transferred to the right to eat.
Before eating, Japanese people say "itadakimasu," a polite phrase meaning "I receive this food." This expresses thanks to whoever worked to prepare the food in the meal.
Unless it's Western food, restaurants/households in China, Japan, S Korea and some Southeast Asian do not arrange a fork-&-spoon setting on dining tables. Most of the food served in such eateries are 'bite-size', hence the use of chopsticks.
“Ladies and gentlemen, remember we always use a knife and fork or chopsticks to eat rice! We do not use our hands or fingers!!!” tweeted British etiquette expert Grant Harrold, who served the Prince of Wales from 2004 to 2011.
If you've ever sat at the dining table with an Australian, you've probably noticed that they don't use silverware the same way Americans do. It's more of a gather and stack method than it is a one-handed deal.
The traditional way to eat food in Singapore is with chopsticks. Although chopsticks are the traditional utensil used, the influence of the western culture has led to more people turning to forks and spoons. It is acceptable to eat with these utensils, but for those up to the challenge, chopsticks are more convenient.
Legend has it that due to the enormous population growth in ancient China, the demand for resources necessitated meals to be prepared quickly without wasting precious fuel. To facilitate quicker cooking meat/vegetables were pre-sliced into smaller pieces, making the knife/fork unnecessary as a dining tool on the table.
Crossing your feet in some cultures is considered very rude. In Japan you are expected to sit erect with both feet on the floor and never cross your ankle over your knee. In Singapore, as in many Asia cultures, the foot is thought to be unclean and should not be used to point at someone.
In Thailand, people eat with a spoon in the right hand and fork in the left. The spoon is used to put food into the mouth, while the fork is used to scoop and arrange rice and food onto the spoon so it doesn't fall off on its way to your mouth.
If you're planning on visiting or working in Japan, you'll probably need to use chopsticks at some point. Chopsticks or Ohashi (お箸), as they're known in Japan, are an integral part of Japanese culture. Using them well will win you friends, whilst using them wrong can even offend people.