There’s no hard and fast rule regarding the right or wrong way to eat. However, there are certain ways you’re supposed to eat certain foods in order to maximize efficiency and respect cultural norms.
Case in point: You’d never eat a cheeseburger one layer at a time, would you?
The same goes for the following meals and snacks. This is the only way to eat these 10 foods.
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“You’re not supposed to take a bite of a piece of sushi and then put it back down on the plate,” explains one Reddit user. “You have to either stuff the whole thing in your mouth or hold it until it’s finished. If you put it back on the plate in front of the chef they take it away.” This is considered to be common courtesy in Japan — it can actually be considered offensive to the chef if you only eat half of a piece of sushi in one bite.
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One Reddit user found it strange when they saw someone eating a Pringle upside down, biting down on the sides. Think about it. Why would you do that to yourself? Pringles are designed to easily pop into your mouth. Eating one frowny-side up would just make a mess of chip crumbs all over your shirt.
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“I don't know why, but I feel like you shouldn't be eating pizza with a fork and a knife,” said one Reddit user. “That's just me, though.” There are tons of ways that people in the U.S. eat pizza — from fork and knife to folding slices in half like a little pizza taco. Even so, in Italy the best way to eat pizza is with a fork and knife!
“I was eating ramen noodles with my friends and my Asian friend laughed because I would twirl the ramen in the ladel/spoon thing as I would with spaghetti,” said one Reddit user. “I was featured on her Snapchat story real quick!” The right way to eat ramen is by using your chopsticks to bring a few noodles to your mouth, and then slurping them up. It’s also considered polite in Japan to bring the bowl to your lips to slurp the remaining broth. It’s a huge compliment to the chef!
It's an age-old debate: Do you pour milk in the bowl before the cereal, or the cereal in the bowl before the milk? There's only one right answer. Pouring milk into a bowl and then adding the cereal in afterwards is a recipe for a mess. The only way to eat cereal properly is to start with the dry cereal and then top it up with a bit of milk.
“My friend from the Middle East made dolmas for a mutual friend of ours. Not knowing what they were, he peeled the grape leaves off and only ate the inside. I tried to tell him he was supposed to eat the whole thing, and he didn't believe me,” shared one Reddit user. “When our friend found out he ate them that way, she got really upset since she spent all that time rolling the dolmas only for him to just eat the filling!” Just to be clear: The grape leaves are an edible and delicious part of dolma!
You’d think that people would only eat a banana the way nature intended: Peeling it down the sides and popping the inner part in your mouth. It turns out this assumption is up for debate. “My sister is a freak of nature and she eats her banana kind of like corn on the cob. She will peel the banana halfway and then scrape the sides with her teeth making it shiny and then she would eat the center remains,” admitted one Reddit user. “I will say she’s smart enough to not do this in public, she does this in the privacy of being at home where her family can shame her.”
“I had a friend in high school who would eat a taco in the most peculiar way that I am at a loss to easily describe,” explains one Reddit user. The friend started by taking a huge bite of the top middle, then eat the little flaps around his bite mark. Next, he would take another bite out of the middle and nibble off the edges again. When all the lettuce, tomato and cheese parts were gone and it was just a little tortilla boat of meat, he would eat that all in one go. Let’s be clear: There’s one way to eat a taco and it’s from one side to the other.
“You ever seen a man eat a Pomegranate like an apple?” said one Reddit user. “It changes you.” The only way to eat a pomegranate is by cutting the fruit open with a knife and extracting the seeds. From there, you can do what you wish. We happen to like pomegranate seeds on their own or topping a goat cheese salad. Yum!
Pasta is a hot-button issue with Italians. There are certainly rules you’ll want to follow if you’re dining with Italian friends or family. One is gathering twines of spaghetti on your fork rather than cutting it up or even twirling it. “My first-generation Italian wife prepared spaghetti for me before we were married,” shared one user. “I asked if she cared how I ate it and she said no, so I asked for a fork and knife and cut it up. She was mortified!”
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