On Saturday evening we enjoyed a meal around the table with three other couples in Rhodes Town. All the others were from among of our circle of Greek friends and I was interested to observe something that (call me preoccupied but...) preoccupies me every time I sit down to eat with Greeks.
In fact, just a week or so ago we were watching the rather good (and you can't say that about much Greek comedy on TV) 'Min Arhizeis ti Mourmoura', which is a kind of sit-com showing twice a week at 9.00pm on the Greek Alpha TV channel. The title translates roughly as "Don't Start Moaning," and it's about a series of couples at various stages through adult life. The oldest of the four couples that feature on the show has been in it since the beginning, which is probably six or seven years ago now. Many scenes revolve around the kitchen table at meal times, as you'd expect. There was the husband, called Minah, tucking into his meal with a fork in his right hand. He was eating something like pastitsio and it needed a piece cutting off so that he could put it into his mouth to eat it.
I lost all the dialogue, because all my attention was on something else. I was once again fascinated by this strange habit that so many Greeks have of never using a knife. It's true I tell you. I think I mentioned it in one of the "Ramblings" series of books, the fact that Greeks probably believe that knives (that is, knives for the dining table, not hunting knives etc) were only invented so that clever Greeks could show how they could eat an entire meal without one.
There was Minah, chasing this food around his plate while arguing with his wife Voula, trying desperately to cut a piece using the side of his fork. I've seen it so many times. To emphasise the point, we've had Greek friends over for dinner and, of course, laid the table with a knife and fork for everyone, only to see the Greeks totally ignore that the knife even exists, pick up the fork from the left-hand side of their plate with their right hand and begin attempting to eat a cooked meal using only their fork.
Thus, on Saturday evening, there we were seated, the eight of us, around the table, which was well stocked with a selection of home-made pizzas, a penne pasta/pesto dish with oodles of Parmesan grated on top, some traditional Greek salad and a delicious large spanakopita, cut in readiness into lots of two inch-square pieces. Now, to eat a pizza (without resorting to simply picking it up with your hands, of course, which we did all begin doing after a glass or two of lubrication had further relaxed the atmosphere) or indeed a spanakopita, which is made with a fairly resilient pastry (they're not always made with filo) without using your knife is, to me, foolhardiness in the extreme. Yet, after a quarter of an hour or so, I was fascinated, gazing around the table surreptitiously, to see that half of those around the table were doing just that. And that despite the fact that knives and forks had been laid for our convenience.
Observe any social session around a dining table in Greece and you'll see how easy it is to notice the British person, or persons. They'll be the ones blithely using their knives to conveniently cut their food, before pronging it with their forks and raising it demurely to their lips. The Greeks, on the other hand (and, granted, there are a few rare exceptions, maybe they've lived abroad) will gamely be pushing their food all around the plate for ages, trying resolutely to cut it with the edge of their forks, thus taking ten times longer to demolish their meal.
You know something? Maybe I've just hit on the reason they do this. Maybe they do have a point. I mean, us Brits are famous for rushing our food, which is bad for the digestion, since we often don't chew it for anything like long enough before we swallow it, and shovel the next mouthful in. If we were all to abandon the knife and start trying to cut our food on the plate with the edges of our forks, perhaps we'd all be much healthier.
See? All that talk about the Mediterranean diet being healthier for you, when all you have to do is eat using your fork only.
In fact, just a week or so ago we were watching the rather good (and you can't say that about much Greek comedy on TV) 'Min Arhizeis ti Mourmoura', which is a kind of sit-com showing twice a week at 9.00pm on the Greek Alpha TV channel. The title translates roughly as "Don't Start Moaning," and it's about a series of couples at various stages through adult life. The oldest of the four couples that feature on the show has been in it since the beginning, which is probably six or seven years ago now. Many scenes revolve around the kitchen table at meal times, as you'd expect. There was the husband, called Minah, tucking into his meal with a fork in his right hand. He was eating something like pastitsio and it needed a piece cutting off so that he could put it into his mouth to eat it.
I lost all the dialogue, because all my attention was on something else. I was once again fascinated by this strange habit that so many Greeks have of never using a knife. It's true I tell you. I think I mentioned it in one of the "Ramblings" series of books, the fact that Greeks probably believe that knives (that is, knives for the dining table, not hunting knives etc) were only invented so that clever Greeks could show how they could eat an entire meal without one.
There was Minah, chasing this food around his plate while arguing with his wife Voula, trying desperately to cut a piece using the side of his fork. I've seen it so many times. To emphasise the point, we've had Greek friends over for dinner and, of course, laid the table with a knife and fork for everyone, only to see the Greeks totally ignore that the knife even exists, pick up the fork from the left-hand side of their plate with their right hand and begin attempting to eat a cooked meal using only their fork.
Thus, on Saturday evening, there we were seated, the eight of us, around the table, which was well stocked with a selection of home-made pizzas, a penne pasta/pesto dish with oodles of Parmesan grated on top, some traditional Greek salad and a delicious large spanakopita, cut in readiness into lots of two inch-square pieces. Now, to eat a pizza (without resorting to simply picking it up with your hands, of course, which we did all begin doing after a glass or two of lubrication had further relaxed the atmosphere) or indeed a spanakopita, which is made with a fairly resilient pastry (they're not always made with filo) without using your knife is, to me, foolhardiness in the extreme. Yet, after a quarter of an hour or so, I was fascinated, gazing around the table surreptitiously, to see that half of those around the table were doing just that. And that despite the fact that knives and forks had been laid for our convenience.
Observe any social session around a dining table in Greece and you'll see how easy it is to notice the British person, or persons. They'll be the ones blithely using their knives to conveniently cut their food, before pronging it with their forks and raising it demurely to their lips. The Greeks, on the other hand (and, granted, there are a few rare exceptions, maybe they've lived abroad) will gamely be pushing their food all around the plate for ages, trying resolutely to cut it with the edge of their forks, thus taking ten times longer to demolish their meal.
You know something? Maybe I've just hit on the reason they do this. Maybe they do have a point. I mean, us Brits are famous for rushing our food, which is bad for the digestion, since we often don't chew it for anything like long enough before we swallow it, and shovel the next mouthful in. If we were all to abandon the knife and start trying to cut our food on the plate with the edges of our forks, perhaps we'd all be much healthier.
See? All that talk about the Mediterranean diet being healthier for you, when all you have to do is eat using your fork only.
Shoot be down in flames if you like but...... I always assumed the reason why Greeks don't use knives is because they have a fork in one hand and a cigarette in the other! Before people accuse me of any kind if 'ism' I have seen this on many occasions!
ReplyDeleteWell, as it happens, none of our friends are smokers. Hmm, maybe they were in the past though...
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