The 10 rudest food moves

On splitting food - or anything - one persons does the splitting and the other person the choosing.

I *hate* people putting their fingers or utensils in my dish. My dish is sacred ground! The next time you say, "Ummm, a mushroom" and spear one from my plate with your fork you might pull back a bloody stump! And I hate ordering an appetizer and having a friend say, "No appetizer for me... I'll have some of her ______ (whatever I've ordered)" Get your own appetizer! Sheesh, the nerve of some people...

Yup, ya wanna bite of MY taco? Order your own!
Sorry, I'm not hungry, I'll just take a little bite of
yours. N-O NO! Order your own!
No ifs, no ands, and no buts...!!!!

What about trying to blow out 40 candles on a birthday cake in one breath? The end of the breath turns out to be a shower of spit!!! Is anybody really that impressed? Why doesn't birthday boy just take 2 or 3 gentle and SPITLESS blows? And then everybody pretends like it didn't just happen.

I agree about the cookie (or anything else being split in half). I learned that polite thing to do is split the cookie and let the other person choose which half to take.

As for taking bites of other people's food, it all seems rude to me, whether it's the first, last, or any other in the succession. Why would someone take a bite out of the host's sandwich? That's just weird. Personally, I don't like anyone other than myself touching my food, unless that person made it for me and has very clean hands.

Seems like you've encountered a lot of really disgusting party-goers, Sarah. Although... Some of your etiquette "rules" seem only half-hearted since you admit to breaking half of them yourself and even defend double dipping.

#2-- I completely agree with! The first and last bites are mine...

I am completely guilty of numbers 6 and 9, whoops! :)

I cannot stand it when people chew and sound like a pig eating slop. I have even gotten up and left the room. Can they not hear how disgusting they sound? It seems they can't. And, if you are cooking something that is meant for others to eat, do NOT use cooking utensil to taste the food and then plunge it back into the pot!

Actually, according to a mythbusters episode I saw a while ago, double dipping doesn't contribute to the bacteria in dips. there's already too much bacteria in the dip for double dipping to make a difference. I don't do it, and it still kind of grosses me out that people take food from their lips into the dip, but I thought I should share...

It is disgusting and vile when someone uses their already used eating utensil to scoop sour cream, butter,etc. or put 2nds of veggies or meat on their plates. Drives me nuts and grosses me out not to mention how dangerous it can be in a variety of ways. If there is a utensil provided for a specific use, USE IT!!

i hate double dippers

Chef Jen, you are not alone! I do this too - if it's in a cone or a cup, I shape it to keep the rounded top.

If you're going to be sharing food with someone, especially from the same plate/bowl/hands, shouldn't you know them well enough to know whether they'd mind if you sneak a fry???

I'm not guilty of any of these - it only takes a bit of common sense to realize how terribly rude are those things.

if your gonna double dip, GET A BOWL for your OWN dip!
if you are sharing a cookie w/me and its your cookie, of course i will take the smaller half but if im sharing MINE? dont get mad if mine is the bigger half. if you absolutely have to say something and you have food in your mouth, at the LEAST cover your mouth with your hand if you cannot wait the 10 seconds to chew and swallow first, noone should have to see that! sneaking icing, yea.. wait til its served. biting into a particularly gross chocolate and then putting it back.. unless it is YOUR box and you are going to attempt to try it again THROW IT AWAY that is SO gross. NEVER ask for someones food. PERIOD. its different if they want to OFFER you a bite of theirs but noone should EVER ask for someone elses food. Enough said.....

I'm guilty of number 9 I just can't resist however I do use a clean spoon.

Number 4 is a lesson every child should be taught from birth, as mine were. Sandwiches, snack cakes, cookies , whatever is to be shared is divided by one person and the other person gets to pick the first piece. It teaches them to be honest and fair.
Also, if you teach them as children to keep their hands off of other peoples things, to respect a persons "space", they will know not to "dip" in another persons plate.

In our household , we always had what we refered to as the 'best bite' which could pertain to 1 or 2 or both.

oops! i meant 2 or 3!

I had a breakfast friend and we found that our favorite place gave such large portions that we could share and be full. Imagine my surprise when she pulled out a miniature tape measure to measure the omlette to be sure it was split equally.

I'm guilty of two and five, but only with family at my home. Five because everyone else does it; don't even ask them to stop, they will claim that you're throwing a hissy over nothing. And #2 I only ask for the last bite with my sister, but not if it's really good because if it is I would have my own. I only ask her sometimes because I give her my last bite sometimes. I know it's not right to get mad if she won't give it to me, just because I give mine to her, but I can't help it. Probably because I'm the baby of the family so I'm a bit bratty.

These are just the beginning of the list of reasons I don't eat in public or give very many around me the chance to do any of the above! Please, if you do any of these things, save them for in the privacy of your own home and don't subject the rest of us to your lack of common sense.