American food and their manner of eating

The speech of the Americans ~ The observance of holidays. Not only did the Europeans find the American manner of eating uncouth, they also found the manner of service to be less than they had expected. Fanny Kremble thought her food good enough, but not its presentation: "...the things were put on the table in a slovenly outlandish fashion, fish, soup, and meat all at once, and puddings and tarts and cheese all at once. No finger glasses, and a patched tablecloth--in short a want of style and neatness which is found in every hotel in England".

"The dinner at Niblo's--which may be considered the London Tavern of New York--was certainly more excellent in point of material than of cookery or arrangement...There was no attempt to serve this chaotic entertainment in courses, a fashion, indeed, but little prevalent in the United States".

Food in the United States varied considerably for the travelers. At times they were offered abundant fruits vegetables and meats and in other instances, it was only bread and cheese. The consensus among the travelers was the same however: American food was not prepared well. It was too greasy and rich, with "rivers of butter and fat." Margaret Hall remarked that "'God sends meat and the Devil send cooks' is a saying which applies with full force to this country. There is food in abundance, but it is dressed after a manner that is enough to appaul even a hungary stomach". Traveling through the boarding houses of Cincinnati, Gustorf simply remarks, "I have learned to live without good food and clean beds".

It must be kept in mind the situation of the tourists, lest we think that all 1830's Americans nearly stabbed themselves with a fork trying to shovel the food into their mouths. All of the travelers are eating their meals at a common table in a hotel or boarding house. The food was served family style with many people trying to fill their plates from a minimum of common dishes. No doubt, this setting does not equally reflect the average American family around the dinner table, a scene many of the travelers experienced through their letters of recommendation. Harriot Martineau see this relation clearly and disagrees with the other travelers.

"I need only testify that I do not think the Americans eat faster than other people, on the whole. The celerity at hotel tables is remarkable; but so it is in stage coach travellers in England, who are allowed ten minutes...for dining. In private houses, I was never aware of being hurried".

If the other travelers eventually saw that table manners differed in the private homes of Americans, as Martineau did, they never account for them. Their first impression of Americans eating at a common table in a New York hotel never quite diminishes and few of the writers realize that they have only observed one segment of "eating Americans."

Ex 2. Questions:

1. What did you know about the table manners before reading the text? 2. What table manners can you name after reading the text? 3. What does proper eating include? 4. How does the timing of eating distinguish up the class from the lower orders? 5. What ways do people use to know more about food? 6. What kinds of food do you know? Give as many nouns denoting food as you can. 7. Speak on the order in which foods are eaten. 8. Speak on the Russian and British table manners. What are they? 9. Is there difference between Russian and British table manners?