[masraum]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Me? Left hand, right hand, tines up, tines down, tines sideways if I'm sawing away at something tough, tines pointed toward someone when I'm embellishing a point of conversation....

From what I understand, the British pretty much hold the fork in their left hand, tines always down. Europeans will spin the fork (left hand always) depending on the food - tines up for rice, or peas or such but tines down for stabbing meat.

I was always taught that you should use a fork for pretty much everything that it would work for. I guess the only things that you wouldn't use a fork for are liquidy/saucy things that would run through a fork. I always wondered why bother with the spoon at all and thought that was a silly rule.