Observing certain rules of conduct at the table, you will feel confident and comfortable in any company. So, what should you pay attention to in order not to get into a mess and not blush for yourself?
When sitting at the table, do not rattle chairs, do not put your elbows on the tablecloth. If you refuse a dish that is being offered to you, do not explain loudly why. By doing this, you can spoil the appetite of others. Soup from a plate should be scooped towards you, picking up an incomplete spoon, so that you can bring it to your mouth without spilling a drop. Blowing into the soup and stirring it with a spoon to cool it is obscene. Better to wait until it cools down. After you have eaten the soup, place the spoon on the plate. If you temporarily stop eating, do the same. When using a knife and fork, hold the fork in your left hand and the knife in your right. If you eat only with a fork, then you need to hold it in your right hand. Cut off piece by piece gradually, in proportion to how you eat them. Everything is cut at once only for children who do not know how to use a knife. When slicing, move the knife towards you, and keep the fork tilted, not perpendicular to the plate, otherwise the fork may slip and the food will scatter on the table. In no case should you eat from a knife. It is not customary to take salt from a salt shaker with your knife, to collect food from a dish with your spoon. When eating bread, do not cut it, but break it into small pieces and put it in your mouth. Bread should only be taken by hand, not with a fork. You should not smear bread with butter directly from Shrovetide. You must first put the butter on your plate. If you need to take something while eating and for this you need to put a knife and a fork, put them on the plate in the position in which you held them, that is, the knife with the handle on the right, the fork on the left. Do not fill your mouth too much while eating - this is ugly and interferes with taking part in a conversation. If you want to take something from the table, do not reach out through the neighbor and do not move the dish across the table to you, but ask to pass it to you. Dishes with food, a candy bowl, a salt shaker, after you have used them, must be put back in their place. Before drinking water, juice or beer, you should wipe your lips with a napkin so that there is no greasy stain on the glass or glass. Do not take food from a large dish with your spoon or fork. Better ask the hostess to serve a separate spoon. Cookies, bread, fruits are passed to others along with a plate, since it is unhygienic to take them with your own hands. You cannot take sugar with a spoon that has already been dipped in tea or coffee. A spoon serves only for stirring sugar - leaving it in a glass or a cup, taking it in your mouth, is ugly. After stirring the sugar, place the spoon on the saucer. Knocking with a spoon, stirring a drink in a cup, is considered a sign of bad manners. When drinking tea or coffee, the teaspoon with which you stir the sugar should not be left in the cup: it may fall out and splatter the tablecloth. If you add alcoholic drinks to coffee or tea, pour them first into a spoon, and only then into a cup. When reading the toast, stop the conversation, quietly put the knife and fork on the table, raise your glass and look at the hero of the occasion. You should not enter into conversations on topics in which you are not competent enough, and even more so categorically express your judgments. It is not for nothing that the people say: "Do not always say what you know, but always know what you are saying."
