Suggested Situations

A. Helen has invited some friends to a dinner party. She has cooked ail the dishes herself and proudly mentions the fact. Her friends do not find everything quite to their liking, but try not to show it. On the whole, every one is having great fun.

B, An irritable husband is sitting at dinner and criticizing his wife's cooking. He is trying to teach her the way this or that dish should be cooked though he knows very little about it. The wife is doing her best to defend herself.

C. A hostess is treating a lady-visitor to a meal. The visitor keeps repeating that she is on a slimming-diet, that she never eats anything fattening and that, in general, she eats like a little bird. Yet she helps herself to this and that very heartily, till the hostess begins watching the disappearing food with some anxiety.

D. A slow waitress is taking an order from a hungry and impatient client. All the client's efforts to order this or that dish are refused on all kinds of pretexts: the pork is fat; the beef is tough; they haven't got any more potatoes in the kitchen; the ice-cream has melted; the cook has a toothache, etc.

E. Two very young and extremely inexperienced housewives are advising each other as to the best way of feeding their husbands. One of them is inclined to take the line of least resistance and to serve only tinned food for all the meals. The other points out that tinned food alone will never do and suggests other ways of solving the problem.

XVII. Brash up your table manners.

A. Answer the following questions and then check youranswers by comparing litem with the answers below:

1. What is the correct way to sit at table? 2. Should you use your fork or your knife for taking a slice of bread from the bread-plate? 3. How should you get a slice of bread from the plate standing on the far end of the table? 4. What is the correct way of using spoon, fork and knife? 5. How should you cut your meat? 6. What are the dishes for which knife shouldn't be used? 7. What is the way to eat chicken? 8. What is one supposed to do with the stones while eating stewed fruit? 9. What should you do with the spoon after stirring your tea? 10. What should you do if your food is too hot? 11. What should you say to refuse a second helping? 12. What should you say if you like the dish very much? 13. What should you say if you dislike the dish? 14. What shouldn't one do while eating? 15. Where should one keep the newspaper or the book during a meal, on the table or on one's lap?