Why should we embrace eating with hand?
Careful when you say you don't like a particular kind of food. I learned this the hard way. Pasta was never to my liking until a balmy night several years ago in a penthouse apartment in Wudaokou where I had linguine (with tomato sauce) cooked by three Italian ladies. That was something entirely different than anything I had had before. I was in love with pasta right away, authentic home-cooked pasta. For a long time I also shunned burgers. Why would anyone eat burgers? I lamented. Yet a couple years ago I pledged allegiance to melt-in-your-mouth meaty buns at Fatburger, a diner near the American embassy in Beijing's Liangmaqiao neighborhood.
Both cuisines had been inducted to Gastronomy Hall of Fame in my heart. Pasta and burgers are on a par with skewered lamb, sashimi and steamed fish head with Hunan chili pepper. Cooked right, any food can be tasty. KFC's proclamation "We do chicken right" is precisely such a recognition and tactic differentiating itself from its lackluster rivals in a conventional mass market.
When talking about food, there is more to the taste, however. Cuisine would be so incomplete and dull without adhering to the very culture that breeds it. Sadly, many seemingly unimportant cuisine elements are missing. One thing many get wrong yet often goes unnoticed is how people eat a certain kind of food.
Few would raise an eyebrow eating Indian food with cutlery, for instance. But eating not using hand is clearly not the Indian way of eating. If there is a great deal of truth in "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", then your bare hand is required when eating Indian food. Oh, a kind reminder: right hand only.
I had eaten in Indian restaurants. Whether it was at Indian Kitchen in Sanlitun of Beijing, or Pearl Indian Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, or New Delhi Restaurant in downtown San Francisco, the food was largely decent. Looking back, however, I find something important was absent; the experiences thus do not qualify as Indian dining. I didn't learn about this until last weekend.
My fiancée and I were invited to dinner by two friends last Saturday. The male host Amartya hails from Mumbai, India. Since he and his girlfriend experimented Indian food quite a bit, they decided to treat us vegetables and roti (pictured), a flat round unleavened bread popular in India.
Washing hands before meals is practiced in many cultures. But Amartya's reminder made me more aware of the act. It's more than a sanitary matter; it can be and is ritual. The table was set, food placed in a row, drinks poured. We started dinner. Naturally we talked about food and the eating manners associated with Indian food. I was told only right hand is appropriate when handling food, as the left one is considered unclean. Rip a piece of roti, shovel some broccoli or scoop some gumbo on to roti, and bring the food to your mouth. Perhaps because it was a new experience, or because the right hand was in direct contact with food, I felt I was more conscious of eating and the feel of food. The bond between food and I strengthened.
About 20 minutes into dinner, I tried to check my phone as I would habitually do. Just as I was about to touch my phone, I froze: my right hand is unavailable. I am eating. My fingertips feel flour. Eating is an activity that requires commitment and attention. You cannot multitask. What a surprising realization!
I couldn't take my mind off the thought. Eating with hand allows you to be fully in the present moment. This state of mind affects everybody at the table. Smartphones stand idle at meals. Nothing is more real and important than eating. Communication is improved too. Throughout dinner, we exchanged lighthearted stories about our experience living in North America and the Netherlands. We listened to each other carefully and responded quickly. Details and diction sticked to mind. We laughed hard. It was a delightfully mindful and relaxing dining experience.
I stretched my imagination a bit. The globe has gone mobile. Every eye is glued to smartphone. We live a rushed and insecure life. We worry a lot. We worry we are not keeping abreast with the most up-to-the-millisecond. We worry we are lagging behind somebody. We worry missing messages. When it comes to attention, we also rob Peter to pay Paul. We are forever absent from the NOW moment.
Eating with hand is a handy remedy. It sharpens our sense of touch. It inspires mindfulness. It helps us concentrate on the moment, not Wechat Moments. It helps divert our attention to people and their words. As a result, family members will be closer, people happier.
Though not unwelcome, eating with hand had never seemed an appealing idea. Not any longer, thanks to the dining experience. Just as you should be cautious when you say you don't like some food, beware misgivings about eating with hand. You are what you eat, true enough. Now, if you like, take to heart one more maxim: you are how you eat.
题图：one. 照片拍摄于 Amartya 家里。
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