Choose the right spoon for your needs. If the table has been preset, your soup spoon will be the large round or oval one to the far right of your place setting. If there is no soup spoon you may use a teaspoon.
Spoon the soup away from you towards the opposite side of the bowl, with your soup spoon in hand.
Sip your soup quietly from the side of the spoon.
Lift a spoonful of soup slightly level with the bowl and hold it for a few seconds while it cools off, rather than blowing on the spoon to attempt to cool the spoonful of soup.
Tip the bowl away from you to spoon the last bit, to consume the last spoonful or two of soup in the bowl.
Put oyster crackers in your bowl at your discretion, as the oyster crackers may come with some appetizers such as soups or chowders. However, larger crackers are to be eaten with your fingers and never crumbled into the soup.
Rest the spoon in the bowl between mouthfuls. When you have finished, place it on the under plate on the right hand side.
Place your spoon on the under plate and use the same hand that held your spoon for the bread, if you desire to have a slice of bread with your soup.
How to eat meat
Certain kinds of meat are never eaten with your fingers.
Table manners for eating grilled meats. At an informal barbecue, hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, and pieces of chicken are most enjoyed when eaten with the fingers. Sausages without buns are eaten with a knife and fork, as are fish, and steak.
Table manners for eating steak. Don't smother steak with steak sauce, especially when dining in a good restaurant. If you use a sauce, pour a small pool next to the steak and dip each forkful of meat before eating.
How to eat poultry
Chicken
The way to eat chicken depends on whether the meal is formal, informal, or family-style.
Table manners for eating chicken at a formal dinner. At a formal dinner, chicken is eaten with a knife and fork.
Table manners for eating chicken at an informal meal. At an informal meal, the knife and fork are used to remove as much meat from the main body as possible; to eat the rest of the meat the bones are held with fingers and taken with the teeth. However, it is wise to take your lead from the hostess.
Table manners for eating chicken at a family meal. At a family meal, chicken with bone attached is eaten with a fork and fingers.
How to eat lobster
Lobster have a long body and five pairs of claws for crawling among rocks. The two front claws have powerful pincers used to crush food. Lobsters are served boiled, steamed, or grilled. Lobster cooked in the shell is eaten with fingers, a small fork, a knife, and a nutcracker. A discard bowl is provided for the shells, along with a finger bowl to rinse fingertips and pat the mouth as a refresher (optional). For ease of eating, the body flesh may be loosened from the shell and then replaced in the shell before being served at the table. For flavor and eye appeal, the meat is surrounded with condiments, such as drawn butter, lemon wedges, and parsley. If the meat has not been loosened, proceed much as for crab.
Table manners to eating lobster.
· Hold the lobster over the plate with one hand. To prevent the juice from squirting from the shell, twist the large claws off slowly and open them with a nutcracker.
· Extract the meat and eat with the small lobster fork that has been provided.
· Twist the smaller claws off with the fingers, and suck the meat from the cavity.
· Detach the tail from the body in a twisting motion with the fingers.
· Break off the flippers at the small end of the tail with the fingers.
· Pull the meat from the tail with the small fork.
· Split the tail and use the fork to lift the meat onto the plate.
· Separate the large tail pieces into bite-size pieces with a knife and dip them into sauce with a fork.
· Crack the back shell and eat the meat with a fork.
· Eat the tomalley (the green liver of the lobster) and the roe directly from the body with a fork.
· Rinse the fingers in the finger bowl and place discarded shells in a large bowl.
How to eat fruits
Fruit is eaten at the table either peeled or unpeeled; fresh, cooked, or candied; pitted, seeded, or whole.
Bananas
Bananas may be eaten raw or cooked. Plaintains are usually eaten cooked. Commonly, bananas that are eaten raw are called dessert bananas.
Table manners for eating bananas at an informal meal. If the meal is informal, you can simply peel the banana and gradually eat it.
Table manners for eating bananas at a more formal meal. When a banana is eaten with a fork, the banana is peeled completely (the skin goes onto the edge of the plate) and cut into slices, a few at a time.
Table manners for eating plantains. Raw plantains are eaten in the same way, although these fruits are usually served fried and eaten with a fork.
Bananas, being primarily carbohydrates, are low in fats, cholesterol, and sodium.