How to Know Proper Table Manners in India

You're used to hearing your mother admonish you to "use your fork" when eating at the table; you feel guilty about picking up food with you fingers and popping it into your mouth. Nevertheless, if you're planning a trip to India, get used to it. Not only will you be expected to eat with your fingers, you'll be expected to do it a certain way.

Instructions

1. Wash your hands. A common show of proper table manners in the United States, it is imperative in India where fingers are eating utensils.

2. Tear your bread into pieces and wrap it around other foods. Rip Indian breads such as nans, parathas, bhakris and rotis, into narrow strips with your fingers, pile other foods on them, and wrap and dip them in curry sauce.

3. Flex that thumb. Recommended by travel gurus, a helpful technique for eating all those Indian rice dishes is to utilize the thumb to scoop the food onto your fingers. Practice by placing your thumb beside the rice and twisting your wrist while pushing the rice onto your fingers, holding them together and flat.

4. Throw your plate away. In some areas of India, banana leaves serve as plates. They are large and in rural areas, torn into plate-sized pieces with ragged edges. In Indian restaurants, rectangular-cut leaves hold a diner's meal.

5. Shove your left hand in your lap. Sit on it if you have to and keep it there. In India it is considered unsanitary to eat (or shake hands) with one's left hand, which is reserved for "toilet" activities. Use your right hand for all your eating.

6. Lick your fingers when you're done. In India, this is a proper table manner. There's nothing better than finishing off a great meal by licking all the curry sauce from your fingers.

Tips & Warnings

• In addition to using your right hand to eat with, use only your fingers. Although food may touch your palm, you will receive condescending looks, implying you are an outsider and an amateur at eating Indian style.

Resources

• Indian meal served on a plate.