Finger Lickin' Good. NOT!

Sometimes I think todays "new" family has not been brought up around a dinner table, but grab and go. Soccer mom may be to busy to cook and the family may be raised on finger foods.......pizza, burgers, fries, tater tots, chicken nuggets etc. and when vacation comes around they haven't been raised with proper table manners or how to use utensils.

It's a fast food world anymore. The buffet can be overwhelming to those. My son encounters this when he gets his little girls and has to go through Mommy Detox as she never cooks. Poptarts for dinner anyone?:loudcry:

My favorite has always been trying to get one slice of a cheese slice off the top of a stack of 100 slices using tongs that a person could use to throw logs on a fire place. It just can't be done. I developed this technique that is sanitary, but if anyone sees me I have to explain.

Sir, more power to you but I have no intention of only taking a single slice of cheese!

Gimme two or three slices.. and about a quarter pound of bacon. :D

Thank you sascol for bringing up this topic. Lokip53 - see it too often.

This is why P&O Australia has removed the buffet from it's ships - all food is behind a counter and dished out as needed. Also from memory Oceania dished out all food. I'm actually surprised that ships still have an open buffet - I mean I love helping myself but with sickness that can go around a ship so quickly I think more and more will be replaced with servers and not self serve.

I agree that licking your fingers and touching the serving utensils is mighty nasty. Eating while at the buffet line is also pretty gross. I once saw a child put a slice of cold salmon in his mouth, take it out and put it back on the serving plate. yum!

Have you ever tried separating pizza slices with tongs? You might have to shake the HE11 out of one piece to get the other to drop. I blame RC for not giving a useable product. My favorite has always been trying to get one slice of a cheese slice off the top of a stack of 100 slices using tongs that a person could use to throw logs on a fire place. It just can't be done. I developed this technique that is sanitary, but if anyone sees me I have to explain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I get a new clean fork from the wrapped utensil area, put the fork under the first cheese slice and put my thumb on the top slice, the one I am going to eat. That way the only thing touching the cheese is a supposedly clean fork. Certainly cleaner than the provided tongs.

 

 

 

PS - I remember my technique for badly cut windjammer pizza. I pull on the piece with my hands that I am going to eat, and use the utensil to hold the rest of the pizza in place.

I know lol. It's not easy if I. Can't get them apart I'll just have an extra slice [emoji23]

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and I wonder why 4 out of 6 of us off the Oasis last Sunday are now sick.

What I find just as disgusting are those Pax that are too lazy to get up a second or third time and load up their dishes with meats, salads, desserts and anything else they can load on a plate. How high can one go.:D

This reminded me of a joke my dad told me once. A girl was making a pb&j for herself and started to put the jelly covered knife into the peanutbutter jar. The hillbilly/redneck (can't remember but it was self deprecating humor coming from Arkansas) dad grabbed her hand and said "you lick that knife before putting it in the peanutbutter".

Anyway, I largely avoid buffets for this and other reasons but when I do go I try to remember to bring one glove to cover my hands from the serving handles. Take it off before I eat, the family is embarressed but whatever, my biggest fear of cruising is Noro. (I understand other places can get it but if I get it, but I think cruise might be the WORST place to deal with it.)

Thanks for the friendly reminder. At a local Sprouts Supermarket I saw customers use their hands yes their hands to take out bread rolls when there were thongs next to the bread basket.

Do you know what I did? I reported it to a worker. And I followed one offender to the checkout line and I told her I saw her pick the rolls out with her hands in front of the cashier.

Can you spell germs? I mean how crazy people are. I have seen some unpretty buffet behavior and reported it to a staff member.

Folks lick your fingers all you want at your table. Oh and people eating in the buffet line. How hungry are you really?

The worse one I have ever witnessed. A gentleman picked up the serving spoon, tasted the food & put it back into the dish.

No wonder there are Noro Virus breakouts and other viruses.

Do as I do. If I am not sure whether I would like a dish I will take a small sample and then go back for more. I have done this on numerous occasions. Its not like the dishes are going away!

My first go at any buffet is a sample plate of three or four items I may enjoy. The second go around is the "Yes I love it" plate . This also cuts down on waste.

Then the third go is dessert. Oh yea gotta have those Ranger Cookies, Chocolate Cake.

Saw a woman eat a hot dog (no bun) on the Liberty OTS, lick her fingers and give me a dirty look all at the same time. This was in front of a special salad prep area. I asked the chef he said, “it’s the demographics”.

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You people make way too big a deal out of this.

First of all, this is a very isolated event, people rarely do this at the buffet.

Second, Stop acting so squirrelly. it will not hurt you or make you sick because food touched someone else's fingers.

You need to get out of your bubble....

SCIENCE-

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I would have had no problem saying something. That is disgusting!!

Reread my post, little boy touched nothing with his fingers, Grandma used hers for whipped cream. Maybe the cycle stopped and he is following the lead of his parents and not the gross habits of Grandma.

No need to. Grandma was a kid at one time and possibly saw an adult doing exactly what grandma is now doing. That was the point I was expressing. The cycle continues! :rolleyes:

You people make way too big a deal out of this.

First of all, this is a very isolated event, people rarely do this at the buffet.

Second, Stop acting so squirrelly. it will not hurt you or make you sick because food touched someone else's fingers.

You need to get out of your bubble....

And you know this for a fact or assuming. You're the one in a bubble.

I did see a young one once on Liberty with two cones, one in each hand, operating the self serve ice cream lever with his mouth. I did alert a nearby staff person, who jumped right in and wiped it down. Suffice to say, it turned me off to the self-serve ---for about a day because I have serious cravings XD

I remember on my last cruise- I was in the MDR-I saw a passenger take his napkin-wipe his mouth-sneeze in it and then wave it around in circles to the music- sharing their germs with anyone and everyone near him. Oh wait; that happens every cruise.

lol

You do all realize that many of these people are eating with there hands at their table, and then going back up for seconds (or thirds) and touching the tongs...I do eat at the buffet, and use proper etiquette, but try not to think about who's grubby hands may have touched my food :)

~and yet even more reasons that I don't do buffets....... I have witnessed way to many gross, unsanitary people over the years on ships. <<shudders>> We avoid it if at all possible.:o

Yes, I work in healthcare...

My order had come up at a Denny's and was on the hot plate. And it sat and it sat. The waitress finally went to the hot plate, picked up each one of the/my pancakes, patted them and grabbed the dishes and brought them to the table. I told the waitress: 1) My DH ordered over easy, NOT scrambled that was delivered;

2) I SAW her touch and pick up my pancakes. She said .... "SO? My hands are clean. " What??? We left .... Oh, there were only 3 tables with people at them when we were there. So ... NOT busy.

Is that fake science, lol.

This thread is great public relations for someone who is contemplating taking a cruise especially for the culinary experience. :rolleyes:

make (someone) learn or remember something by constant repetition.

 

Dinning - "the doctrine that has been dinned into all our heads"

 

They have a special room for that? They service lunch there? ;)

Love it! That’s always been one of my pet peeves...seeing “dinning room.” The correct name for a room used to consume a meal is DINING. One “N,” not two. That said, many people are not the best at spelling, so it is what it is, and I get their meaning.