5 reasons why eating with your hands is delectable

5 reasons why eating with your hands is delectable

when in rome, do as the romans do means when visiting a foreign country, follow their customs as much as possible, isn’t it? the premise of dinner etiquette is to make you feel comfortable, not uncomfortable, isn’t it?  these 5 reasons why eating with your hands is delectable will prove my point.

we indians eat with our hands nay fingers. eating with hands has been around since primitive man longer than cutlery. the most civilised of all the civilizations like indus valley, the greek and even the egyptians, adopted it. no way can we call it barbaric, can we?

5 reasons why eating with your hands is delectable

1.SENSORY EXPERIENCE

in my opinion, eating is a sensory experience and evokes emotion and passion. it enhances the sensual connection to food. our Vedas state that hands are the prized organs of action. every finger symbolises one of the five elements. the thumb denotes space, the forefinger-air, the middle finger is fire, and the ring finger is water and the pinky- earth. therefore, eating with one’s fingers kindles these five elements and helps in activating the digestive juices in the stomach. the tiny nerve endings on our fingertips are known to stimulate digestion. you are more aware of the taste, textures and aromas.

2.LOVE & HYGIENE

we wash our hands frequently and it is way more hygienic to eat with our hands than with cutlery which is washed just once a day. watch a baby eating with the hands; it evokes great emotion of warmth, love and you go “awwww”. a fork is absurd in traditional indian eating as it is more or less like a weapon.

have you seen anyone feeding birthday cake with a spoon? birthday cake is fed with hands and it conveys pure love.

3. FOOD IS TASTIER

try eating dosa with a spoon! have you tried eating rasam- rice with your spoon for once? if you are in south india and eating rasam-rice, eat it with your fingers and slurp the rasam dripping from your hands! heavenly! imagine using a spoon, fork or a knife to eat your favourite tandoori chicken or chicken wings? i would rather pick it up with my bare hands and tear it apart.

but there is a noticeable north-south divide. we indians generally love to eat with our hands but when it comes to eating anything other than rotis, puris, or tangri kebab, north indians prefer eating with spoons rather than hands. spoons and forks are a legacy of our colonization by the british. but we south indians, are true to the indian style of eating and prefer to eat with our fingers. you can make fun of us but you will agree that we are right.

4.MOM’S LOVE

south indian mothers mix rice and sambar with ghee and feed their kids’ morsel of food with their fingers not spoons. if baby bonds with a breastfeeding mum then a toddler will surely bond with the ball of food fed lovingly from the mum’s hands?

5. INDIAN ETIQUETTE

we south indians excel in our use of fingers and the palm is all clean, mind you. i would call that etiquette, wouldn’t you?

simple-eat with your hands

would you not like to eat a rossogulla with your fingers and lick the trickling syrup from your fingers?

let me challenge you to eat a mayo laden sandwich or a stuffed subway with a spoon.

kfc tag lines are ‘it’s finger-lickin’ good’! seriously?

how do italians tear their pizza? fingers!

some use spoons, forks and knives, others use chopsticks but i prefer to use my bare hands.  learn to be proud of your traditions 

If you liked 5 reasons why eating with your hands is delectable, you should also read we indians finally learnt to laugh this decade or why are we the painful generation or wiper washer, what art thou? and more.

Featured pic credits to http://bit.ly/2w3rA9Q

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