How to eat like a Brazilian
When I arrived in Rio, the plan was to stay a couple of weeks with my girlfriend in her mother’s house, after which I would make alternative arrangements. I am a little ashamed to say that the ‘couple of weeks’ turned into 8 months – a testament to the generous, welcoming nature of the lady who became minha sogra (my mother-in-law).
Although I don’t remember exactly what we ate on that first evening, one memory from the meal does remain. As everyone else was milling around in the kitchen, I approached the table and happened to notice that someone had put the knives and forks round the wrong way – knife on the left, fork on the right!
Well, being a polite young (ahem) man, I didn’t want my hosts to feel embarrassed when they discovered this mistake, so I quickly switched the cutlery around to their proper positions and then popped into the kitchen to help bring the food to the table.
As we sat down to eat, I saw that my girlfriend, her brother and mother all switched their cutlery back to their original positions! Thus I discovered that most Brazilians eat with their fork in the right hand and the knife in the left. I say most because it isn’t all of them – a quick glance round at lunch today showed that 8 out of my 10 work mates eat this way.
Cutting it the Brazilian way.
