This dining system is a traditional way of eating, and it was not until the Song Dynasty that it was replaced by the dining system in China. Compared with the combined meal system, the separate meal system attaches great importance to the ordering and eating methods of dishes, which seems a bit dogmatic.
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Tableware and meal size
Western food strictly follows strict dining etiquette. Each dish should be equipped with a container, a set of knives and forks and a drink cup. For a formal private banquet, we can roughly judge the appetite of the day by the number of tableware or cups on the table.
For example, there are four sets of tableware on the table: a spoon, two sets of knives and forks and a dessert spoon, which means that dinner will be composed of four courses. At this time, four wine glasses and 1 water cup will appear on the desktop.
In a restaurant, we rarely see so many tableware and wine sets placed at one time, but the waiter will put on new ones every time he serves. This is a variation of the above tradition. Considering the small space between dining tables, putting the whole set of tableware at one time will affect our dining experience, which is an improvement.
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Tableware and meal arrangement
Western food uses tableware from the outside to the inside, and each dish uses a set of tableware. The number of meals is based on the number of tableware placed on the right side of the plate, which also corresponds to the dishes of the day.
If the outermost tableware is a spoon, it means that the first dish we will enjoy is soup. If it is a knife, it means that the first course will be a cold meal such as salad. This knife will be one size smaller than the staple food knife and easy to identify.
This knife may also appear behind the spoon. When it appears here, it means that we will not only have soup as the first course, but also salad as the appetizer. This will be a two-headed dish combination.
The first course is followed by dinner, which is equipped with one or two sets of long-handled knives and forks. The knives are on the right and on the left. When they are a combination of knife and fork, it means that we will have 1 or two staple foods with meat as the main raw material.
When the original position of the knife was changed to a fork, that is, the knife and fork became a fork combination, and the fork appeared on the right side of our plate where only the knife should appear. If our left and right hands had forks, it would be very interesting, which means we should eat fish with bones in the staple food.
In traditional western food, you don't need a knife to eat fish. The correct way to eat fish is to use a fork, not a knife, and slowly pick the fish out of the fish bones with a double fork.
Behind the knife will be a knife or a spoon. The knife is for cut the cheese, and the spoon is for cutting pudding (cake). Traditional western food can be salted before dessert. So we will not only put spoons, but also put forks.
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Meal and wine
Except that water is fixed, every dish in orthodox western food needs to be changed into a wine.
Appetizer with refreshing sparkling wine, white wine or pink wine, dinner with heavy white wine or red wine, then brandy with salty point, sweet wine with dessert. So we will put the wine in the upper right corner of the tableware. Just like the habit of taking tableware from outside to inside, wine utensils are used from right to left.
Only when you know what it is will you know why. If you want to prepare an orthodox and fashionable western-style dinner for yourself and your family, you should be prepared not to joke.
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