FINGER FOODS

Various foods are eaten with the fingers instead of fork or spoon.
Bread, for instance, is never cut but always broken into small pieces and
lifted to the mouth with the fingers. Butter is seldom provided at the
formal dinner, but if it is, each little piece of bread is buttered
individually just before it is eaten. Crackers and cake are eaten in the
same way; although some cakes and pastries are eaten with the fork.
Those that can be eaten daintily with the fingers such as macaroons,
lady-fingers, cookies, etc., should be eaten so while layer cake and
elaborate pastries should be eaten with the fork.

Corn on the cob is without a doubt one of the most difficult foods to eat
gracefully. And yet it is too delicious to forego the pleasure of eating
it at all. It is entirely permissible to use the fingers in eating corn,
holding it lightly at each end; sometimes a napkin is used in holding it.
Many a foresighted hostess, when serving corn on the cob, provides each
guest with a short, keen, steel-bladed knife with which the kernels may
be cut from the cob easily. This is by far the most satisfactory method.

French artichokes are also difficult to eat. The proper way is to break
them apart, leaf by leaf, dip the tips in the sauce and lift them to the
mouth with the fingers. The heart is cut and eaten with a fork.

Lobster claws may be pulled apart with the fingers. Shrimps also, when
served whole in their shells, may be separated, peeled and eaten with the
fingers. Fruits such as oranges, apples, grapes, peaches and plums are
all eaten with the fingers. Celery, radishes and olives are similarly
eaten. Sometimes there are other relishes on the dinner table, and the