BURGER ETIQUETTE
How many times have you felt the craving for a burger, only to end up looking like a 5-year old with sauce all over your mouth and hands, or a rogue gherkin on your newly-washed clothes? Here are some useful tips to avoid these pitfalls and maintain your dignity in the face of potential dressing drippage and salad slippage.
- Take your sandwich in both hands, placing your little fingers and thumbs firmly underneath the bun, the other three fingers on top, thus giving yourself a platform to keep all ingredients within the bun. Check the burger from all sides carefully before taking a bite, to ensure that everything is safely within the burger.
- Keep your sandwich wrapped. Burgers often come with a paper wrapping, which can be used as protection against any ingredients escaping. If it comes in a box, take a napkin and place around the burger for the same effect. This also ensures you retain maximum taste.
- Divide your burger. Sometimes the sandwich can be way too big to eat properly. Taking necessary precautions by cutting it into manageable portions will help to keep the structure of the burger, and also maintain your dignity from your friends and other customers. Be careful to cut the burger carefully, as potential spillage and drippage can occur.
- Putting a little pressure on the top of your burger whilst cutting will help to keep the structure of the sandwich together. Sometimes it may be necessary to remove items such as salad leaves or tomato from your burger before cutting. It will be easier for you to cut them separately and then you can put them back in your sandwich or eat them on their own.
- Be prepared! Have spare napkins at the ready. Whether eating with hands or even with a knife and fork, there is always the danger of something falling or escaping unbeknown to you. So have towels available to clean up the mess. As mentioned, using napkins to wrap around your sandwich will reduce the probability of ingredients escaping, however, as we all know, it’s not 100% foolproof.
- Bite within your means. Your burger might be wanting to encourage you to take big bites, but that could be fatal. By biting more off than you can chew, the greater the risk you have of condiments escaping. It also opens up the danger of not being able to close your mouth whilst eating, not attractive and bad etiquette.