India Tradition on Table Manners (part 1)

Eating is essential to Asia, and it is no different in India. India takes pride for its creative and somewhat weird foods. Nonetheless, the one main goal is creating good, delicious, and spicy foods. India is known to be one of most traditional and religious country in Asia, while eating a person can offend a lot people and God without realizing it.

In this article, I will cover in details on India etiquette during eating. The goal is to minimize all the misunderstandings during a happy occasion that one should be enjoying. All of these rules are general and you can use these rules in any occasion that you will attend to. This means, while eating at somebody's home or eating out you can relate it back to these basic rules. Sound good?

Always be late...

First thing first, when you get invited to a meal, always expect that it will be at the person's house. In Indian perspective, the people consider it is an insult to their wife and guests if they invite you to a restaurant. If you get invited to a meal, please never arrive early because either you will stand outside the door for a while or the people will look at you like you are loco (crazy). You may wonder, "Why nobody wants to do the locomotion with me?" Hehe. You should always be late. As a matter of fact, the Indian natives will expect you to be fifteen to thirty minutes late. Even that amount is consider to be early because some people may be even an hour late.

For example, let say the host invited you to come around 8:00, you probably won't sit down to eat until 9:00 to 9:15 at the earliest. My suggestion is eat a bag of Cheetos before arrive. (Cheetos if you reading this, I'm open for advertisement, hehe)

One thing you should know about India food is that it is spicy. Sometimes it is even spicier than Thai food, so if you cannot eat spicy food, then you may need to let your host know in advance. Or else, you will sit there with a bowl of curry with the tears in your eyes.

Should I clean my hand?

The answer is yes, and YES. It is in India customs to clean your hands before eating. There are two reasons for this customs. First, India has the custom of eating with their hands. Second , majority of the India meal is lay out like a buffet, which mean everybody eat out in the same dish. To protect yourself and everybody else, please clean your hands. Common sense, right?

Look Mom, no chair?

If the host is from a traditional family, which majority of Indian are, then you are expecting to sit on the floor or on a very low wooden chair while eating. As the same time, the males and females are generally segregate or divide during meal time. For Westernize Indian family, males and females may sit together; however, it ss very rare to have a conversation strike between opposite sexes.

As a guest you will be seated first, you can sit anywhere as you like. Unlike Chinese customs, India has no sit of honor.

India culture is the same as the rest of the world, which is dominate by the men. During the meal, the males will be serve first, second will the children, third will be the women, and last but not least will be the cookers.

One little side note, the Muslim have a custom that everybody participant in eating out in the same plate. Now, do think that it is require for you to partake in this custom, if you feel uncomfortable then it is okay to refuse.

One thing to remember is to never refuse food or drink when the host is offered it to you. India natives believe that food is a gift from God, and if you refuse it, this mean that you are not only disrespect the host but the God as well. It's alright to refuse the first offer but never the second or the third. This rule also apply even when you are not invited to the meal but show up unexpectedly, please do not refuse any food or drink.

Once the food is on your plate, you can leave to the side and you would not offend anyone.

The different between the North and the South...

As I have mention before in India culture the people eat with their hands, but there is a little different between the North and the South when it comes to using their hands. For the Northern region, the food that you pick up with your hand should not pass the second joint of your finger. Meanwhile, in the South, you can eat with you full hand.

Sorry, just listen to Kaye West "Gold Digger" hehe.

There is a big "Don't" you should always keep in mind is never eat with your left hand. You should always use your right to pick up the food. According to India etiquette, left hand is unclean because you only use it to clean your booty after going to the restroom. Stay away from using you left hand even if you are like me, a left handed person. Trust me, people will look at you funny. Only one exception for you to use your left hand is passing the dish around to other people.

Exception within an exception...

When you are ask to pass the salt to another person on the table. You should not hand it to them, but instead pick it up and put on the in front of that person. After putting the salt down, then let the other person pick it up for himself. Sorry, I do not have an explanation for this weird custom.

I will stop right here. Thank you for joining me today. Hopefully, I provide a better understand into India etiquette than any other sites. Website is a competitive business, hehe. It is always good to see you. From where I am and wherever you are, have a great night and don't eat too much, everybody.

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