The Spoon. First posted: Tuesday, August 28, 2007  This post was inspired, in part, by something I read in Dominique Cimafranca's blog, villageidiotsavant: [Philippine Defense Squad dot Com].  Growing up on the southern part of the United States, I assumed that when it came to the way one uses a fork,spoon or knife while eating, was pretty much standard throughout the world.I knew that people in other parts of the world used sticks to eat with, but it never occurred to me that there could be more than one way to use a fork and spoon.  When I first came to Philippines in 2000, I was introduced to a different method of using cutlery. I was staying with a friend in Siquijor who, as it turned out, was a bit of a snob and refused to eat the same way other Filipinos ate. It wasn't until some members of her family arrived from Mindanao that I learned the way most Filipinos use the spoon.  At one particular lunch, her brother had set the table....giving us all the proper culinary ware.I had no idea that the spoon set beside my plate was to be used for eating.....I thought it was some sort of serving spoon. After all, there wasn't any soup on the table; why else would I need a spoon.Her brother was completely scandalized that someone (namely, yours truly) kept leaving a spoon in one of the bowls of food.  That was when I learned the proper way to eat.Spoon in right hand;the fork in the left.... using the fork as a "backstop" in much the same way we Southerners might use a biscuit.  As it turned out, after that first visit to Philippines, I developed the habit of eating Filipino style and I continue to do so to this day.... much to the amazement of some of my American co-workers.  Here in Georgia, my wife and I have several friends who are, like us, Filipina wife/American husband.I can't help but notice the way these other families have adapted to the difference in eating styles.Those husbands that I had already judged as being more open minded were apt to be more tolerant of the way the wife used a spoon and fork.A few, like me, had picked up the habit themselves, as well.  Others, which I would call the "tight asses", not only refused to change the way they ate, but forced the wife to eat the "American" way.In much the same way as the Filipno mentioned earlier became scandalized by my faux pas with the spoon, some of these guys become upset whenever spoons are set on the table by a Filipino.  Why would anyone care one way in the least how someone else choose to use an eating utensil ?