Soup seems simple, and when you’re at home and no one’s watching, you can slurp away to your heart’s content. But what about when you’re in a fancy restaurant?
Here are the top soup etiquette tips
- Your instinct might be to spoon your soup towards you in the bowl. However, contradictorily, you should be spooning it away from you. This way, any soup that would have dripped, lands up back in the bowl instead of on you.
- Many of us are guilty of sipping the soup from the front of the spoon, but try sipping from the side. There is less of a tapered point on the side and therefore, soup is less likely to run down and spill.
- Never blow on your soup (or any food, actually) to cool it. This tells people that you’re not a patient patron. Be cool and allow your food to cool on its own.
- Go ahead and tip your soup bowl away from you to get the last drops of soup, but tipping it toward you is asking for trouble. If you’re in Japan, feel free to just lift the soup bowl to your mouth with both hands.
- Soup spoons are used in Korea, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and The Philippines. In Japan and Hong Kong, slurping soup is a sign of approval and appreciation. In Thailand, however, slurping is considered rude.
Have you been rolling with these rules forever or have you had an embarrassing soup situation?
Sources: Manners Mentor, Soup Song