Casual Conversation

When you serve tacos, put an extra tortilla on the bottom of the plate. It'll catch anything that falls off the tacos and now you have one more taco.

If you want to learn how to use chopsticks, get a couple of friends together and order some really nice Chinese food. Serve it in bowls or on plates on a small table with you and your friends gathered around with a pair of chopsticks each.

The rules of the game are simple:

1. you can only eat what you can get to your mouth using chopsticks.
2. you can steal food off someone else's chopsticks with your own.

You will quickly learn how to use the chopsticks!

If you put grapes in the freezer they won't completely freeze. Their frozen texture is like a slushie and they're perfect for the summer.

You can sprinkle instant coffee over foods, like you do with salt and pepper, to make them slightly bitter. It goes great with sweet things based on milk or fruits.

Watermelon rinds and citrus peels are perfectly edible and tasty once candied, so don't waste them. If you're into booze, dump the citrus peels into vodka, wait a month, then mix the vodka half-and-half with syrup. (I know that this is technically not a food eating trick, but still - waste not, want not.)

'Fry' mushrooms in a bit of water before adding oil. They wil turn beautifully golden brown.
Got this one from Adam Ragusea
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OPJmJdStvwI

Opening a banana from the bottom up, it's so much easier.

I can do things with hotdogs that could possibly help in a hotdog eating competition. But that's not what I usually use it for.

Cut of the top of the pomegranate to see where the white "walls" between the five sections are, then cut through the skin vertically along those walls. The fruit can now be pulled apart easily into five sections that are much easier to handle so you can strip the arils from the pith gently without breaking them.

Eating green salads with chopsticks is a game-changer.

The best way to eat grapefruit is not with a spoon: rather, cut it into wedges across the segments then stick the whole wedge in your mouth and pull the flesh out from between the tough interstitial fibers with your teeth.

Cutting cherry tomatoes (olives, grapes) in half: lay your free hand over the top of a few on a cutting board and use a SHARP knife (or good serrated) to cut horizontally between your palm and the cutting board. I have seen some people use a plastic lid to do the same if you're timid (it really is safe since the surface area of your hand is flat and won't cut you easily)

On the pomegranate note, I cut in half (across the segments) and hold over a large bowl and gently spank the end with a spoon to tap out the seeds. ( I'd rather save all the juice with them).

Some will call this blasphemous - If you want to eat spaghetti without having to slurp up noodles and get the sides of your mouth and potentially your shirt stained, use a fork and spoon. Slice the spaghetti buy crisscrossing it, scoop into the spoon, then put it in your mouth. Probably only do this at home and not at a dinner party.

I use the spoon method for pomegranates.

For watermelon, I like to slice it in a grid with a knife before using a spoon to eat it. Then I don't need a special spoon with serrations.