How do you eat yours?

What may seem like a childlike quirk to some could actually be a valuable food ritual – valuable because it helps us enhance our enjoyment of the food we are eating.

A member of the Ferguson Plarre team, who will remain nameless, takes his Butter Chicken Pie, scoops out the centre and serves it on rice, then uses the pie casing as a roti or naan style bread to really make the most of his meals.

Another teammate loves her double choc round biscuit! Her ritual means that she always eats the white chocolate half first and then the milk chocolate.

Another member (okay, it’s me) takes the top off their cupcake and eats the bottom part of the cake first before getting to the good stuff on the top… I do the same at Christmas with presents. Always save the best til last.

What strange food rituals do you have? Let us know via Facebook

A study by the University of Minnesota and Harvard University has shown that performing food rituals increases our pleasure when eating. Put it this way, if you consider the enjoyment you get from eating out at a great restaurant, it’s not just about the food, the experience counts as well!

If you stop and think about food rituals, you’ll start to see them everywhere. Some are peculiarly personal (like eating the bottom of the cupcake then the top), but many are traditional and communal. History is dotted with stories of food being far more than just something to fill the stomach.

Aztec women used to blow on maize, for example, before heating it, so that it would be prepared for the fire. Breaking the wishbone of a chicken or turkey was once considered sacrilege but is now traditional after a Sunday roast.

Food and celebration are closely linked, too. We eat cakes for birthdays & drink champagne at weddings, as well as more cake.

Some food rituals are born of superstition. In China, breaking noodles is said to shorten one’s life, so the Chinese slurp theirs rather than bite them. There was even a time when women would avoid putting milk in their tea before the water, as the thought was that they may remain single forever if they did so.

What do you think? Have you heard of any strange food rituals or do you have any of your own? Let us know via Facebook

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