We Indians eat with our fingers. We use spoons only to dish our food on to the plate. After that, we use our 'god-given' digits to take the food from the plate to our mouth. We believe that food is very sacred and needs to be shown respect and that respect comes from touching the food, molding it in between your fingers. After all you are putting the food into your mouth to nourish your body, if you cannot be brave enough to touch it, how can you trust that the food will be good for you.
Westerners cringe when they see Indians eat with their fingers. They consider the method messy. But then on the other hand, they are perfectly happy with the Japanese and Chinese using to sticks to eat their food. My students often ask me about the hygiene issue of using our fingers, and I am not sure why they think it will be unhygienic. Just as you make sure your spoons, forks and chopsticks are clean when you use them to eat, it is easy to make sure that your hands are also washed and clean! Of course, you wash your hands before you start eating and after your had your meal.
There are some basic etiquette rules. You never eat with your left hand, even if you are left-handed. Left hand is considered unclean. You also wait to be served. Since your left hand is not to be used, and you are using your right hand to eat, you cannot really serve yourself without making the serving spoon sticky. So you wait. The other rule is about not to offer food to another from your plate. That is a complete no-no. We have a concept call 'Jhutha' and I am yet to find an english word that can explain the concept. You can somehow say that 'jhutha' means that the food has been 'compromised or polluted'. But it still does not describe the essence. Mother-child or husband-wife relationships can share the food and eat each other's 'jhutha', but you never ever offer it to anyone else. It will be an insult.
Eating with fingers is easy - take your rice, mix it with a bit of the sides, make a tiny ball of the size of a golf ball, and then gently plop it into your mouth. If you are eating a chapatti or roti, you tear a triangular piece and then use that to pick a portion of the sabzi and put it in your mouth. In Northern India, most people eat with the tip of their fingers, that is only the top couple inches of the hand is in contact with the food. In South India, however, often plunge the the whole hand into the food. They use the palm of their hands to make the ball and then put the rice into their mouth. Either way is OK, you decide how you want to eat!
The story goes that the Shah of Iran when visiting India, was so enamored by the custom, he remarked that to eat with the spoon and form is like making love through an interpreter.
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