Even for those of us who aren't self proclaimed "foodies", we all like to enjoy our dining experiences, and we all have those foods that we absolutely love. However, something many of us don’t realize is that the way we eat our food can play a huge role in how much we enjoy eating it.
Particularly for those of us that enjoy foods that can be messy, we are often faced with a dilemma: Trying to choose and eat food like a civilized person or throwing caution to the wind and eating the food we enjoy regardless of the ensuing mess.
Here are a few alternative and more convenient ways, for those who want to walk the line, to eat certain delicious food that we’ve gone our whole lives eating differently.
1. Chicken Wings
This scrumptious wonder of meat and flavor is, unfortunately, not the ideal food for a date. You risk wasting parts of the wing, in an attempt to stay neat and not get delicious barbecue sauce (or Sriracha sauce, or buffalo sauce, or honey, or garlic butter… I could go on) all over your face and clothes.
A simple solution to this messy situation is to press on the cartilage between the two wing bones, and twist one till it detaches from the other. Then you’ve got two easy pieces to eat.
To know the best way to eat chicken wings, check out:
2. Pineapples
I’ve been going my whole life searching for a knife perfect for slicing apart this big yellow fruit. Did you know that pineapples used to be displayed in rich houses as a sign of wealth? Just a little trivia there for you.
As it turns out, this wonder of nature comes pre-cut. Following the ridges already carved out into the fruit, you can cut the top off. From there, the process is easy. You can just pull the pieces out whole, and they detach in ideal bite-sized chunks, perfect for snacking.
To know the best way to enjoy a Pineapple, check out:
3. Sandwiches
As someone that doesn’t have many skills in the kitchen, sandwiches are my go-to food of choice, especially if there’s company. But I find myself always facing the circular meat/cheese and square bread dilemma. Of course, I power through my moment of OCD and let the strange shapes persist. However, there is a solution.
You can cut the meat or cheese in half and place them on the bread with the edges lined with the edges of the bread. This lets the filling spread evenly through your sandwich and gives you a nice heavy center.
(Source: UrbanEat - www.urbaneat.co.uk)
4. Oranges
Because they’re so easy to peel, it’s easy to assume that oranges are best to eat when peeled. We don’t think twice about the white skin that’s still left on the fruit after we peel it. Most people just scrape it off while others go as far as eating it to avoid the hassle.
Here’s another hassle-free way of enjoying this fruit. Cut off the edges of the orange, or make a few small cuts from the top downward. Make sure the cuts are just deep enough to cut through the skin and not the juicy part of the fruit. Then watch it unravel with ready-to-eat orange slices beckoning to you.
An added tip: You can freeze the peel and use the orange zest later in anything you’re cooking!
To know the best way to eat an orange, take a look at:
5. Chinese Takeout
Why did our leader run?!
Don’t you know? General Tso’s chicken.
Sorry, I could not resist the opportunity for a moment of food humor. Levity aside, however, all your favorite Chinese take-out places are looking out for you. In addition to the delightful delicacies being delivered to your doorstep, they also send the silverware. I’m not talking about spoons and forks. I’m talking about plates.
As it turns out, these ingenious members of the service industry realized that sending a plate along with the food opens up a whole new range of customers, not limited by the need for dining utensils! If you haven’t seen it, it’s not because your favorite take-out place doesn’t like you. The boxes in which the food is packed and delivered can be unfolded and opened up to form make-shift plates. So you can enjoy your General Tso’s chicken without any hesitation!
To know how to turn your Chinese Take-out Box into a plate, check out:
6. Cupcakes
Traditionally, I am used to eating cupcakes in two ways. Either I lick the delicious creamy icing off the top and then slowly eat the rest, or leave it for someone else to eat. Because who wants a cupcake without icing. Or I try to take bigger bites, optimizing my frosting to cake ratio in each bite. It’s not as easy as it sounds.
However, thanks to this wonderful new space age technology called the internet, I discovered a whole new way to revolutionize the way we eat cupcakes. Cut the bottom half of the cupcake off and put it on top of the icing. Boom. Cupcake sandwich. Why has no one patented this?
To know how to make your next Cupcake sandwich, check out:
7. Bananas
We have been eating bananas wrong our entire lives. Which is really strange if you think about it because our primate brethren know the right way to do it. It's one of the rare slip-ups in our evolution.
I was always taught (through observation, of course) that you peel a banana by twisting the long end and pulling off each side of the peel, one at a time. As it turns out, you can make the whole thing easier by flipping the fruit upside down and then peeling. I guess that would mean we've been eating bananas upside down this whole time and we need to turn them right side up!
An added tip: This applied to burgers, too! Avoid the mess by eating it upside down, so the stronger bun is on the bottom.
To know the right way to peel a banana, take a look at:
8. Eggs Sunny Side Up
Much like the Runaway Bride, I have gone on many rampages trying to find my favorite way of enjoying eggs. I finally settled on Sunny Side Up, because, well, they’re just so much fun to eat. But making them is less fun, because most of my eggs end up Runny Side Up, with the white splayed all across the pan.
Here’s an easy trick I learned that can help keep your Sunny Side Up eggs in a perfect circle, while also adding a hint of extra flavor. Take a big onion and slice one ring from it. Make sure the ring stays whole. Place the onion ring on the pan, crack the eggshell and release the contents of the egg directly into the ring. This helps keep your egg contained and not wandering all over the pan. And you get perfect circular Sunny Side Up eggs, diner-perfect.
To see how to make the best Sunny Side Up eggs using an onion ring, check out:
9. Tea
Tea is my saving grace, as someone that is trying to kick my coffee addiction, which had gone above and beyond the norm. It’s a great way to get a small caffeine kick, and also enjoy a nice hot (or cold) aromatic beverage. All the many different types of Tea are also known for the incredible health benefits they can give to you.
Most people have their tea with milk or cream. It’s the customary way of enjoying tea, and with a hint of sugar, it is an absolute delight. However, it has recently been discovered by health experts that adding milk to your tea can cancel out many and most of those health benefits that make tea such a great option. A study conducted in the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin revealed that numerous cardiovascular benefits presented by Tea are rendered ineffective by adding milk.
The next time you have tea, make sure to go Dairy Free!
To know how and why milk negates the health benefits of tea, you can watch:
10. Apples
Apples are my all-time favorite fruit. How do they manage to be sweet and sour at the same time? Plus they say they help keep the doctor away, so that’s always a bonus. There’s nothing as fun as sinking your teeth into the side of a shiny, bright red (or green, depending on your preference) apple. Or is there?
This was a particularly mind-blowing yet simple discovery for me. If you eat the apple, not from the side which is definitely more fun and aesthetically pleasing, but from the bottom, you can save yourself a lot of trouble. First, you cut out the issue of that core that you can never seem to find, until you take one bite slightly too big and end up with seeds in your mouth. Secondly, you get more out of your apple and can eat it in a neater way!
To see the best way to eat an apple, check out:
