Is wearing a napkin on your shirt ridiculous or good manners?
Not a napkin, but perhaps a bib if you are eating messy foods like BBQ ribs, crab legs or lobster boil. Otherwise no, it's not proper.
Hey adults! Would you wear a bib whilst eating pasta and sauce or would you just eat neatly?
I am not making this up: Went to the in-laws's today for my f-i-l's b-day. We ate spaghetti and sauce and meatballs. My bro-in-law and sis-in-law and I were wearing white shirts/tops. For some reason my mom-in-law has adult sized bibs she made herself. She gave one to my b-i-l (who's pushing 60) and my s-i-l (who's in her mid 50s). With all seriousness she asked me if I wanted one. I said, "I'm a bit old for a bib. I'll just eat neatly." It was really unnerving. Am I crazy or is this just not right? Btw, neither my sis or bro-in-law have any physical nor mental conditions that would cause them to throw food wildly.
What is the difference between placing your napkin on you lap vs. your under your chin?
What is the rule about doing one over the other? AND, Should it depeading on your physical size, say a very heavy person sitting in a booth where there stomach touches the table, hence making the purpose of placing the napkin on the lap useless.
At what age should I stop wearing a bib to eat?
If I'm wearing fancy clothes and eating something sloppy like spaghetti I'll make a bib out of a napkin. If I'm eating the spaghetti at the home of the sweet Italian lady who invites me over, I'll use a waist apron as a bib. Personally, I think you should wear a raincoat if you're eating near someone who is having BBQ ribs! wouldn't do it at a 5 star restaurant, but at a family restaurant what's the harm? It's easier than cleaning stains out of expensive clothes.
How do waiters carry hot items?
You kind of develop tough hands or "restaurant hands". You get used to the feel of the hot plates in your hands and you learn how to move the pressure point of where you are actually holding the plate around while you are carrying it. Of course there are some plates that are just so hot that you grab a napkin or something to carry it with. After a few months of waiting tables, you get sick of grabbing a napkin and wasting time, so you just start grabbing the plates and toughing it out. For all of you customers out there that like to grab the plates out of the waiters hands or off their trays . . . Don't! Unless they ask you, you shouldn't. The plates could be hot, or it could adversely effect the balancing act that some waiters have going on. Back when I waited tables I used to like to impress my guests with how many glasses or plates I could carry at a time. Imagine 7 platters of ribs being carried by one waiter, and someone deciding to try to take one out of the hand you are not serving with. Luckily I always stopped the people before they pulled it, but it can get really messy.
How do you eat ribs politely?
I guess the good ol' American way of using both hands and sustaining sauce stains on fingers and clothes is good in a casual setting. Everybody does it, so it's practically part of the "ritual" of eating ribs. In a nice restaurant, however, rather than make a pig out of myself by getting sauce all over my nice clothes, I would do as Mike suggested. Cutting the meat off the bone. It will still fall on my shirt as it never fails, but at least I tried. LOL!