I love to eat with my hands. Everything just tastes better that way - BBQ short ribs, chicken wings, lamb chops, strawberries, McNuggets... Colonel Sanders’ got it right: “finger lickin’ good.”
But as much as I enjoy smacking my fingers and licking my face, most restaurants don’t tolerate my caveman behavior, and my guests usually end up never wanting to be seen with me again. So stuck with boring utensils, my meal goes on.
That’s why I was very happy to see sporks on the table at Alain Ducasse’s Spoon. Sporks, according to Wikipedia, is a “hybrid form of cutlery taking the form of a spoon-like shallow scoop with the addition of the tines of a fork.” I haven’t seen one of these since elementary school.
A similar utensil known as the knork (pronounced “nork”) is a fork that has a wide rounded beveled outer tine, which can be used to cut food much like the serrated edges of a knife. In a sense, a pastry fork is a precursor to the knork. But if someone handed one to me, I’m not sure I would know that it has a double identity.
Now that I think back, I might have encountered a knork once, unknowingly. I was at the Ocean Club in Paradise Island in the Bahamas where I had a chateaubriand so tender I was able to slice it with my fork. Or so I thought. I figured it was due to the center cut of the loin and the skills of a talented chef, but maybe I was faked out with a knork. It was one of my favorite food memories, but I think I just spoiled it.
The Chinese believe a pair of chopsticks is the only tool one needs for eating. Slicing and dicing is the duty of the chef; the diner’s only duty is to enjoy the food. There are no such things as popcorn forks, escargot tongs, or lobster picks - nope, just two sticks. Genius.