Beet salad is hard to eat? Or fish? Squid?

Good heavens. I'd have thought hard to eat food would be something like a burrito from Taco Bell while driving, or snails or fried chicken without using your hands.

Snails would be good. Remember that scene in Pretty Woman? The fish is good because there might be some tiny bones left even after it's fileted. EL

I know we thought we were done with them, but nope. More Peeps! This is clearly a pop culture phenom. The Sun's peep show was okay, but the Washington Post went crazy. They had a seoncd annual contest for peep diaramas with 800 entrants. Here is the slide show for the finalists:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2008/03/21/GA2008032101983.html

Some of these are ridiculously .... erudite. Cleverness - peep is thy name.

Cornbread is always a difficult choice... especially when it's dry and crumbly.

No doubt it will be about spectacle, not etiquette. I'm sure there will be a lot a funny faces and "I ain't eatin' no octopus!" kind of thing. And yes I know that calamari is squid, but you hear a lot of halfway intelligent people confuse the two.

How to handle difficult foods? Kali's Court may be able to offer the best of the "tame" fish. But who locally can successfully serve the dangerous and sometimes dreaded gefilte?

I had etiquette teachers - my parents. What child actually liked fish with bones and all, growing up? My father scolded me saying that seafood is for rich people, so eat up!

The snail story reminds me of a dinner in Rotterdam after a day in the, uh, bars... I got an assortment of cockles, mussels, snails, etc. on ice. I went to eat one of the snails and it ducked back into the shell. It was alive, alive-o... That would be fun to see at Kali's.

"That's right, MADE is about making dreams come true." Once again, I know I'm missing something here. Your dream is handling difficult food? Like smoked oysters, ruffled grouse, poached deer, panda steaks? By the way never let a panda in a restaurant. He always eats shoots and leaves.

I just report this stuff. EL

If we are going for the squick factor, forget gefilte fish. Try lutefisk.

Now, that would be an etiquette lesson - how to eat lutefisk suppers at Lutheran churches in deepest Minnesota.

Ahh, the beet salad. Yeah, it's not too hard to eat. The trick will be eating it without having her mouth turn into a bright red distraction. (I know from experience.)

One thing I've never mastered: Eating well-sauced spaghetti without dripping on my shirt.

Lissa, I feel that eating and driving comment. I stopped eating while driving shortly after getting my first cell phone. I found that eating, driving, talking on the cell and reading became unworkable: I kept spilling my martini.

jI, when I drove cab in Boston, I used to eat lo mein with chop sticks while driving.

It is probably a sign of becoming a rational adult that I no longer do that.

jl: I was going to be a good boy and go home right after work. But, thanks to you, I now have to stop at Sammy's for a martini. See you there @ 530?

Lissa - What talent to be able to manuever a vehicle (a cab, no less) in Boston AND ear lo mein - with or without chop sticks. Boston traffic frightens me.

when I drove cab in Boston, I used to eat lo mein with chop sticks while driving.....Lissa, years ago I passed someone driving 60 mph on Rt. 70 eating with chopsticks. Was that you? I put that in the category of "just when you think you've seen everything".

I agree with Piano Rob about Boston traffic. When we lived there many years ago, I was in a car accident that would not have happened in Baltimore. I was driving by Baltimore rules, so I never saw the other car coming at me until just before it hit me--it was that fast.

I was driving by Baltimore rules

In the Boston area, you're not supposed to make eye contact with other drivers.