I always wonder how this kind of dish is to be eaten i.e. whether handling the mussels is 'allowed' or you have to work with the fork and spoon (used with spaghetti) to get to the mussels! Since your dish also includes prawn on the shell, I guess it's accepted that you need to get hands-on in order to deshell it!
In restaurants, if it is just mussels in their shells with the spaghetti, are you supposed to use an empty pair of mussel shells (hinged still) to extract the other mussels? I have seen people do this.
@creative Yes, right! When ordering a dish in which there are mussels or clams, they also automatically serve an empty dish where to put the shells. They break off with the fork and bring it to the mouth, so some work with the fork is allowed, but very delicately. There are also restaurants where they have already shelled mussels and clams to make it easier to catch the fork! I left some mussels in the shell only to give more idea about the plate, a bit like do in restaurants where some mussels with shell always leave it for garnish. As for the prawns, I open them with a fork and a knife with a technique that I have learned by applying a lot ... personally I do not like to eat shrimps/prawns with my hands ... neither at home.
Every now and then I see someone who eats spaghetti with fork and spoon and I do not like it ... spaghetti rolls only with the fork .. nothing happens if one uses the spoon, but whoever does it always is looked with some embarrassment ... it's a matter of galateo (etiquette in english?). Uff, how difficult it is to eat!
Oh I didn't know that using a spoon (with the fork) is not the done thing. It was in our family - mum being Italian but from peasant stock! Actually I find it easier to eat spaghetti/noodles in this manner since the spoon acts as a stabiliser...ensuring the strands more easily curl onto the fork. It's a more assured, quicker process I find.
So, it's also not the done thing to use an empty mussel shell to capture the mussels then?
It is not so right to eat spaghetti with spoon, although I imagine very well how much more comfortable is! Perhaps the secret is to roll small amounts of spaghetti to pick them up better on the fork and definitely not break them before baking them in the water and leaving them exactly of their length....a friend of mine sometimes break them..uh! and when I try to roll them, well, it's a challenge between me and spaghetti!
Use an empty mussel shell to capture mussels? mmm, not quite to do. It depends where you are. At home everybody do what he want But you mean like "mop up your plate with bread" but with shells? In Italian is called Scarpetta..
Apparently using a spoon - with spaghetti - can be a grey area. I found this...
Can I use a spoon to help twirl the pasta with my fork? It depends! If you’re at home, of course! If you’re at a restaurant or someone else’s home, only use a spoon if one is served on the plate with the spaghetti; don’t ask for one.
At home a person can do what he wants, sure!..but I think only few people use spoon to eat spaghetti and, in Italian culinary culture, spaghetti are only eat with the fork..You can also eat with the spoon but, as I wrote before, you are looked a little strange. I mean that is not necessary the spoon and better don't do this in the restaurant as the etiquette article says.
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