Lunchtime! Time to recharge your batteries, leave the workplace, treat yourself. The lunch break is also one of the best times to make business connections or touch base with associates. But whether you're dining for business or pleasure, if you're doing the inviting, be prepared to pick up the tab, says Harriette Cole in How to Be: Contemporary Etiquette for African Americans (Simon & Schuster, $26). If you're hosting, offer your guest a choice of restaurants: "Vegetarian or meat?" (If you're a vegetarian and she eats meat, don't regale her with reports of the red-meat-disease connection as she munches on a lamb chop.)If you dine frequently at the restaurant, recommend your favorite dishes. A few of Cole's business-dining tips: * Avoid messy foods that may lead to drips or spills, * Don't talk with your mouth full, chew with your mouth open or slurp soup or drinks. * Forearms on the table are okay, but elbows are a no-no. * It's okay to wipe your nose at the table, but don't blow it. * Don't shovel food into your mouth; eat at a relaxed pace. * Bring the food to your mouth, not your body to the food. * Put your napkin on your lap as soon as you sit. * Your bread plate is always to the left.
And please, don't stick your fork into the food on your guest's plate--unless she insists!
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