Standing at a Menicean table

Meals are very social events in Gérouns' culture. In most countryside towns, neighbors actually eat together as it is both less work and more enjoyable than being separated in households.

Everyday meals

Lunches are generally spent with colleagues and friends, while dinner is reserved for family and neighbors. Ménicéa has a few customs and etiquette that comes with standing at a table.

Common plate

Meniceans all eat out of one large plate. Each person has a spoon or a fork and digs in the shared plate. They generally appropriate themselves a little spot in the dish that they eat out of.
Since they mostly either use spoons or their hands, large chunks of food are cut beforehand by the cooks.

Hygene

As everyone eats in one same plate, Gérouns are extra vigilant on everyone's hygiene. A bowl of soap water is placed on the table before the meal, and every guest has to dip their hands inside it.
This applies to taverns and restaurants as well, where bowls are also given before the food.

High-Society receptions

Noble or bourgeois' receptions follow a strict etiquette. Meals unfold in 4 steps that have to be followed.

Degustation

The reception can only start once the last guest has arrived. Right after that will begin the degustation. Samples of the alcohols and meals served later will be spread on small tables all over the salon. Guests are expected to taste a few of them to get an idea of what they would like later.
This first step is essentially for everyone to greet each other and facilitate the organization of the actual meal. It usually lasts up to 20 minutes.

Meal

The meal is the second step of the reception, where guests sit around large tables and eat the food they chose during the degustation. They are entirely free to mix cold and hot food, meat, vegetables, fish...
Guests are given a seat by the host and have to respect it. A few political and influence games often come along deciding the layout of a soirée and who will sit to whose table, as it is the longest part of the reception.

I CANNOT BELIEVE IT. Who these Prexyanns think they are?! They disrespected my table arrangement! Lady Flisco spent the last two months begging me to seat her next to a Prexyann, and then this happens?! She'll never forgive me!

Interlude

The interlude usually comes after an hour or two of eating and talking. The guests are free to leave the table and roam around the property, in the authorized areas. This is usually when the festivities, such as spectacles are held.
The interlude is also the moment hosts take to step back from the party and gather the few guests they needed to talk with more confidentially.

Closure

The closure comes after another 30 minutes to an hour. The tables where the meal was served now have buffets of cakes, hot drinks, and sweets. The guests are free to stay as long as they want or leave after saluting the host.
It is generally considered rude to stay more than two hours after the beginning of the closure without being invited to.