From not drinking coffee with milk after 11am in Italy to never mixing wasabi with your soy sauce in Tokyo, there are dining and etiquette rules in foreign countries that are not as well known as others. Did you know eating pizza with a knife and fork in New York is unforgivable? Well, TBH, no matter which country you’re in, eating pizza with anything but your hands should be unforgivable.  

Remitly, an American online remittance service that offers international money transfers, analysed Google search results that featured various phrases related to the etiquette of 180 countries across the world, such as ‘food and drink etiquette in [country]’ as well as research hundred of cultural guides to create a world map of all the dining and etiquette rules unique to that country. 

Here are some of the most surprising dining and etiquette rules revealed in the study, and some we’re already guilty of: 

• Spain: Don’t drink water with soup or octopus 
• France: Don’t cut your salad with a knife; instead fold the lettuce leaves in the fork 
• Scotland: You can be fined two beers if you’re wearing underwear beneath your kilt
• Switzerland: Do a forfeit if you drop bread in the fondue pot 
• United Kingdom: It’s illegal to be drunk in a pub 
• Italy: Never drink coffee with milk after 11am
• Germany: Only start eating after the guest says ‘Guten Appetit!’
• South Korea: Turn your head away from elders when you drink
• China: Burping at the table is acceptable 
• Japan: Never mix wasabi into the soy sauce when eating sushi
• Fiji: If your bowl is too full, just ask for ‘low tide’
• Croatia: Spending only 30 minutes with someone for coffee is considered rude
• UAE: You’ll need liquor licence to drink at home 
• South Africa: Do not point your feet towards others or the food 
• Namibia: A cow’s stomach is seen as a delicacy
• Mali: Eat with your hands around a community bowl
• Brazil: Do not mix mango and milk 
• Argentina: Drop the knife after cutting up pizza 
• Colombia: Do not eat with your hands
• Venezuela: Even fruit is eaten with a knife and fork 
• Mexico: Don’t eat watermelon at night
• USA: Eating pizza with a knife and fork in New York is unforgivable 
• Canada: When toasted to, hold your glass at arm’s length 
• Iceland: Ice cream is eaten all year round, whatever the weather 
• Greece: Salad is never eaten as a main course
• Belgium: Don’t blow on your food to cool it 

While some of these are not hard and fast rules, you’ll never catch us eating salad as a main course in Greece. We didn’t need rules to tell us that.

Related story: This Asian city was just named world’s best city for foodies