If you really want efficiency, eat South-East Asian style: spoon in the right, fork in the left. The fork is used to hold onto larger things and to rake food onto your spoon, but it never goes into your mouth; the spoon shovels food into your mouth, and its edge can be used to cut as well. This way you can plow through rice and curry like you wouldn't believe, and it's a surprisingly good way of eating even things like chicken legs doused in sauce without getting your hands dirty.

In much of Asia, knifes are reserved for the kitchen, where it's the cook's job to chop everything up into bite-size pieces before being served.