This is how I eat plates of food:
one item at a time,
worst first. I learned to do this very young. My parents would often drag us to the grandparents' house and we would eat dinner with
Grandma Miller. We would have to eat
everything on the plate, or we would get
in trouble. Very quickly I learned to eat all of one thing at a time, having the intention of not mixing the wax bean flavor (
repugnant) with the salad flavor (so-so) or the
cranberry sauce flavor (delicious treat!).
One at a time is also a phrase repeated incessantly by
kindergarten teachers and
carnival ride operators. It ties in nicely with "wait your turn."