NationStates Jolt Archive

Simple question.

My aunt is Korean, so I was raised being able to eat with chopsticks. Asian immigrants are usually pretty suprised at how deft I am with them. :)

Anyone else?

Yes I can, the trick of course is to hold the bowl close to your mouth.

I can, but I haven't done it in years. Actually, I haven't done it since I lived in Port Aransas, which was 1991 - 1994...

Yes I can, the trick of course is to hold the bowl close to your mouth.
Yep. That's the key with rice. That's also why a lot of Asian rice is sticky -- much easier to eat with chopsticks.

I can, but not terribly fast. I imagine I would have poor table manners.

I can use chopsticks pretty well. I just watched someone else do it in when I was a kid and picked 'em up and did it. I didn't think anything about it at the time, I thought I would be the only one who didn't know how so I didn't want to look stupid.

I actually kinda like them. I wouldn't eat everything that way, but I like using them when appropriate, it's kinda fun and you eat different than you would with a fork or such.

I can eat with them. My dad taught me when I was little, my parents like ethnic foods.

The only thing is that sometimes when I get down to the last couple bits of rice, it's just easier to grab a fork. Much faster anyways.

Yes I can, they've never really given me problems, almost as though it were intuitive... I lack a good deal of etiquite though. (i looks like a pig)

I can, not very well, but i get by...

also at home I kind of cheat, we have a few pairs of chopsticks that have a spring in them that holds the two sticks together, so I only have to concentrate on the bottom part of the chopsticks rather than the whole thing

Sure can. I grew up eating lots of Chinese and Vietnamese food. And living in Japan for 14 years hasn't hurt much either.

I'm pretty good with chopsticks. But everytime I do, it gets me thinking; why choptsticks? Why did the fork never catch on? :confused:

Quite a few Japanese restaurants have forks. You have to ask for them.

The reason why a fork never caught on is simple: Chop sticks are traditional and in many cases can help with foods forks cannot.

Hmm, interesting. I'm a Chinese myself, though I usually eat with a fork. I can eat with chopsticks and use them quite proficently, but for me the fork is still somewhat easier and more... comfortable to operate.

The nature of Japanese/Korean/Chinese food is also that it tends to come pre-chopped into small pieces, so a western knife and fork arrangement is redundant. Chopsticks are great, I learned to use them many years ago, and I very often use them at home as well. It constantly amazes me how many of my friends cannot grasp how to do it, even when shown and so ask for a fork in restaurants. I guess it just doesn't come naturally to some people, just like I can't seem to juggle however hard I try.

I just bought a nice set of them tonight because we make our sushi rolls at home

Quite a few Japanese restaurants have forks. You have to ask for them.

The reason why a fork never caught on is simple: Chop sticks are traditional and in many cases can help with foods forks cannot.

Like spaghetti.

I can eat with chopsticks badly ... but I can do it ... I absolutely refused to go to China and Japan and eat with a knife and fork ... so I had to learn.

I wouldn't choose to eat with them over a knife and a fork but yeah its just another skill if I so choose.
Although its like anything, Asian food is nealy designed to be eaten with them, although a fork can by multi purpose. I wouldnt go trying to eat much of western food with them they are just not designed for that purpose, as western food tends to come in larger pieces and requires the use of a knife.

Also if your eating with chopsticks and are worried about 'etiquette' I really wouldn't be ... if you ate with chopsticks with the Queen then well you should be shot cause from an Upstanding British point of view eating with them would be possibly the worst and most digusting thing you coould possibly do, shoving a bowl in your face and pseudo scooping to some extent.

However having said that its totally acceptable in an Asian setting as its completely normal and the etiquette is completely different ...

Meh When in Rome do as the Romans Do...

I just bought a nice set of them tonight because we make our sushi rolls at home
I have a few sets of red-laquered and inlaid bamboo ones that I love, but my favorite is a set of hand-carved ivory ones I got as a gift. I only use them on VERY special occasions. :)

Yeah, I can eat with chopsticks. I live near this really nice chinese joint. And it's real chinese, not that fake crap made by a bucnh of puerto ricans in the kitchen. But they only serve their food with chopsticks, no forks, so I learned pretty fast. Dammit! Now I'm in the mood for some Chinese and their closed! :headbang:

I can, both left and right hand. Much better with the left hand, though.

Sure. Though I'm Asian. :p

One time my friend from America came, he thought the chopsticks we're to use to stir his tea.

I can, thought I more often use chopsticks as 'spears' to eat, and with rice hold them together to improvise a spoon or fork.

One time my friend from America came, he thought the chopsticks we're to use to stir his tea.
*falls over laughing imagining some "good ol' boy" in coveralls stirring his tea with chopsticks* :D

I'm nearly Michael Jackson white but I can manipulate a single grain of rice like it's nobodies business.

Many Asian friends around me use chopsticks - but can't hold them right. It's quite funny seeing them trying to carry food to their bowls clumsily. Teehee.

I like chopsticks. Especially with certain foods. But I'm still not as dextrous with them as most natives I know.

Quite a few Japanese restaurants have forks. You have to ask for them.

The reason why a fork never caught on is simple: Chop sticks are traditional and in many cases can help with foods forks cannot.

Even here in Japan, although smaller places don't often don't.

The nature of Japanese/Korean/Chinese food is also that it tends to come pre-chopped into small pieces, so a western knife and fork arrangement is redundant. Chopsticks are great, I learned to use them many years ago, and I very often use them at home as well. It constantly amazes me how many of my friends cannot grasp how to do it, even when shown and so ask for a fork in restaurants. I guess it just doesn't come naturally to some people, just like I can't seem to juggle however hard I try.

A lot of Chinese food is intended to be eaten with a wide, shallow flat bottomed spoon.

Many foods do seem to taste better when eaten with chopsticks.

Another common reason for chopsticks in restaurants, at least here in Japan, is that the (usually cheap) disposable ones don't need to be washed, just thrown out.

I can, thought I more often use chopsticks as 'spears' to eat, and with rice hold them together to improvise a spoon or fork.

That'd get you funny looks, comments of "henna gaijin" (weirdo foreigner), and, maybe, a lesson in their proper use from a kind bystander here. Of course, using chopsticks properly would result in funny looks, and comments of "henna gaijin" and "wow, you use chopsticks really well", as many Japanese think foreigners can't do anything "the Japanese way". ;)

Of course, using chopsticks properly would result in funny looks, and comments of "henna gaijin" and "wow, you use chopsticks really well", as many Japanese think foreigners can't do anything "the Japanese way". ;)
HAHA! That's the exact reaction I get from Japanese immigrants here. The I get the "Ohhhhhhhhh, OKAY! *grin*" reaction when I tell them my aunt is Korean and I've been using chopsticks since I could hold them. :D

I can eat with chopsticks pretty well. Learne it by my parents as a kid and kept it up.

The table setting in asian restaurents in Denmark is also exclusively fork/knife. I get funny looks when I ask for chopsticks, as most danes can't use them. But at the same time, I get compliments when they see me in action :D

I've found the only way I can is to use them backwards. I just can't get the tapered ends to hold things. The blunt ends work great, though.

im about as white as they come, but most of my friends are chinese... and they disagree on the "proper" way to hold chopsticks, but i manage just fine... and i usually get compliments when i go to restaurants or eat over at a friends...

and disposable chopsticks are great... i usually grab a handful and take 'em home...

lunatic goofball said: why choptsticks? Why did the fork never catch on?

I believe the fork and knife were originally in use in China until Confuscious said that it was uncivilized to have utensils that represented weapons at the dinner table. Now if you can find a good way to argue why you need weapons at the dinner table after all this time, especially when the chopsticks are used so well by Asians, and it is as someone said, tradition, then you might have a good enough argument to convince people of doing things differently. Good luck though. :headbang:

As for the Original Question, I had mainly Korean friends in college, and when we would cook up our own food, we only ate with chopsticks. So as a matter of survival, this white boy had to learn how to eat efficiently with chopsticks. Also, a fun fact of chopsticks is that the further away you hold your hands away from the ends that are actually touching the food, the more asian you are considered to be. I can't go all the way to the end, but I can get close.

-The Ratu of Serak

I got the hang of them recently. Tried a few times before but only got the hang of it recently. These days anytime we go out to a chinese (and there's a couple of good 'uns round here) I'll use them.

While I am white as can be, I've been around Asian friends and their families long eough to pick up a few things. Americans who insist on stabbing their food with chopsticks or otherwise demonstrating horrid ettiquette bother me to no end - so much that I've actually done a demonstration speech in school about proper use of chopsticks.

I taught myself how when I was two. I then tried to teach the rest of my family, to no avail. *sighs*

I'm pretty good with chopsticks. But everytime I do, it gets me thinking; why choptsticks? Why did the fork never catch on?

A better question might be why forks, as chopsticks have been used as a table utensil for far, far longer.

Chopsticks were developed about 5,000 years ago in China. It is likely that people cooked their food in large pots which retained heat well, and hasty eaters then broke twigs off trees to retrieve the food. By 400 BCE, a large population and dwindling resources forced people to conserve fuel. Food was chopped into small pieces so it could be cooked more rapidly, thus needing less fuel.

http://www.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/utensil/chpstck.htm

I believe the fork and knife were originally in use in China until Confuscious said that it was uncivilized to have utensils that represented weapons at the dinner table.

It is my understanding that the table fork is a Middle Eastern utensil, originating around the eighth century.

They were introduced to Europe around the eleventh century, but remained unpopular for quite some time.

http://www.byu.edu/ipt/projects/middleages/LifeTimes/TableFork.html
http://www.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/utensil/forks.htm

The pieces of food were small enough that they negated the need for knives at the dinner table, and chopsticks became staple utensils. It is also thought that Confucius, a vegetarian, advised people not to use knives at the table because knives would remind them of the slaughterhouse.

http://www.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/utensil/chpstck.htm

So, yes, the knifes dissaperance from the Asian table is party attributed to Confucius.

An even better question is:
Why only the 4 basic main utensils of knife, spoon, chopsticks, and fork?

The answer may be the obvious "because they work so well".

But why hasn't some sort of tongs been used? (And I don't mean spring chopsticks, which are intended to be held like normal chopsicks.)

Or why does the spork (in use since at least, the late 1800's) remain so obscure?

An even better question is:
Why only the 4 basic main utensils of knife, spoon, chopsticks, and fork?

Actually, the basic utensils are the knife, spoon, and chopsticks. The fork itself now takes up a function that used to be divided between the knife and spoon, depending on piece size. The fork is actually a rather modern invention, as shown in the links posted earlier.

But why hasn't some sort of tongs been used? (And I don't mean spring chopsticks, which are intended to be held like normal chopsicks.)

You obviously haven't been in a guy's college dorm room.

Or why does the spork (in use since at least, the late 1800's) remain so obscure?

Because it tries to replicate the uses of two intruments and fails at both.

Or why does the spork (in use since at least, the late 1800's) remain so obscure?

Because the spork has the same main problem as the amphibious car: yeah, technically you can drive it on land or water, but it doesn't do either very well.

Question on etiquette, is the closer your hold on the chopsticks to the end opposite you eat from considered more mannerly?

Question on etiquette, is the closer your hold on the chopsticks to the end opposite you eat from considered more mannerly?

Not exactly, but almost. You should hold them towards that end, but not actually at that end.

i spent five years in hong kong so yep i can use chopsticks. no one else at my school can :)

I have a hard time with rice because they don't cook it right here so it sticks together. So I end up having to try for each individual grain of rice, which is a pain. But when I'm eating noodles and shrimp and stuff, I can wield chopsticks like a pro.

I have a hard time with rice because they don't cook it right here so it sticks together. So I end up having to try for each individual grain of rice, which is a pain. But when I'm eating noodles and shrimp and stuff, I can wield chopsticks like a pro.


Yep. And that reminds me of the times I've been at restaurants here where Japanese style rice was served on a plate with a fork. It makes it almost as difficult to eat.

I use chop sticks when I eat Asian foods, but that's not all that often.
I learned how to use them in a Chinese Restaurant for fun when I was about 5, and really got to practice when I went to China a few years ago.
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Oh, and is it true that when in China, you are not supposed to leave your chop sticks stuck in the rice (if there's any left)? Because it signifies something bad. I read it somewhere a while back, and I wonder...

Yep, no probs. I used them at lunch today.

I'm a skip, but I'm profficient enough with chopsticks. I love asian food. I'm yet to master eating rice with them, though.

Simple question.

My aunt is Korean, so I was raised being able to eat with chopsticks. Asian immigrants are usually pretty suprised at how deft I am with them. :)

Anyone else?

I can eat with chopsticks... but slowly... ;)

Yes.

I can, to an extent.

Yes im fairly capable

Oh, and is it true that when in China, you are not supposed to leave your chop sticks stuck in the rice (if there's any left)? Because it signifies something bad. I read it somewhere a while back, and I wonder...

It is in Japan, and I believe China as well, as it is associated with funerary customs.

Absolutely—I'm a New Yorker, so I've been exposed to diverse cuisines since forever ...

It is in Japan, and I believe China as well, as it is associated with funerary customs.

For me it's just plain rude. Anything sticking up by its own is rude. If you stuck 30 chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice it ceases to be rude and becomes a work of art.

I have chopstick skillz, which came as a big surprise to me. I sort of picked them up and fumbled for a minute or two, and then it all came together.

I couldn't eat with chopsticks if my life depended on it.

Which just puts me in mind of one day getting imprisoned by some asian extremist paramilitary, and given a huge tasty meal but forced to try to use the chopsticks to eat it, and starving to death while they laugh at the clumsy Westerner. Because that's a likely event.

I can use chopsticks fine for meat and noodles, but rice is more of a problem. Are you supposed to bring the bowl to your mouth and scoop? But I refuse to eat Chinese food with anything other than chopsticks, so I learn pretty fast.

I couldn't eat with chopsticks if my life depended on it.

Which just puts me in mind of one day getting imprisoned by some asian extremist paramilitary, and given a huge tasty meal but forced to try to use the chopsticks to eat it, and starving to death while they laugh at the clumsy Westerner. Because that's a likely event.

Are you familiar with the Buddhist parable about the differences between Heaven and Hell (http://www.dpjs.co.uk/white/chopsticks.html)?

Dragons Bay, I just looked it up for China, and it's essentially the same roots for the custom.
Don't put chopsticks vertically in rice in a bowl since it resembles the incense sticks for the dead
http://www.sensiblesoftware.com/articles/a/Chinese-Dining-Etiquette.html

Are you supposed to bring the bowl to your mouth and scoop?

The common method is pretty much exactly that.

I always use them for Rice and Sushi, so I guess I'm quite good... ^.^

I am TERRIBLE trying to eat with chopsticks. Even things as simple as sushi. It's embarrassing!

I can use them (and I do at most Chinese and Japanese places), although I bet that I'm probably not using them the proper way, considering that I'm the only person in my family who can use them, and also that I self-taught myself one night at Kokoro's because I was bored...

Most people in Montreal know how to eat with chopsticks.

However, 15 years ago nobody seemed to know how to use them...

Things evolve quite fast...

Now people are very fond of Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese food.

PS: There is a very large Vietnamese community in Montreal.

Are you familiar with the Buddhist parable about [=http://www.dpjs.co.uk/white/chopsticks.html]the differences between Heaven and Hell[/url]?


I wasn't, but I read it and am impressed. Apparently my hypothetical wasn't so unlikely at all! ... if I get imprisoned in Hell rather than, some paramilitary's prison camp. (Minor difference I suppose.)

Nope.

Simple question.

My aunt is Korean, so I was raised being able to eat with chopsticks. Asian immigrants are usually pretty suprised at how deft I am with them. :)

Anyone else?
I learned how to use chopsticks when I was on Okinawa. Once you get use to them, it's actually pretty easy to eat with them ... and kinda fun too. :)

My parents taught me to use chopsticks around the same time they taught me to use a fork and knife. I don't really know where they learned it, they were just a regular German couple and that was the 70s, there weren't that many Asians around really.
But my parents were always more than curios about other cultures, so they showed me how to use chopsticks for Asian food and how to politely use your fingers when eating Indian food...

My dad used to work in South-East Asia, and he taught me how to use chopsticks.

I often think it's rather a pity when an Oriental restaurant gives you a knife and fork, but not chopsticks- I mean, catering for people unfamiliar with their use is okay, I guess, but you shouldn't automatically assume that people're incapable of using them just bacuase they're English.

I eat with hashi (chopsticks) most meals, it is easier to eat with them now than to eat many dishes with a fork. Salad it much more easily eaten with chopsticks, corn and potatochips also.

I have absolutely no idea how to use them. A knife and fork always made much more sense

I'm as cracker as they come, but I can use chopsticks like a native. An old joke of a family friend of mine is that, "You know you can use chopsticks when you use them to eat soup." ;)

I guess growing up in an area that is 20% or so ethnic Asian doesn't hurt.

My parents have always been into a larger variety of foods than many American families, so I learned to use chopsticks at a young age. Of course, now All I use them for is eating cheap ramen, but hey... Whatever works.

Simple question.

My aunt is Korean, so I was raised being able to eat with chopsticks. Asian immigrants are usually pretty suprised at how deft I am with them. :)

Anyone else?
I carry a pair of dense hardwood chopsticks everywhere I go (as long as I'm carrying my sub-notebook-case...which is almost always)

Not only am I a fanatic Oriental Food feind, but they make a fantastic secondary weapons system that I can carry on airplanes. :D

I can use chopsticks rather well...have had plenty of practice with them:D

My parents have always been into a larger variety of foods than many American families, so I learned to use chopsticks at a young age. Of course, now All I use them for is eating cheap ramen, but hey... Whatever works.
When I was in college the in vogue way to eat cheap ramen was with either ketchup, mustard, or salsa on the dry, uncooked, ramen. Not unlike a rice cake.

But yeah, I can use chopsticks too. I learned at a previously Seattle (now Bellevue) restaurant called South China (I recommend the tomato beef chowmein). I also speak Chinese (madarin), which I can only imagine sounds like someone who's retarded and deaf to a native speaker. But man if you want to freak the hell out of two chinese people talking to each other, give them an indication you understand what they're saying. They will shoot out of their shoes.

I never officially learned how to use them, but i can get by pretty well.

Yes- I dont have a problem with them.

Yup, i finish my chinese food faster with chopsticks than my colleagues with forks.

i've been using chopsticks for a long time now, and feel quite comfortable using them. in the mid 70's we had friends who were really into chinese cooking, and they taught me how. it's really easy once you get the concept that only one of the sticks is moving -- the other just stays put against your fingers.

my six year old has learned how to use them, too. she's pretty good at it, too. my three year old still stabs his food with them, but he tries the proper way first.

When I was in college the in vogue way to eat cheap ramen was with either ketchup, mustard, or salsa on the dry, uncooked, ramen. Not unlike a rice cake.


Now THAT'S a good way to get called a henna gaijin. :D

Now THAT'S a good way to get called a henna gaijin. :D
I should have said that it was all part of a reaction to the particular horrors of dorm food, the expense of eating out, the condition of the dorms kitchens, and the rule prohibiting cooking in rooms.

It was invented by a guy who was Filipino, so I suppose he'd qualify on a technicality. By force of shear pragmatism it gained popularity, at least among the males of the population. I maintain that any rational person in the same situation would have done the same thing, irrespective of nationality.

I can, but I still use a fork, even on Asian food. It's just simpler.

-edit- for me, at least.

Of course. It's either that, or it's finger food:) I hate metal utensils with rice (just rice...adds a weird flavour).

i can use chopsticks but then i work in a chinese so if i didnt id be in trouble

Vietnamese food has been a staple of my diet for over four years now - Im sure my Vietnamese friends would shun me if I asked for a fork when we went into traditional restaraunts! haha!

no problem, can't remember what a fork looks like ;)

I'm not Asian, but yes I can. I learned how when I was 11 years old.

I love eating with chopsticks.

A bit. Not very much, though; rice I'm useless at, for example.

For me, it would be pointless to try to eat regular rice with chopsticks, it would be one grain at a time until I went to bed.

No.... I prefer using my fingers anyway

Death to all cutlery!

I dont know if I am using them correctly, but I dont have much problem using them whenever I go to the Japanese restaurant unless Ive already had too much sake by the time the food arrives.

Me & this girl went to this real chinese restrauent and she couldn't eat with chopsticks to save her life. We kept asking for a knife and fork but they wouldn't get us any. At the end when almost everyone had gone home, the cheif came out the kitchen and ate his meal with a fork.

Bastard.

Yes! I'm norwegian but I actually eat more Eastern food (chinese, japanese, indian etc.) than norwegian food. I don't know when i learned to use chopsticks but I'm sure didn't use a knife and fork correctly until I could use chopstics correctly.

Are there several (correct) ways of using them?

And is it true that most americans (US) hold their fork with their right hand?

Qvasi

And is it true that most americans (US) hold their fork with their right hand?

Qvasi

Yes. Most of us hold the fork in our left hand, and cut food with the knife in our right. Then, we set the knife down, switch the fork to our right hand, and eat.

I have no idea where this habit came from.

Simple question.

My aunt is Korean, so I was raised being able to eat with chopsticks. Asian immigrants are usually pretty suprised at how deft I am with them. :)

Anyone else?

My father is Korean.

I have always been able to eat virtually anything with chopsticks. I guarantee that I will drop more food with a knife and fork than I will with chopsticks.

It depends on what I'm eating: If it's something large and solid like cashew chicken, then I just stab the fowl meat with the chopsticks :D if it's something like rice, I can't do it :mad:

I can use them and we have a good Chinese up here. (Shetland)