chop sticks...

[warhawk]

hello fellow chrome domes:  last week my beautiful wifey & i had take-out chinese food.  the food was okay and it also included 2 pairs of chopsticks.  they always include it in each order.  i don't know how to use chop sticks.  i tried a couple of times but i just got frustrated & went with something i know:  fork & spoon.

so... how 'bout U?  when was the last time u had chinese food?  and do U know how 2 use chop sticks?  what's your story?

WARHAWK

[Sly Red]

I have Japanese food about once a week at the Japanese market near my house.  I always use chopsticks for Chinese and Japanese food, but I didn't learn until I lived in San Francisco 20 years ago.  If you ate with a fork people would look at you like you must be a tourist. 

Red

[tomgallagher]

If I had to rely on chopsticks I would starve to death.

[herronm]

Can't use them.  Maybe I just need a good teacher.

[Kratos]

I usually order sushi every sunday. I feel it's necessary to eat them with chop sticks, just doesn't feel right with a fork or with your hands.

[PeripheralxMvmnt]

i dont have a problem with using chopsticks, but i dont use then that often.

[Tyler]

Hey Warhawk, the old push and shovel method, eh?

I got good at using chop sticks when I went on vacation to Japan.  If it hadn't been for that trip, I'd still have to stab the food with them in order to eat with them.

[PBurke]

i use the ones for the kids. those little rubber bands help alot! ha ha ha

[RodgerDodger]

If I'm shelling out big bucks for an expensive Chinese dinner,
I want the food landing in my mouth..............

instead of my lap.



These directions are far too complicated.

[Vash]

I am a big fan of Asian food and I prefer to use chopsticks. I'm pretty good with them these days. I can even eat rice with them, so long as it's a bit on the sticky side. 

[Mikekoz13]

We eat Chinese just about every week.....even the kids love it. No chopsticks here though!

[andrew]

I tend to use a fork when eating Chinese but use chopsticks for sushi.   I've tried eating sushi with a fork and it's difficult.  Also, I find it easier to handle seaweed salad with chopsticks.  Hmmmm.... I think I need some sushi now.

[aarrggh]

   Fork -Spoon- Knife -Fingers.......Sticks set too the side and outta my way..........

[(|8-)]

Warhawk, I've lived in Singapore and travelled to Japan.

There is no reason not to eat American-style Chinese food with a fork and spoon.  Singaporeans of Chinese descent shovel rice into their faces holding a spoon in their right (!) hand.  So there is no reason you shouldn't when eating something that is basically stuff over rice.

In fact, during my very first lunch in Singapore, a random worker from the office's cafeteria came up to me, took my chopsticks, and gave me a fork and spoon.  My co-workers were mortified.  They said my chopstick technique wasn't that bad, but nobody eats that way so the cafeteria staff was trying to help.  My Asian friends tell me that using chopsticks correctly is a dead giveaway that I didn't learn to use them until I was an adult!

Singaporeans believe they got the spoon-as-shovel from the British.  I am pretty sure Her Majesty the Queen doesn't shovel rice into her mouth with a spoon in her right hand, but the story and the practice does seem to be common in Southeast Asia.  Singaporeans will use chopsticks for larger pieces when rice isn't involved.  But actual Asian people do eat actual Asian food with silverware.

Japanese food I have to eat with chopsticks, even at home when nobody is watching.  Stabbing a piece of sushi with a fork would just be wrong.

I didn't learn until I was in my 20s.   On a trip to Japan, I was eating rice with a fork to not make an embarrassing mess in front of my Japanese friend's parents, and I realized that it was actually easier to use chopsticks, probably from all the practice I had in the first part of the trip when there weren't any forks around.  (My friend's parents were pleased at my discovery, of course.)

Actually, tonight I happened to have Korean food, consumed with chopsticks.  I am not really fussy about how I eat Korean food, actually, but they only had chopsticks at the restaurant.

So I think I am recommending that you should either not worry about it, or travel to Asia. 

[jrppsuobx]

Enjoy oriental food, no problem with chop sticks