How do you eat with chopsticks?

[sixdogs]

I eat with chopsticks practically every day. Chopsticks are used to pick food from the plate, to shovel/scoop rice, like a pair of scissors to shear soft food to smaller pieces, in short: anything you do with your forks.

BTW, Asian etiquette says do not use your chopsticks to get food from the serving plate, use the serving utensils. However, if the serving utensils are not available, turn the chopsticks around and use the blunt ends as the community ends to get your food. Do not put the community ends in your mouth, doing so will get you booted off my table.

Very good etiquette advice. Thank you. Whole thread is great and serious advice from a good mix of experience.

 

[houstonscott]

There are three ways to hold them, it's regional. Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

 

[sixdogs]

There are three ways to hold them, it's regional. Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

Uh, oh. What's the difference and which ways ticks off the others?

We learned to like top slice hot dog buns while in New England but around here they have no clue. Around here they dip everything barbequed in a "dipping sauce" but in New England "sauce" is what the locals drink to make a few of the women look better.

 

[houstonscott]

Uh, oh. What's the difference and which ways ticks off the others? We learned to like top slice hot dog buns while in New England but around here they have no clue. Around here they dip everything barbequed in a "dipping sauce" but in New England "sauce" is what the locals drink to make a few of the women look better.

Check out this video on YouTube: How to use Korean chopstick - YouTube Check out this video on YouTube: how to use chopsticks / japan - YouTube Japan. Check out this video on YouTube: Learn how to REALLY use chopsticks from a Chinese ... - YouTube China. I use Japanese method. The Chinese scissors method is hard, never mastered it....

 

[IslandTractor]

Check out this video on YouTube: How to use Korean chopstick - YouTube Check out this video on YouTube: how to use chopsticks / japan - YouTube Japan. Check out this video on YouTube: Learn how to REALLY use chopsticks from a Chinese ... - YouTube China. I use Japanese method. The Chinese scissors method is hard, never mastered it....

I learned and use the easy basic Chinese method, not the scissors method which does seem hard. I'd never seen the Korean way (which makes sense though). I've certainly never seen anyone in Japan pull out a little plastic training dongle thingie before using chopsticks. Chopstick training wheels??? Only the gadget happy Japanese could ever have come up with that.:laughing:

 

[IslandTractor]

Uh, oh. What's the difference and which ways ticks off the others?

We learned to like top slice hot dog buns while in New England but around here they have no clue. Around here they dip everything barbequed in a "dipping sauce" but in New England "sauce" is what the locals drink to make a few of the women look better.

A) Top sliced hot dog buns just make sense. Much easier to contain the mustard and onions etc. Given that New England is where it all started I'm going to argue for top sliced as the true American way. (Though clearly hot dogs didn't arrive until the German immigration to the midwest in the 1800s so I may be on thin ice).

B) I don't see what the confusion is with dipping sauce and "beer goggle" sauce. The weiner is going to get wet either way.:thumbsup:

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I learned and use the easy basic Chinese method, not the scissors method which does seem hard. I'd never seen the Korean way (which makes sense though). I've certainly never seen anyone in Japan pull out a little plastic training dongle thingie before using chopsticks. Chopstick training wheels??? Only the gadget happy Japanese could ever have come up with that.:laughing:

They probably did that after watching some of us poor Americans trying to eat and flinging food everywhere but into our mouths. I knew guys that never did get the hang of chopsticks and would carry around a knife and fork when we went out to eat (only marginally less embarrassing than watching them eat with chopsticks).

 

[IslandTractor]

They probably did that after watching some of us poor Americans trying to eat and flinging food everywhere but into our mouths. I knew guys that never did get the hang of chopsticks and would carry around a knife and fork when we went out to eat (only marginally less embarrassing than watching them eat with chopsticks).

I suspect you are correct. Probably a post WWII invention to help GIs learn to use chopsticks.

Many restaurants today will help kids learn by creating a hinge in a pair of chopsticks using a wad of paper between the two sticks and a rubber band to hold it together. My youngest daughter loved using those.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

I've lived in China. I was determined to learn how, and I did. A few years later, on a trip to India, I had lunch with a mixed group which included some native Chinese who were also there on a business trip. They were wide-eyed at my use of chopsticks, and complimented me on my skill. I can eat rice with chopsticks. Non-sticky rice. So.... I guess I know how to use them.

That said, I had really struggled stateside for years trying to learn to use the things, and I wasn't getting any better in China. Frustrating!

What finally turned the tables for me, or maybe I could say, what turned the key in the lock for me, was sitting around a large restaurant table with maybe a dozen native Chinese, and realizing that no two of them did it the same. Every single person there used chopsticks effectively and differently. Some held at the back some in the middle, some near the front. Finger position was different. It was all different!

After that, I relaxed and just did what felt right to me. I stopped trying to wrap my brain around "THE One True Pure and Correct Method".

There ain't one!

So, I just used them. I found what was comfortable and used them. It clicked for me very quickly then.

By the way, I have seen shoveling, but it's not the norm in my experience, and it's also dependent on the type of food. I've also seen spearing, for round balls of... something doughy.

 

[Paddy]

I learned out need, traveling to China often. It takes time. If you don't have the real need, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort : )
The key is the food must be prepared for chop stick use. All food bits are mostly cut up to bit size pc. Certain foods would appear difficult, like peanuts but are actually quite easy. Triangle cut slippery food is the worst. And yes, with friends, Chinese push rice from a bowl raised to their mouth.