How do you eat with chopsticks?

[Redneck in training]

Update. Just an update the from the OP on this. From the advice and videos given, we are now reasonably proficient at using chopsticks and if I wanted to, could pass a pea back and forth. Chopsticks use was merely learning how to hold them. Now, it's no big deal and I do prefer them for most dishes. It's a quick study of a serious 10 minutes with a dish like chicken and broccoli. FYI.

The real challenge is to eat something like jello. Only after you can grab a cube of jello with chopsticks and eat it you can say you mastered it. Hint: The trick is not to squeeze it.

 

[Raspy]

My wife is Chinese. She uses them like a knife for cutting meat and uses them to eat peanuts, rice, ice cream, peas and anything else she wants. Also handy for pulling out chicken bones stuck in someones throat.

Sometimes food is sort of raked out of the bowl and sometimes individual peanuts or chunks of beef are selected and picked up. They are also handy for stirring while preparing various dishes made from chopped jalapeno and onion, or eggs and while cooking spring rolls. They mix spicy sauces made from various ingredients and they serve well as pointers to make a conversational point or direct attention.

A very handy tool set indeed.

 

[TomSeller]

I pick out the larger pieces between the chop sticks and eat almost as well as a fork. But when I get to the small stuff I resort to "shoveling".

 

[riptides]

... Also handy for pulling out chicken bones stuck in someones throat...

Ok... wow!

 

[sixdogs]

Found this by accident today. Probably rules out the "shoveling" technique but that's OK.
So, we can lose weight and as a side benefit pluck any errant chicken bones.


Try Chopsticks!

Eating slower helps you to eat less food, because it gives your brain the time needed to register that you are full. A study by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics confirmed that eating slower resulted in fewer calories consumed and higher satiety at meal completion. Using chopsticks or your non-dominant hand to eat are tricks to more eating and slowing down. Eating with chopsticks leads to smaller amounts of food in each mouthful (vs a fork). If you aren稚 a natural or advanced chopstick user, this may also mean taking time to put foods on the chopstick and to think mindfully about how to eat, and thus boost your metabolism. Heavy, calorically dense sauces also will slide off of the chopstick vs. when people eat with a spoon.

 

[Raspy]

Found this by accident today. Probably rules out the "shoveling" technique but that's OK.
So, we can lose weight and as a side benefit pluck any errant chicken bones.


Try Chopsticks!

Eating slower helps you to eat less food, because it gives your brain the time needed to register that you are full. A study by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics confirmed that eating slower resulted in fewer calories consumed and higher satiety at meal completion. Using chopsticks or your non-dominant hand to eat are tricks to more eating and slowing down. Eating with chopsticks leads to smaller amounts of food in each mouthful (vs a fork). If you aren稚 a natural or advanced chopstick user, this may also mean taking time to put foods on the chopstick and to think mindfully about how to eat, and thus boost your metabolism. Heavy, calorically dense sauces also will slide off of the chopstick vs. when people eat with a spoon.

You should see how fast and efficiently food can be raked out of a bowl held up to one's mouth. The normal procedure is to pick up the bowl and tilt it. This makes polite fork use look leisurely. Sauces are normally used as dips where chunks of meat, or spring rolls, or potstickers are dipped while held with chopsticks. So the chopstick doesn't have to carry a volume of sauce similar to what a spoon would carry. Also, the Chinese have their own very affective spoon design that has been around for centuries and used for soups (of course, you can simply drink out of the bowl, once the noodles are gone). Their "spoon" is also remarkably similar to the first compass "needle". The Chinese invented the compass and the rocking spoon indicator that was part of it. Another subject for a later conversation.

Point is: slow eating is not mandated by chopsticks. That is, of course, unless you are comparing them to burritos.

 

[dragoneggs]

You should see how fast and efficiently food can be raked out of a bowl held up to one's mouth. The normal procedure is to pick up the bowl and tilt it. This makes polite fork use look leisurely. Sauces are normally used as dips where chunks of meat, or spring rolls, or potstickers are dipped while held with chopsticks. So the chopstick doesn't have to carry a volume of sauce similar to what a spoon would carry. Also, the Chinese have their own very affective spoon design that has been around for centuries and used for soups (of course, you can simply drink out of the bowl, once the noodles are gone). Their "spoon" is also remarkably similar to the first compass "needle". The Chinese invented the compass and the rocking spoon indicator that was part of it. Another subject for a later conversation.

Point is: slow eating is not mandated by chopsticks. That is, of course, unless you are comparing them to burritos.

You are right on, John. Funny, also that one of the early adhesive bonded aerospace fastener products designed and built by the company I work for was based on the Chinese soup spoon!

 

[Raspy]

You are right on, John. Funny, also that one of the early adhesive bonded aerospace fastener products designed and built by the company I work for was based on the Chinese soup spoon!

Interesting. Any more info?

 

[dragoneggs]

Interesting. Any more info?

Well, we are going way sideways on this thread but to give you an idea... the design has morphed a bit in the 20 years since inception but here is an example. This is a right angle standoff cable tie mount. Chinese soup spoons stand on their own. Apologies to the six dogs (OP) for the tangent but I figure we have just exhausted the art of using of chopsticks! Now on to the spoons.

 

[sixdogs]

No apology needed. Tangents are what makes all this interesting.

I never got the whole Chinese spoon thing. Do people actually eat with them and is it a successful exercise or more like chopsticks for liquid?