Why Chopsticks?

[xYinniex]

Originally Posted by hypekstatic

Wait... who said we don't use spoons??
How would we eat soup? lolll
Well I'm pretty sure that before asians even realized
what a fork was, they thought of chopsticks. It's like the most
simplistic of eating utensils, but of course it's much harder to use them
than forks because a fork is a more complicated made utensil which leads to
a easier use of it. Well thats my theory anyway... as for confucious and all
that, i don't know. I just know that Chinese used it first then korea and japan.

I can't use chopsticks correctly xP so when I go eat with my grandparents
who are traditional, they smack me in the head T_T but trying to use it
the right way is really hard for me cuz im used to the way i hold them.
either way, i eat with chopsticks most of the time, the only time i dont is
at american restaurants. when i get lazy though i just use one stick and
poke the food xD HA (ps, koreans use metal chopsticks [well i dont lol] and it is freaking hard!)

yeah, i grew up using chopsticks too! but i also don't hold them correctly. BUT HEY, THAT WORKS FINE WITH ME.

I do use other utensils but its mainly spoons and chopsticks.

I go back to Hong Kong or Malaysia and it's really embarassing because my younger cousins can hold chopsticks better than i do.

*hangs head in shame*

[SSJup81]

It may have been said already, and if I'm repeating, I do apologize. I recall hearing or either reading someplace that the reason things like chopsticks are used, is to help with one's coordination and concentration. I guess it's like hand-eye coordination. I don't know if there's any truth to this, though.

[Odin]

The use of forks has always been slow to spread!

• Evidence show they have been used in the mid-east since about 700 BCE.
• They gained some acceptance in the northern Mediterranean by 1st century C.E.
• However did not catch on in northern Europe till the early 1600's

There was a common belief that one should eat as God intended, with your fingers.

In contrast it took chopsticks less than 150 years to spread from the Uyghur people in western Mongolia to Japan during the Nara period (~ 750C.E.)

[Kajitsu]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Why do other places use spoons and forks? Isn`t it a lot easier to actually have some control over the thing you`re eating than to just stab it or try to scoop it up?

Good point, and thank you for the perspective.

[artificalflavor]

I think that it's just a matter of what you grow up doing, if you grow up eating with chopsticks, chopsticks seem better. Where as if you grow up eating with a fork, you think that forks are better

[larajolyn]

Originally Posted by MMM

This is a very fair question.

Chopsticks fit with Japanese culture perfectly. In Japan food is art, and food is appreciated, and food is loved. You will find people say that in Japanese cuisine presentation is just as important as flavor. It must stimulate more than one of the senses. It should please the eye, the nose, the mouth, even touch and sound are important. Sensory peace, tranquility and balance are valuble. In the west these ideas are largely ignored.

So with that in mind, think about chopsticks, and think about western utensils. Chopsticks can stir, mix, move and carry. The soft piece of tofu, bite of rice or slice of sashimi makes its path from the small plate to your mouth delicately carried by two long, pliable pieces of wood. The food remains in the same form until the moment it hits your tongue.

This is eating food properly in Japan. What better time to be harmonious with nature and with your self than at mealtime?

Do you still wonder why they don't use violent metal weapons to stab, slice, butcher, and cut up their food?

Wow... i love what he said! and he has a good point too.

[Akira303]

Well the Japanese originated from China. Back in the Shang Dynasty, Confiucious found it to be violent to eat with forks and knives, so, chopsticks were invented as a solution.

[TalnSG]

My apology for not coming forth sooner in praise of your poetry, MMM. I was not here. Some people see poetry in the world around them more than others. Personally I enjoyed the post.

My preference for eating utensils are in this order:
fingers
chopsticks
spoons
forks
knives

Knives and spoons are more for cooking than eating when I am not where my table manners are being judged.

I was rasied by a proper British nanny and then spent the rest of my life with my father chastising my european style of use of KFS instead of the American customs.

Sometime in my early teens I learned to use chopsticks (took about 10 minutes I think), and they have been my preference ever since though they were not always acceptable around my parents and work colleagues.

The only time I found them unmanageable was when I had surgery on my wrist. It did result in food flying across the table, but I couldn't sign my name at the time either because my thumb was non-functional.

I once got into a distasteful conflict with a waiter in one of Dallas's largest Japanese restaurants because he thought I should drink my soup from the bowl (usually my preference) but I requested a spoon. The altercation ensued because as a waiter he should never have denied me such a request.

More recently I found myself slightly insulted at a local Chinese restaurant however. It seems they give chopsticks to you if you look Asian, but not if they think you are white or Mexican. I felt like they were deciding that because I am white I don't know how to use them, but after reading this thread maybe I had it backward. Anyway problem solved - I carry my own in my purse!

Actually I have four sets of table ware (2 silver, 2 brass) and I have a collection of chopsticks that is always growing. Somewhere over 20 pair not counting the disposable ones that collect around the house from the local Chinese delivery.

MMM, my good chopsticks are works of art, used to appreciate artistic cuisine.

[yuujirou]

Originally Posted by xYinniex

yeah, i grew up using chopsticks too! but i also don't hold them correctly. BUT HEY, THAT WORKS FINE WITH ME.

I do use other utensils but its mainly spoons and chopsticks.

I go back to Hong Kong or Malaysia and it's really embarassing because my younger cousins can hold chopsticks better than i do.

*hangs head in shame*

actually x.x'''
a LOT of people hold chopsticks incorrectly x.x''
if i'm correct, the correct method is to place your median finger inbetween the chopsticks...but most people like to place it on the side...next to the index >.>"
but then again...holding chopsticks is like holding a pencil x3
whichever way works~~
as long as you get the food in (and neatly) who cares?! =DD

oh and traditionally, chopsticks were actually reserved for royalty >.>'''
peasants, until...like 1500 or so (random guess), used only their fingers too eat. >.>'''
soo i guess it's relatively recent that chopsticks were commonly used by people of all classes x.x

andd like some guy said easier...most eastern foods are cut into bite sized pieces, so that there really isn't any need for a knife >.>"""
also...forks...are just bloody horrid =OOO
i mean.. seriously..stabbing the mess outta the food and then slowly eating it off a 3-4 pronged utensil??
that's just beastly x3
not much compared to the elegance and grace of gently picking up a piece of food w/o ever damaging it's meat >.>'''...atleast until you take a bite outta it :3


oh and just a note~
nigiri-zushi is traditionally eaten w/ teh fingers >.>"'
buut...i guess most people likie to use hashi now...

[yuujirou]

Originally Posted by Tenchu

I don't think so. I think that as a sensationalized assumption people make. If a person has good manners, then why is it beastly?

Also, the common fork in average households looks not good. But you can get more expensive cutlery made usually of silver, and it looks really attractive, usually more longer and slender looking. An elegance in dining utensils that far out weighs the appearance of any chop stick.

haha~ i was jk about that :3
but apparently not everyone shares the same humour w/ this one about the "barbarians from the west" x33
but the common chopstick/hashi is comparitve to teh common house hold fork in that case x.x''
because hashi can be quite ornated and made of precious metals as well >.>"
anything from steel to gold and silver.

and the cylindrical shape of teh hashi doesn't really mean they can't be as exquisitely decorated or sometimes even more so than western culterly sets >.>'
loool~