Nonsense. Japanese food is prepared to be eaten with chopsticks. Once you know how to use them, eating nigiri is much easier with chopsticks than with a fork. They’re basically tongs. If you’re using a fork, you’ll have to balance the piece on your fork, or try to split it in two, in which case it is likely to disintegrate.
Chopsticks are great. I use them to cook all the time. They’re perfect for scrabbled eggs, for instance. I wouldn’t eat a steak with chopsticks, but Chinese and Japanese food is generally prepared assuming you will not need to cut it further.
I take a pair of chopsticks with me when I go for sushi. I use them at the office when I eat sometimes, too, because it’s easy enough for me to keep in my work bag.
I don’t use them at all Asian restaurants, because not every Asian culture uses chopsticks. But I’m really not clear on which ones do and which ones don’t. I never know what’s “appropriate” at my local Thai restaurant, for instance… I understand that they don’t really ‘care’ what I do, but I do like to eat in the culture the food comes from.
-D/a
Yes, but I don’t think metal has anything to do with it. Your second link confirms that metal chopsticks have been in use since ancient times, among the wealthy. (First link isn’t working for me.) I can understand why knives were considered too violent for the dinner table, but metal utensils per se were never considered taboo, as far as I know.
As an aside, only my eldest uncle gets to use the silver spoon and chopsticks when we get together on holidays.
This white American eats his noodles with chopsticks every morning. I use whatever utensil is appropriate. Thai food? Big spoon! Noodle soup or Sushi? Chopsticks! South Indian? Right Hand!
WTF is “higher” technology? Maybe you demonstrated your lack of manual dexterity, so she extrapolated to your bedroom skills, and therefore didn’t want a second date?
What do you mean by “Asian” restaurant? Thais do not use chopsticks with rice. That’s a Chinese and Japanese practice. They use chopsticks for noodle dishes and spoon and fork for rice, the spoon being the utensil that actually conveys the rice into the mouth. So it depends on the type of restaurant.
Nigiri is prepared to be eaten with your fingers, and that is easier than using chopsticks. A fork wouldn’t work well in that case, but most other dishes are just as easy or easier to eat with a fork.
Thanks for fighting my ignorance. I retract my earlier statement and amend it to state that traditionally metal implements such as knives (and probably forks as well due to their ‘stabbing’ nature) were seen as improper for civilized meals. But the impropriety was due to the cutting/stabbing nature of the implements and not their material composition.
More advanced. A fork has more utility, and as far as manufacture goes, is a more sophisticated instrument than two sticks.
And to dignify your other snotty comment with an answer, it was our last date because she asked me the question in the first place. Why was I using a fork instead of chopsticks? Because I wanted to. She seemed to have the idea that it was “wrong” to eat Chinese food with a fork.
I have a tough time eating sushi in public, because I use my fingers. Exclusively. Wouldn’t know where to BEGIN using a fork, and while I can use chopsticks, I’m just more likely to make a mess. So I use the chopsticks to mix up whatever condiments, and from then on out it’s finger-food.
I buy a pack of cheap chopsticks (100 count) before every school year. I eat lunch in my classroom, and if it isn’t a burger, it usually gets eaten with chopsticks. Freaks the kids out a bit to see me eat salad with a pair, but such is life.
I use chopsticks for a lot of foods because it’s easier. It’s easier to eat noodles with chopsticks than with a fork. It’s easier to pick up bite-sized morsels that don’t respond well to skewering with a chopsticks than with a fork. You can’t grab with a fork; only scoop, poke, and scrape.
Also, chopsticks keep the cheetos powder off your fingers.
Yeah, you do it because it’s the correct utensil for the food, not because it’s quaint or whatever. You definitely need them for sushi (to keep the sushi in one piece); I also prefer eating noodles with them.
At home we use chopsticks every time I cook Chinese or Korean cuisine. So at Chinese restaurants we always use them too. It just feels natural. Neither of us is of Asian heritage, but what does that matter?
Plus, where I live we are eating in Chinese restaurants more than 90% of the time.
But once you get used to them, chopsticks are an extension of your fingers - although growing up using them, a knife and fork are never that versatile.
Plus - in Asian culture its really really polite to “serve” bit sized morsels to the plates of the seniors at the table - chopsticks are a really easy way of doing this (I find easier than serving spoons)
And to the OP -
Given you attitude, I’m surprised the girl didn’t whack you upside the head with a cleaver - you certainly deserved it.
And I think she will be rather pleased that you didn’t deign to do her the honour of a second date.
All the restaurants where I live are Asian. My chopstick skill was already pretty good, but now I’m godly.
My etiquette I’m sure could use work still. Looking up this chopstick related vocabulary in Japanese revealed a bunch I didn’t know about: Chopstick words
