# Eating Utensils. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2002, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899 "2002-07-08T13:03:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Damascene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19adc/32.png) [@Damascene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damascene)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/1 "2002-07-08T13:03:50Z")
I’m doing some research for a book I’m writing, and i was hoping you guys could help with the following question: Other than Knife, fork, spoon, chopsticks, or bare hands, what other eating utensils exist? i can’t seem to think of any, and I’d love to know if there are any cultures out there that use special utensils I’ve never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![ApeHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@ApeHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ApeHead)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/2 "2002-07-08T13:16:26Z")
I suspect that before recorded times that people whould use the spear or pointed stick to eat food, especially the kinds of food they would need to extend over a fire for cooking. Of course this is pure conjecture on my part 🙂 We use toothpicks for appetizers and there is also the much-celebrated “spork,” a combination (usually plastic) of the fork and spoon, most often found in fast food establishments. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/3 "2002-07-08T14:35:52Z")
I know that a fondue fork is a kind of fork, but it’s less like a fork and more like a spear like ApeHead mentioned. But then again you may be inviting in all of the other specialized varieties of the “common” utensils you’ve already mentioned. Oh, what about those things you stick onto the end of corn cobs to hold them whilst eating? I imagine one could call those utensils. 🙂 And if you’re parapalegic, would the trained monkey count as a utensil? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/4 "2002-07-08T15:02:58Z")
Are you including all the tools used at the dining table? I guess if you include knives, you can also include those tongs for holding escargot shells. Or scissors - Korean restaurauts provide them to cut noodles. There’s also that plier-like tool for cracking crab legs - at least around here it’s standard. ---
**Author:** ![Church\_Key\_Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Church\_Key\_Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Church_Key_Kid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/5 "2002-07-08T16:23:58Z")
How about those flat wooden things you get sometimes with individual sized ice creams? You could call it a spoon, but its entirely flat, with no bowl… …on that note, what about popsicle sticks? Or skewers, like shiskabob (sp)? Does an astronaut eating pureed steak out of a tube count as using your hands? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/6 "2002-07-08T21:50:13Z")
Cups (you can eat soup or noodles from them). Skewers - as used for Shish Kebabs and the like. Bread and pastry can be used as eating utensils too, for example the thick crusts on Cornish Pasties were originally never intended to be eaten - they enabled the tin miners to pick up and eat their meal with dirty hands. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/7 "2002-07-09T08:06:57Z")
Oh, another one; a [‘pusher’](http://www.welch.co.uk/Flatware/CHILDDES.html) (utilised mostly by infants or the disabled), although it’s strictly a variant of the knife. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/8 "2002-07-09T09:43:39Z")
Would a straw be a utensil? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/9 "2002-07-09T10:03:50Z")
chopsticks are used throughout north asia. Many places use their hands like in India. Well, most hand eaters have some sort of bread related thing they eat with the meal. Americans (I think) invented the spork. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-utensils/117899/10 "2002-07-09T10:21:50Z")
Oh yeah, all you bread-mentioning people remind me that my wife tends to think of tortillas as a utensil, or at least acts as if she thinks them so.