# Why do people eat Chinese food with chopsticks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2016, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311 "2016-01-06T11:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/101 "2016-01-09T14:07:55Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#): > > I lived in Japan for a full year and never saw anyone eat sushi with their fingers. It sounds utterly gauche. Yes, I also lived there for a year and was surprised to read what you quoted, but I assumed maybe I was simply remembering wrong. (It was almost 20 years ago…) But you’re confirming what I thought I remembered–that sushi is eaten with chopsticks in Japan. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/102 "2016-01-09T15:06:52Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > How can that be? Mixing the rice with a sauce makes the rice no longer stick together, meaning to eat it with chopsticks you basically have to pick up each grain individually or eat whatever happens to sloppily stick to your chopsticks and not fall off before it gets to your mouth… That depends on how much sauce, how wet the sauce is, etc. But in general, I find it pretty straightforward to eat the rice that sops up the sauce, especially if it’s in a rice bowl. I suppose I sort of scoop, rather than pinch, the rice. Funny story. I said above that I learned to use chop sticks as a kid, but that isn’t quite true. My father tried to teach me as a kid, but I struggled with it. Then, the local Chinese restaurant closed, and I didn’t use chopsticks for years. When I was a young teen, a new place opened in town, and my family went for dinner. And I discovered that I just knew what to do, and could use chop sticks easily. I it was a sort of weird discovery. So I guess I learned the basic technique, but wasn’t dexterous enough to implement it reliably as a child. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/103 "2016-01-09T21:03:55Z")
How weird. I can’t find an image of my interlocking fork chopsticks. I never thought of them as obscure since they came with a QFC salad, but apparently they are. Nonetheless, awesome utensils. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/104 "2016-01-09T21:05:44Z")
Great. Now I want some sushi and Chinese food for dinner. Thanks, SDMB! (BTW, **Tibby** , your last post about the stealth bragging made me LOL.) ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/105 "2016-01-09T21:56:00Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Great. Now I want some sushi and Chinese food for dinner. > > Thanks, SDMB! > > (BTW, **Tibby** , your last post about the stealth bragging made me LOL.) LOL???..you think I’m funny? Funny, how? [Funny like a clown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWINtUCshxY)?\* \*NSFW ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/106 "2016-01-09T22:51:57Z")
> [@storyguide3](#): > > A few years ago I was at a freind’s place playing expensive board games. His wife brought a bowl of Cheetos for the us to share. As soon as she picked one up, he started to glare at her. No Cheeto fingers on the game cards! She glared back, went to the kitchen and returned with two pairs of chopsticks, one for me and one for her. She is Korean, so they were metal chopsticks. 😃 Lunch today was (greasy) garlic bread, eaten with chopsticks. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/107 "2016-01-09T23:51:17Z")
I tried popcorn with chop sticks today. It’s okay, but it’s faster and easier to eat popcorn with my fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/108 "2016-01-10T05:32:56Z")
The true skill test for chopsticks is being able to pick up a small nut, or even half of one. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/109 "2016-01-10T16:07:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > At a previous job we went out to eat with our Asian clients. We took them to a nearby Chinese restaurant, where they expressed surprise at my using chopsticks. > > I immediately plunged the ends of the chopsticks into my glass of ice water and pulled out an ice cube. Show off. 🙂 I had never really learned to use chopsticks (hashi in Japanese) until I wound up on Okinawa at the invitation of the Navy. Second week I was there I was tired of Army chow already so I wandered out of the gate and into the small restaurant across the street. Like **Siam Sam** said, unless you’re in a real touristy area, the default is no fork so the plateful of yaki soba arrived with just the hashi. After several moments I decided there was no time like the present and attacked it with the hashi. That first meal took a long, long time, but by the end I was already better than when I’d started. A year later I got a new room mate and he walked in about an hour after the chow hall closed until breakfast. Since he was hungry I took him to that restaurant. My first clue he was a nerf was when he ordered a hamburger for his first meal in a foreign country. (Served him right; their burgers were a rude approximation of the real thing) I ordered my usual, a bowl of ramen with a side of gyoza and when it arrived, he looked on in amazement as I deftly picked up the gyoza without breaking them, hoisted the noodles from the bowl to let them cool a moment, and dipped the char su into the gyoza sauce (which is why I paired them). “How’d you learn to do that?” “Well, the first time I tried, it took a while. Perseverance pays off.” I got pretty good, but egg fu yung defeated me. That tangled mass of bean sprouts glued together with solid egg defied me. I could break up the mass but I decided I might as well use a fork in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/110 "2016-01-10T19:47:58Z")
[quote=“davidm, post:89, topic:742311”] Is it this? [https://www.thechork.com/](https://www.thechork.com/)[/QUOTE No, I’ll have to post from work tomorrow. They’re quite unique! ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/111 "2016-01-10T22:08:31Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > I do **regularly eat** **Cheetos** and other insults to the fingertips **with** **chopsticks** , as well as popcorn for the sheer enjoyment of it (popcorn being a toy food in the first place). [Genius!](http://wondermark.com/601/) ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/112 "2016-01-11T00:11:22Z")
Didn’t Wok With Yan feature spring-powered chopsticks? ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/113 "2016-01-11T08:13:22Z")
For those saying they have never seen/heard of Japanese eating sushi with their fingers, go to 13:50 in the following cartoon (Chibi Maruko-chan). You will see a little girl and her grandfather eating sushi with their hands in the normal course of the story. Granted it is a cartoon, but it was the first thing I could think of where I could likely find a sushi-eating scene in a typical Japanese show. (i.e., something that wasn't part of a "how to eat" sushi video which might paradoxically seem unnatural.) And no, it is not a case where the animators just omitted the chopsticks for simplicity or something. There are plenty of scenes in that series that depict people using chopsticks. That being said, it seems to me that IRL most of the time people use chopsticks to eat sushi. When Japanese people have “taught” me how to eat sushi, they seem to use chopsticks themselves but frequently mention that the “real” way is to use your fingers. Reminds me of an ancient Japanese joke I have never once heard: A man goes to the doctor and says, “Doc, my penis has a fish-like smell.” The doctor says, “Really? That’s very unusual…I wonder if that has something to do with your lifestyle. Tell me, what do you do for recreation?” The man smiles sheepishly and says, “Oh, nothing special really. I just stay home and eat sushi while watching pornos…” ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/114 "2016-01-11T19:56:43Z")
Well, crap - I’ve got the picture, but I can’t find a way to load it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/115 "2016-01-11T21:19:55Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I tried popcorn with chop sticks today. It’s okay, but it’s faster and easier to eat popcorn with my fingers. Yeah, but that’s because you can take out up to a handful at a time. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311/116 "2016-01-11T21:41:49Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I tried popcorn with chop sticks today. It’s okay, but it’s faster and easier to eat popcorn with my fingers. Faster and easier, sure, but _funner_? I think not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-eat-chinese-food-with-chopsticks/742311.md?page=5)