Why would a person who was born and raised in the United States and has used knives and forks as eating utensils for their entire lives all of the sudden insist on using chopsticks to eat, just because they are eating Chinese food? Since when does the type of cuisine, rather than the native culture, determine the eating customs?? If these people went to an Indian restaurant, would they take a kettle of water with them to clean themselves with if they had to use the restroom???
Plus, I don’t think the food served in American ‘Chinese’ restaurants is really Chinese, so the eating utensils don’t match to cuisine anyway. Why do they do it? Why bother??
For fun. It’s part of the experience. At a chinese restaurant forks are for whimps. At an Indian restaurant I often eat by scooping things up with the bread. Especially if I’m dining with my Indian friend who is almost incapable of eating Indian food with western utensils. As for the idea that Chinese restaurants in the US aren’t really Chinese, that depend greatly on where you go. If you’re at a crappy small town restaurant you’re probably right. However, I live in a city with a large Asian population. When I go down to the international district and eat at a place where I’m the only white person, I’m pretty sure I’m getting an authentic meal.
Because I tend to eat more slowly when using chopsticks, which is a good thing, as I tend to be a scarfer.
Also, having learned and practiced in American chinese restaurants came in really handy when I went to China and there were no “western” utensils. Which leads me to…
3. It makes me remember that fabulous trip now every time I use them.
First it’s fun, second I get it to go sometimes and if you try and stab a pepper you’re likely to go thru the Styrofoam. Second, I’m training for the Mr. Miagi fly catching contest.
Why do some people use small picks to place on either end of a cob of corn to eat it, instead of their hands? Why do some people use lobster forks when eating lobster, instead of a perfectly good normal fork? Because in some cases that’s the expected utensil to use. You can use another if it’s available or if you’re not able to use the expected one, but heck, carry that theory to an extreme and you can eat most anything with just a knife and your hands.
If that Indian restaurant didn’t have toilet paper or running water then yes, a kettle of water would be a good thing to bring. I’ve been in Italian restaurants (in Italy, mind you) that didn’t have flush toilets, just a hole in the ground that you squatted over - fortunately, they did have paper.
Just wanted to chime in as a (half) Chinese person who chooses to use a fork (with spoon, if available, Southeast Asian style) when eating at Chinese restaurants. I used to have something to prove and became quite proficient at getting every single grain of rice off my plate.
Then I went to China. And they gave us small rice bowls to hold in our hands. And I remembered/realized that chopsticks are meant to be mainly pushing instruments, as in holding the bowl to your mouth and pushing the rice and food in. The picking up of certain slippery items from a plate way down on the table can be difficult even for experts.
So eating with chopsticks in Chinese-American restaurants is an odd combination: chopsticks without the bowl, the least-convenient eating arrangement. I suspect non-Chinese folks wanted to try this “exotic” eating method and adopted it (as a hip sign of cultural literacy, perhaps?) without realizing that it’s not exactly right. Chopsticks are the proper tool for the job of eating typically pre-chopped Chinese food and that’s why it’s done.
Food is prepared to be eaten in specific ways. When I eat Ethiopian or Hawaiian food, it’s all with the hands (my Indonesian friend claims that food tastes better eaten with the hands). You aren’t getting the full effect if you choose a different method. It wouldn’t be a burger if you used a knife and fork, right? You need the grease and condiments running down your wrist for the full experience…
That said, I use western utensils unless I can hold on to my soup bowl and use that with chopsticks.
Don’t want to look like a chump who can’t use chopsticks.
After years of eating mostly with chopsticks or hands and several months of no forks ever, I find forks and knives kind of unwieldy.
Can’t eat noodles with a fork.
However, I’ve seen some people who really shouldn’t bother as they have to push rice into their chopsticks with their hands. THOSE people should stick with forks.
I find any food easier to eat with chopsticks than a knife and fork. Especially salad. At home I will use chopsticks most of the time, no matter what I’ve cooked. So it makes sense that I would use them when I go to an Asian restaurant too.
I took my family to eat pho (Vietnamese rice noodle beef soup), which is eaten with chopsticks and a spoon. My elderly aunt can’t use chopsticks, and was given a fork and spoon. She found it impossible to pick up the slippery rice noodles, and had to leave her soup nearly uneaten.
I also use chopsticks a lot for cooking. They’re great for stirring stuff in a frying pan, and have the advantage that you can more easily pick up individual pieces and turn them over. they also don’t scratch the non-stick coating.
I use chopsticks in general when it’s more convenient and the pieces of food are bite-sized. Normally in Chinese/Japanese restaurants, I’ll use one or the other, depending on how large the pieces of food that are served are… one definite “chopsticks or just my hands” must for me is sushi. Plus, chopsticks are fun to use and are good tools to pinch people with when you want to be annoying.
I’ve heard that in some cultures, chopsticks are preferred because stabbing one’s food with a fork is seen as barbaric. I feel this way about sushi. It’s a beautiful food creation, and I can’t just mash it with a fork. The chopsticks add to my enjoyment of the meal.
For Chinese food, I do it because I can. jinwicked I have to agree with you. I eat Chinese takeout in the lab with chopsticks because it annoys my coworker. Also, I eat more slowly and just enjoy the food more.
Technically I was born and raised in America, but after spending the last 7 years in Taiwan, I can’t use anything other than chopsticks and/or spoon, and the occasional (improperly wielded) knife for steaks.
Besides, it’s fun to show off to clumsy Westerners when I do go back to America during vacations.
