Do you know how to use chopsticks

[GB]

You are probably thinking Chinese food CantCookButLoveToEat. Sushi on the other hand is not served with spoons though. You can get a large platter with lots of pieces. People all take from the communal platter. It is considered rude to take pieces from the communal platter with the end you eat from. It is kind of the equivalent of double dipping your chip into the dip.

[roadfix]

Typically one would use the butt ends of the chopsticks if picking out of a communal platter.

I was born and raised in Japan so even to this day I prefer chopsticks over a fork depending on what I'm having.

[Callisto in NC]

Originally Posted by GB

You do not hold the sticks at the very end. You hold then a little ways down. The back end of the sticks are generally not touching anything. Plus, why are your hands grimey? I wash mine before I eat

You know those people that won't shake hands? I'm one of those. You can wash them 2 seconds before you reach out to shake, but I won't do it. I've also been at a dinner table with others more than once where people coughed in their hands at the table. I just picture someone coughing, grabbing their chopsticks, and then touching the food. Shivers.

[Loprraine]

I'm not very good with chopsticks. But, I find that if I wrap an elastic around the two of them, I can manouver them much better, and get the food to my mouth.

[roadfix]

Originally Posted by Loprraine

I'm not very good with chopsticks. But, I find that if I wrap an elastic around the two of them, I can manouver them much better, and get the food to my mouth.

That's the most popular method of teaching kids in Asia how to use them.

[Callisto in NC]

Originally Posted by Loprraine

I'm not very good with chopsticks. But, I find that if I wrap an elastic around the two of them, I can manouver them much better, and get the food to my mouth.

Cheater chopsticks. Actually featured in several movies and an episode of CSI:NY. You also need to add a buffer like a piece of paper rolled up to make the chopsticks bounce against each other.

[Loprraine]

Cheater chopsticks.

Yup. Sometimes, I can do it on my own, sometimes, I need to go back to basics.

teaching kids in Asia how to use them

I used this method with my nephew 30 years ago. He's a chopstick pro now.

[sherifffruitfly]

I can use chopsticks fine, but I've never understood people's fascination with using a less-efficient eating instrument (in 99% of the situations in America).

[roadfix]

Originally Posted by sherifffruitfly

I can use chopsticks fine, but I've never understood people's fascination with using a less-efficient eating instrument (in 99% of the situations in America).

I agree,.......it must be the zen thing. ....

[GB]

Originally Posted by sherifffruitfly

I can use chopsticks fine, but I've never understood people's fascination with using a less-efficient eating instrument (in 99% of the situations in America).

Efficiency is not the only goal in eating. There is a pleasurable aesthetic involved as all. There are some people who will also say that eating with chopsticks is a good way to ensure you do not make a pig out of yourself. You can put WAY too much food on a fork, but it is not easy to do that with chopsticks.