How to use chopsticks
- Thread starter Raine
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Lugaru
Sous Chef
While I consider myself skilled with chopstix I had no idea about the etiquette involved... thanks Rainee!
Dove
DC Grandma
I have never mastered the art of chopsticks..I 'wear" enough of my food just by using a fork. If I tried chopsticks..Dove would enjoy a buffett.
SierraCook
Master Chef
Very funny, Dove. 
In reading that site the mistake I make in using chopsticks is holding them to close to the front. I will have to remember that the next time I use them. Thanks, rainee!!
In reading that site the mistake I make in using chopsticks is holding them to close to the front. I will have to remember that the next time I use them. Thanks, rainee!! DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
Thanks, Rainee! I'm pretty good at chopsticks too and the rules mostly seem to be basic courtesy. Can I still try and catch flies like Mr. Miyagi?
thier1754
Head Chef
Thanks, Rainee. I'm passing that info on to my sushi-loving youngest son.
Heat
Senior Cook
Thanks Rainee! Ive never mastered chopsticks either. So, thanks i'll try to practice!! And, i'm more like dove i would be wearing most my food!! LOL
Claire
Master Chef
Couldn't download the site, woe is me because I'm curious to see if I've missed much. When my little sister and I were teenagers, we decided to go on a chopsticks diet -- we could eat whatever we wanted, but we had to eat it with chopsticks. Needless to say, we became experts at eating with chopsticks and lost not an ounce. Love of food will win out every time! A couple of military assignments to Hawaii really refined my ability (and my knowledge of etiquette) to the point where Asian acquaintances, waiters and other food workers would be quite surprised (being, I think, prepared to make fun of the big blond haole woman who stood out in the crowd). So --- wanna learn chopsticks? Make it something you do regularly and NO CHEATING. Eat noodles and rice with them, no stabbing and skewering.
Lugaru
Sous Chef
Did a cut and paste for you Claire. What you say about doing it right is totally true... I mostly taught myself how to use them when eating nothing but rice or noodles... so once you can do that snatching food from other peoples plates becomes really easy. Hey, I said I was good... but I have terrible manners!
Some of the most important chopstick rules are:
* Hold your chopsticks towards their end, and not in the middle or the front third.
* When you are not using your chopsticks and when you are finished eating, lay them down in front of you with the tip to left.
* Do not stick chopsticks into your food, especially not into rice. Only at funerals are chopsticks stuck into the rice that is put onto the altar.
* Do not pass food with your chopsticks directly to somebody else's chopsticks. Only at funerals are the bones of the cremated body given in that way from person to person.
* Do not spear food with your chopsticks.
* Do not point with your chopsticks to something or somebody.
* Do not move your chopsticks around in the air too much, nor play with them.
* Do not move around plates or bowls with chopsticks.
* To separate a piece of food into two pieces, exert controlled pressure on the chopsticks while moving them apart from each other. This needs much exercise.
* If you have already used your chopsticks, use the opposite end of your chopsticks in order to move food from a shared plate to your own plate.
Knife and fork are used for Western food only. Spoons are sometimes used to eat Japanese dishes that are difficult to eat with chopsticks, for example some donburi dishes or Japanese style curry rice. A Chinese style ceramic spoon is sometimes used to eat soups.
Click here for more information about Japanese table manners.
Any question, advice or opinion? Voice them in the forum!
Some of the most important chopstick rules are:
* Hold your chopsticks towards their end, and not in the middle or the front third.
* When you are not using your chopsticks and when you are finished eating, lay them down in front of you with the tip to left.
* Do not stick chopsticks into your food, especially not into rice. Only at funerals are chopsticks stuck into the rice that is put onto the altar.
* Do not pass food with your chopsticks directly to somebody else's chopsticks. Only at funerals are the bones of the cremated body given in that way from person to person.
* Do not spear food with your chopsticks.
* Do not point with your chopsticks to something or somebody.
* Do not move your chopsticks around in the air too much, nor play with them.
* Do not move around plates or bowls with chopsticks.
* To separate a piece of food into two pieces, exert controlled pressure on the chopsticks while moving them apart from each other. This needs much exercise.
* If you have already used your chopsticks, use the opposite end of your chopsticks in order to move food from a shared plate to your own plate.
Knife and fork are used for Western food only. Spoons are sometimes used to eat Japanese dishes that are difficult to eat with chopsticks, for example some donburi dishes or Japanese style curry rice. A Chinese style ceramic spoon is sometimes used to eat soups.
Click here for more information about Japanese table manners.
Any question, advice or opinion? Voice them in the forum!
Claire
Master Chef
Thanks for summarizing what I couldn't seem to get to (who knows why, I'm a computer amateur). I didn't expect there to be much I didn't know, but there were a few. And a couple I can pass on. Thais generally eat with spoons and only use chopsticks for Chinese influenced dishes. Has anyone ever eaten with the stainless steel Korean chopsticks? Now there's a real challenge. Slippery and skinny. And -- it's perfectly OK to take a bite of something large and return it to your plate; much more acceptable than trying to cut it. I was truly accepted by a Chinese acquaintance when she saw me pick up the oxtails (in a soup) with my chop sticks, take a bite of the meat, and put it back down. Another is that when it comes to some dishes, in some Asian cultures, (noodles in particular), it is OK to lift the bowl up to near your chin and sort of slop them in. In most Asian cultures I've been exposed to it isn't polite to cut your food at the table; knives are considered barbarian, have no place at a meal.
There are many cultures who use chop sticks, and sometimes the etiquette varies. But the spearing things pretty much is a no-go with anyone I've eaten with. I've seen people around a table grab food out of a common pot without turning the chopsticks around the way I've heard it should be done. But to be fair, most of my experiences have been in the US (albeit with people who were not Americans). Guess it goes with the no knives. You don't stab or cut at the table. That's just my surmise.
There are many cultures who use chop sticks, and sometimes the etiquette varies. But the spearing things pretty much is a no-go with anyone I've eaten with. I've seen people around a table grab food out of a common pot without turning the chopsticks around the way I've heard it should be done. But to be fair, most of my experiences have been in the US (albeit with people who were not Americans). Guess it goes with the no knives. You don't stab or cut at the table. That's just my surmise.
cantcook
Cook
I lived in Japan for nearly 4 years and for the most part THEY need to read this etiquette guide.
I don't think you would offend anyone but the easily offended with most of those gestures, as they are ignored by the majority anyway. For instance, I bet if they read an American etiquette guide to the fork, they would probably see something that says don't use a used fork to transfer food between plates..........then they'd come to my house and be totallly confused
The main thing is not leaving your chopsticks in any of your dishes when finished eating.
I don't think you would offend anyone but the easily offended with most of those gestures, as they are ignored by the majority anyway. For instance, I bet if they read an American etiquette guide to the fork, they would probably see something that says don't use a used fork to transfer food between plates..........then they'd come to my house and be totallly confused
The main thing is not leaving your chopsticks in any of your dishes when finished eating.
LadyCook61
Master Chef
I was at a family party once in a chinese restaurant and mother in law watched me use the chop sticks. she was amazed and said how did you use it so well ? I said it was easy
