…and then they said: It’s so complicated to eat with fork and knife. Why would anyone prefer that? You need two hands for it. Chopsticks are so much easier.”
While a number of european people thinks that they can eat with chopsticks, most of them just handle them in some funny way to get food into their mouth, but most of them don’t do it the right way. I met a person who told me that I’m doing it wrong only after I came home from my China trip so I felt ashamed and decided to improve my skills at home for the next time we would go out and eat together. Although this never happened I want to explain what I learned about 筷子 (chopsticks). In my opinion it is a good idea for everyone to learn how to eat with chopsticks in the proper way because it is a skill which trains your fingers. In addition, whenever one eats asian food it is easier to do so with chopsticks and at the same time it’s more fun. Especially when one eats sushi, it looks ridiculous doing so with a fork or with one’s fingers. I want to emphasize the fact that it is important to learn it the right way – please check out the big number of youtube videos in order to have it explained how to. I recommend to watch several different ones because some of them are more, some of them less understandable for a specific person. This is the best one I found, because it is clear and short and states the general rule that only the upper chopstick should move while the lower is stable.
The proper way of holding chopsticks might be hard to do in the beginning. In order to improve you can help yourself using training chopsticks which you can order online, or you make them yourself.
I made the ones you can see in the picture myself but changed the position of the rubber band in order to fit my hands better.
As I wrote about the differences between China and Korea lately, they do not stop when it comes to chopsticks.
The type of disposable chopsticks widely seen in asian take-aways in Austria is japanese-style. They are rather short and flat and rather thick, made of bamboo.
Japanese chopsticks
Chinese chopsticks are longer than japanese ones and made of bamboo as well, but their diameter is rather round than eliptical or square-shaped.
Chinese chopsticks and my DIY – training chopsticks.
Korean chopsticks are very different. First of all, they are made of metal most of the time. In addition, they usually come with a spoon. Their shape is quite different as well: they are much thinner, but as long as the chinese ones. Also, they are quite flat so the tips can be considered as pointy in comparison. I made the experience that Korean chopsticks are a challenge, even after 2 months of eating with chinese ones. Their pointy tips make it much harder to take pieces of food, but once you can do so, your eating will consist of elegant and precise movements. The fact that they are rather rectangular and flat in diameter makes it harder to hold them. They might flip over if you don’t hold them the right way which might cause your piece of food falling down.
As you can see they also have rounded ones in Korea which were supposedly bought in a tourist shop (they are a much loved present from a special friend of mine).
Korean chopsticks and spoon.
The explanation for the diversity in the shapes of 筷子 has been explained to me just today. It lies in the fact that the dishes eaten in the countries respectively vary so the chopsticks are accommodated in the most ideal way possible to the shape of the consumed food. Korean food consists of rater small, solid pieces of food so the chopsticks are hard and pointed in order to meet the requirement of transmitting a lot of the hand’s force to the piece of food. Many chinese dished inlcuding 饺子 and 面汤 are much softer, so people need less pressure from their hands to pick them up. The chopsticks can be made with the softer and more flexible material of bamboo. For the japanese chopsticks we can say that the fine tips are ideal when it comes to picking the bones out of the fish that they traditionally eat most of the time.
If you are motivated to improve your 筷子 skills I suggest that you eat pretty much everything you eat with chopsticks. You can eat frech fries and salad with them, and even Ravioli or Tortellini. Just imagine them being 饺子 and do not add a lot of butter in order to make it easier to handle. After some time you can go for 面汤 which is not hard to cook and a good thing to train your chopstick skills.
P.S. Use a 碗 (bowl) when using chopsticks. It’s so much easier. Have fun! =)
The Chinese Lantern 