If you need to do a complicated sum, what do you use? Is it an abacus or a calculator?
I think we all know the answer to that. For all the traditional charm of the abacus, the calculator is a clearly superior piece of technology, and one that is far better suited to the task.
A similar line of thinking would apply with mobile telephones versus smoke signals or trains versus a horse and cart.
Why, therefore, would anyone actively choose to eat with chopsticks when given the option of using a knife and fork?
For people who have grown up using chopsticks, I can perhaps understand this. Knives and forks may be unfamiliar, and it’s easier to use what you know.
What makes no sense at all is people who have grown up with knives and forks choosing to use chopsticks when they can have a knife and fork. If I’m in a Chinese restaurant and I’m presented with chopsticks, then it makes perfectly good sense to ask if a knife and fork is available. If there is, wonderful, I’ll use them instead. If there isn’t, then I’ll struggle through with the chopsticks, despite there not being a single foodstuff on earth where they are the better utensils to eat with. This includes, ironically, rice – something for which chopsticks are particularly ill-suited, despite rice being the staple food in the parts of the world where chopstick use is traditional.
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It’s like toilets. People who have grown up with squat toilets may prefer to use them as they’re more accustomed to them, but no-one in their right mind could say a squat toilet is better than a proper toilet.
And, naturally, no Western visitor in Asia would choose to use a squat toilet when a perfectly good normal toilet is available.
Yet, given chopsticks, people will decide that it’s all about respecting cultural differences rather than picking between a clearly superior and clearly inferior technology. The desire to look good by showing that they can use chopsticks overrules logic and common sense.
If this is you, then I’ve a handy piece of advice that you may want to bear in mind next time you’re offered a choice of chopsticks or knife and fork. It is this: No-one is impressed that you can use chopsticks. Absolutely no-one.
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I’ll tell you something chopsticks are really good for and that’ moving around and turning over rashers of bacon when in the frying pan.
Cheers
Is this a Guardian style wind up piece? Get the comments going?
If so, I’ll be the first to take the bait and point out that noodle soup is much easier eaten with chopsticks and a spoon with anyone with a modicum of skill with chopsticks.
I could go on and on but I have better things to do!
“And a spoon” being the key phrase there…
Each to their own, but I actually don’t mind eating with chopsticks. Obviously, at first, I was useless. But after months of Asian restaurants – many of which didn’t have the knife and fork option – my chopsticking abilities had improved to such a point that Asians I’d go out to dinner with had a look of genuine surprise when they saw I was ‘different’ to the other foreigers. And they congratulated me on my sterling efforts. It felt quite nice, to be honest. Having not been to Asia since late 2010, however, I reckon I’m a little rusty now.
Yes, but why would you choose to use chopsticks when a knife and fork is available? Other than to show how good you are at using chopsticks, which seems phenomenally pointless.
Well often there’s no knife and fork on the table and I can’t be arsed asking for them when there’s a perfectly good pair of chopsticks available.
You should ask GW what he thinks. I’m sure I’ve been out for dinner with him and he’s opted for chopsticks over knife and fork.
Weird post this, David. Why do you assume that knife and fork is inherently better? I need knife and fork to cut something. Asian food uses chopsticks because (i) the food is pre-shredded, (ii) chopsticks are better for noodles and rice than a fork and (iii) chopsticks allow you to eat from your neighbour’s neighbour’s bowl, as is the norm in Asia.
I assume it is inherently better because that is demonstrably the case.
Better for rice? That’s utter nonsense. I’m beginning to come round to the argument that they’re better for noodles, but I can’t see what chopsticks and a spoon can do that a fork and a spoon can’t do.
And why can’t you eat from a neighbour’s bowl using a knife and fork?
I find chopsticks easier to use for food that’s pre-chopped – as in the case of most Chinese/Japanese/Korean dishes, although do find them a pain for a bowl of rice.
Some will tell you that the food tastes better with chopsticks as you barely touch your mouth with them, while the touch of metal on your tongue/lips alters your eating experience (I lack any of the sophistication required to detect such subtleties)
As an aside a large proportion of the world would insist that the best implement for eating is the hand. Visiting my Indian in-laws I’ve often had to ask for a fork to negotiate my rice. Same argument about the feel/taste of metal.
You’re all missing the bigger picture here- nothing beats eating with your hands. Recently I was in a 1950s Diner in Paris that specialised in burgers. All the French guys in there were eating their burgers with a knife and fork. The other half and I began to eat with our hands, and suddenly everyone in the restaurant, seeing that we had broken some sort of invisible barrier, dug in and started to eat with their hands. I picked up the habit of eating with my hand (or rather one hand) in India and it increases the enjoyment of the food- texture and size and mixture of flavours are all enhanced.
The pleasure in chopsticks is many:
FIRST & FOREMOST
Reusable or single use
If the former, obviously wipe off. If round, see how they roll in your fingers. I personally don’t like metal sticks as they clang on my teeth and feel cold, but fashioned bamboo or wooden, especially if contoured for finger placement, can make for a very interesting meal.
If the latter, how do they snap apart? I hate the ones that snap crooked. I want a crisp snap and I certainly don’t want to peel off wooden fibres. Round or square, for disposable I prefer square as the round ones have the square end which I find disagreeable.
GRAZING
The finer the fit to your hand, the better you can toy with your food. Think of it as picking up a potato wedge with your toes rather than your fingers – different huh. Good chopsticks let you pry, poke and play in a way crappy sticks won’t.
THEATRE
Hold your right hand up, slide first two fingers back and forward so the sticks dance to make a point. (Be sure they’re free of noodles before doing this to avoid impacts on your dining partners). Flip to forefinger and thumb for slight emphasis, together as one for “I’m about to plunge this into your eyeball”.
EATING
What is that greenish leafyish thingish on the edge of the plate? Let’s pick it up and examine — but only at stick-distance. Looks ok? Swallow it before other, swifter sticks grab it off you.
KNIVES & FORKS
Scoff away.
My Chinese friend … (actually, she comes from Sydney; her grandfather came from Singapore) … says knife and fork every time. She says ‘We invented gunpowder and the clock. You’d think we’d have got around to inventing decent gobbling rods!’
I like eating with chopsticks if I’m eating Asian food – in Asia. It’s part of the occasion and it’s what everyone else is doing. And travel for me is ‘trying’ a bit to be a bit like a local rather than sticking out as a typical tourist. Chopsticks make you take smaller mouthfuls too – so I think using them is probably better for your digestion. Thing that makes me laugh is travellers in Thailand asking for chopsticks to look cool and local. Most Thais I’ve come across use a fork and spoon.
And, actually ‘someone’ might be impressed.. the local people around you – you are at least trying to demonstrate that you’re interested in the way they do things rather than just assuming that your own way is better. I think you could argue in some cases it’s about politeness.
This is a rather odd post. Seriously. Knife and fork may be the norm or the best for you and what you eat but you are not the universal common denominator. Same goes for squat loos. I live in China and travel a lot in Asia and the Middle East. I’d far prefer a nice squat loo where my bottom doesn’t touch the facilities over a sit down toilet that hasn’t been cleaned in ages (and they frequently haven’t).
As for chopsticks, I actually kind of prefer them– when eating Chinese food. And in China, you often have no choice. For noodles, they are far better than forks. You don’t even need a spoon- just lift the bowl and slurp. It’s lovely. For meats and veggies, chopsticks give you incredible control when picking up tiny morsels. Even the rice there is stickier and can be lifted in pleasing clumps with the chopsticks. No need for knife and fork, and neither superior nor inferior.
If someone is using chopsticks for the sole reason of impressing someone else, that’s a bit sad of them, but human. (You might as well rail at people for wearing perfume/aftershave). But most people don’t do that – they’re just doing it because it’s fun to learn. Myself included.
As for the other 1 billion people in the world who can use chopsticks in ways knife & fork users can barely imagine, total non-issue.
Living up to your blog’s name I see. LOL I use chopsticks because I think they’re fun, and I enjoy doing something different.
And why use a fork and knife, or chopsticks, when you have your hands. Much easier and fewer things to wash when the meal is done.
So was it a wind up piece then?
Next time time you’re in Clapham Junction pop in and say hi and we’ll take you to Mien Tay and we’ll get a bowl of Pho each and we’ll have a noodle off. Me with spoon and chopsticks (doesn’t work without the chopsticks!) and you with knife, fork and spoon.
Is it a wind up?
Apologies for late reply – not been able to get laptop on access for a couple of days.
No, it’s not a wind up. I do firmly believe that there is no food better eaten with chopsticks than proper cutlery. I did, however, suspect that more comments would disagree with me than agree with me. That’s OK, we can have different opinions. I guess a lot depends on whether you prefer playing with your food or eating it
Jeremy’s point about locals being “impressed” is a fair one, although I’d still say that if those locals present you with an alternative, it’s better to use that alternative.
Now, for my next act, I shall tell everyone they smell of wee…
I prefer chopsticks when I’m eating stir fry. Trying to scoop up slippery, saucy chicken and cashew stir fry with a fork makes me upset. But with chopsticks, I can pack that stir fry away at Olympic speeds. Plus, it’s more fun, so every meal is a snacktivity.
Try eating sushi or dim sum with a fork. It will ruin the entire meal. Plus would you rather see a Kung Fu movie where the hero beats up the bad guy with a knife and fork or two wooden chopsticks?
I’m always impressed when I see people using chopsticks.Ergo, your conclusion is flawed.
The best tool to eat with is a question of food preparation and practice. Foods eaten with chopsticks tend to be made with the limitations of chopsticks in mind—this means solid food is generally presented in easily manipulated chunks, while finer foods hold together naturally due to structure (e.g. noodles) or stickiness (e.g. stickier varieties of rice).
The same holds of food made for knives and forks, although the limitations are less obvious when you normally eat food optimised for that purpose. Just as you wouldn’t want to negotiate a lasagne with chopsticks, knives and forks make little sense for eating sushi. How would you even approach the task of eating a salmon nigiri? Stab it right through with the tines and probably cut it in half? Flip it onto your fork and convey it to your mouth via a hilarious balancing act? Have fun dipping it in your soy sauce! Noodles stand out as another obvious example of a food that’s easier to eat with chopsticks after a little practice.