Do you use Chop sticks?

[olevetonahill]

If so Why? a Spoon or fork is much easier IMHO.

[badger]

Tried and failed. NP like them for eating Asian food though. If you know how to use them it's perfect for eating rice dishes

[olevetonahill]

Tried and failed. NP like them for eating Asian food though. If you know how to use them it's perfect for eating rice dishes

Ive never tried and dont GAS if I ever master em. Whats the point? to show your cool er sompun?

[Boomer.....]

Only for sushi.

[KantoSooner]

Oly thing I used for about 20 years.
If you're eating Asian food, they work far better than knife and fork. And vice versa: don't try to cut steak with chop sticks.
Plus, I had a little case I could carry mine in. If I was going to be eating 'hawker stand' food, I'd bring my own or bring disposables since the food stand people were just rinsing their used ones off in a bucket of soapy water and then rinsing them under a tap before handing them to the next customer.

[sooner_born_1960]

"food stand people were just rinsing their used ones off in a bucket of soapy water and then rinsing them under a tap before handing them to the next customer."

Isn't that called "washing them"?

[KantoSooner]

It's a matter of degree. Sometimes (as in Singapore) yes. Sometimes, when the soapy water is kind of grey and soupy looking with chunks of food with visible tooth bite patterns in it floating around, not so much.

The latter was experienced in places like outside of Chiang Rai on the North/South Highway when I was taken in by the colorful artwork and just had to stop for duck fried rice in a charming underpass.

[yermom]

i've been using them for so long to eat noodles, a fork seems very awkward. even when i eat spaghetti it seems like i should have them now

i like them for stir fry as well. rice has to be nice a sticky though.

[Lott's Bandana]

DISCLAIMER:
When I use the term Asians, I mean what I have experienced in my travels to Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand, as well as living in Hawai'i. I certainly don't speak for an entire race of peeps.


Chopsticks are the shiz for noodle dishes and hunks of protein.

What most Westerners don't understand is, Asians are all about the results when it comes to food...not the method. (except for the Japanese sushi rules below)

For instance, to properly eat rice like an Asian, pick up the bowl and shovel it into your mouth with the chopsticks. Don't try to pick the rice up like most Westerners do...doesn't work too well, even with sticky rice.

Ever heard an Asian eat soup? SLLUUUUUUUURRRRRRRP

Asians also typically don't take a drink of alcohol at the table without getting someone to join them, so toasting is a constant part of any meal.

Weird Japanese sushi ettiquete:

- pick it up with your hand
- don't use chopsticks
- don't mix wasabi and soy in the little bowl thingy
- don't "sharpen" your wood chopsticks to remove the splinters
- once picked up, the sushi is not to touch the plate again
- don't eat the ginger with the sushi, it is simply there for palette-cleansing between different rolls/sashimi

All those things supposedly insult the sushi chef. I've done every one of them.

[yermom]

heh

apparently slurping is a generational and maybe regional thing with noodles/soup

[Curly Bill]

I can use em, and sometimes still do use em, but don't really care either way.

[Lott's Bandana]

heh

apparently slurping is a generational and maybe regional thing with noodles/soup

Best part is...it makes me laugh every single time!


Stoopid American.

[KantoSooner]

Lott,
I don't know who gave you the sushi etiquitte, but here are the modifications I learned from living in Tokyo for 22 years off and on and being married to a Japanese woman (and living next door to her parents) for 17 of those years:

Pick it up with your hand or with sticks, nobody cares. fi you're going to use your hands, use the oshibori (hot towel) thoroughly before dining.

If they give you cheap *** chop sticks with a bunch of splinters hanging off of them, rub 'em up and down until they're free of same. If anyone comments, show 'em the splinters with a look of shock on your face. They might upgrade their sticks by next time.

You can mix the wasabi in the dipping bowl all you want. And you're often offered seasonal herbs to add in, too. This is taken to an extreme in Osaka where the dipping sauce becomes a paste. Do NOT, however, pour soy sauce directly out of the bottle onto the sushi and dip the sushi, don't let it sit in the sauce. Alternatively, you can use your sticks to remove the fish, dip it into the sauce separately and then replace it on the sushi rice.
And, yes, eat the whole thing once you set into it. And don't garnish your sushi with ginger.

It's also considered good form, in a sushi bar, to order or pour a drink for the chef. Do it often enough and you'll start getting better sushi.

Stay late. Generally after 1 a.m. or so, when it's down to the old boys and piano bar hostesses, they'll start breaking out the real delicacies:

Horse mackeral (saba) sashimi with a sauce made from raw stomach contents. Oh, YUMMO.

Coddled whale semen. (more innocuous than it sounds kind of like a salty meringue)

Broiled pregnant sardines (shishamo) eaten whole.

stewed snapper fins in shochu. Soup and cocktail all in one! Bad soup and bad cocktail, but still...

And, if they have it, order an 'awamori'. A molasses derived liquor that goes upwards of 150 proof and tends to be served over a single, baseball sized ice cube. Tastes like strong light rum and gets you where you're going RIGHT NOW.

and so forth.

[olevetonahill]

Yaqll are just sick. Ya really eat Whale Cum?
Ill stick with my Merican food and Fork

[sooneron]

At Asian restaurants, I use them if the meal calls for them. So, about 70/30.

[Lott's Bandana]

Lott,
I don't know who gave you the sushi etiquitte, but here are the modifications I learned from living in Tokyo for 22 years off and on and being married to a Japanese woman (and living next door to her parents) for 17 of those years:

Pick it up with your hand or with sticks, nobody cares. fi you're going to use your hands, use the oshibori (hot towel) thoroughly before dining.

If they give you cheap *** chop sticks with a bunch of splinters hanging off of them, rub 'em up and down until they're free of same. If anyone comments, show 'em the splinters with a look of shock on your face. They might upgrade their sticks by next time.

You can mix the wasabi in the dipping bowl all you want. And you're often offered seasonal herbs to add in, too. This is taken to an extreme in Osaka where the dipping sauce becomes a paste. Do NOT, however, pour soy sauce directly out of the bottle onto the sushi and dip the sushi, don't let it sit in the sauce. Alternatively, you can use your sticks to remove the fish, dip it into the sauce separately and then replace it on the sushi rice.
And, yes, eat the whole thing once you set into it. And don't garnish your sushi with ginger.

It's also considered good form, in a sushi bar, to order or pour a drink for the chef. Do it often enough and you'll start getting better sushi.

Stay late. Generally after 1 a.m. or so, when it's down to the old boys and piano bar hostesses, they'll start breaking out the real delicacies:

Horse mackeral (saba) sashimi with a sauce made from raw stomach contents. Oh, YUMMO.

Coddled whale semen. (more innocuous than it sounds kind of like a salty meringue)

Broiled pregnant sardines (shishamo) eaten whole.

stewed snapper fins in shochu. Soup and cocktail all in one! Bad soup and bad cocktail, but still...

And, if they have it, order an 'awamori'. A molasses derived liquor that goes upwards of 150 proof and tends to be served over a single, baseball sized ice cube. Tastes like strong light rum and gets you where you're going RIGHT NOW.

and so forth.

We weren't too far off in our experiences.

Actually, I like the wood chopsticks. I have trouble with the "nicer" plastic or ivory ones as slippery noodles slip!

[KantoSooner]

Oh, Vet, I'll eat whatever is necessary to close the deal. Crispy fried palmetto bugs (cockroaches)? Tuna eyes (very high in DHA)?, jungle snail? raw snake jugged in barley wine? blocks of tofu into which eels have burrowed to escape the heating soup around them? Live shrimp/octopus/sea bream? Spiders, furry ones?
Yep.
And engaged in many other things in order to create an atmosphere of cameraderie and fellowship including an inordinate amount of nude group bathing at hot springs where it seemed the major draw was checking out the foreigner's tackle to see if the rumors really were true. <Hot water helps, by the way, as does being served sake by young ladies wearing wet cotton yukata gowns>
Those of us who ended up staying for any length of time did so on the basis of a strong dose of '**** it' and an ability to wash almost anything down, given enough liquor.

[KantoSooner]

We weren't too far off in our experiences.

Actually, I like the wood chopsticks. I have trouble with the "nicer" plastic or ivory ones as slippery noodles slip!

Dead right on that. And the Korean stainless steel ones are the worst.

[olevetonahill]

Oh, Vet, I'll eat whatever is necessary to close the deal. Crispy fried palmetto bugs (cockroaches)? Tuna eyes (very high in DHA)?, jungle snail? raw snake jugged in barley wine? blocks of tofu into which eels have burrowed to escape the heating soup around them? Live shrimp/octopus/sea bream? Spiders, furry ones?
Yep.
And engaged in many other things in order to create an atmosphere of cameraderie and fellowship including an inordinate amount of nude group bathing at hot springs where it seemed the major draw was checking out the foreigner's tackle to see if the rumors really were true. <Hot water helps, by the way, as does being served sake by young ladies wearing wet cotton yukata gowns>
Those of us who ended up staying for any length of time did so on the basis of a strong dose of '**** it' and an ability to wash almost anything down, given enough liquor.

Ok , I guess if yer making Big bucks out the deal its ok
But another ? If yer eatin Whale cum, Who Jacks off the whale?

[Breadburner]

Chicks dig it....!!!!