Can you use chopsticks?

[bobb]

I can't. I'm useless. I spent a fair bit of time in Asia some years ago, but I still couldn't get the hang of it. What about you?

[vorsprung]

Thing is, they are just a way of shovelling food into your face

So, of course, I can use them as intended

Is it elegant? no
Is it polite looking? no
Do I get soup on my chin? yes

[nikki]

Yeah baby (certainly with the shorter, pointier Japanese style ones, anyway.)

Key for me was realising the lower stick doesn't move and sussing out how far down the length to grip them.

I can generally keep my dignity in terms of technical skills, but I'm still working on cultural things like when I need to reverse them to load up my dish or if I'm in familiar enough company that nobody cares.

Have also recently levelled up with this.

[pcolbeck]

Utterly useless and when I actually do try I get cramp in my fingers. Mind you Master Pcolbeck can't use chopsticks either and his girlfriend of several years is from Hong Kong and takes the michael mightily when we go to a Chinese restaurant and he has to use a fork.

I have a theory that whilst people say its easy it uses some kind of fine muscle control that most people in the West just don't normally use.  One of those things that's really easy if you spent several months learning it when you were two years old.

[nikki]

Thing is, they are just a way of shovelling food into your face

Ah. Yes. And literally-using-them-as-a-shovel (spaced a few mm apart and scooping the food up on top) was another key technique that made things a lot easier!

[andrewc]

I can just about manage, but a spoon or fork is so much easier!

[Kim]

Last time I tried, I was weirdly better at it with my left hand.  Which isn't saying much.

Not really a skill I've had reason to develop.  I don't actually like much Chinese food, and I'm always wary of unexpected sesame, which can ruin my day.

Give me a fork.

[Tim Hall]

Yeah baby, although I think my technique, whilst tidy enough, may be a bit unorthodox. Something to do with where I balance the fixed stick and how the moving one is moved.

[Tom B]

I have a theory that whilst people say its easy it uses some kind of fine muscle control that most people in the West just don't normally use.

That'll be why no one here can knit or sew then

The best way to learn to use chopsticks is to be in a situation where there is delicious food and no other means of eating it in an acceptable way. It's tough at first but you soon learn.

Key for me was realising the lower stick doesn't move and sussing out how far down the length to grip them.

Yes

Chopstick technique also comes in useful for rescuing objects that have fallen behind the back of an immovable object such as a radiator

[Cudzoziemiec]

Sort of. I can feed myself but it's a bit like a toddler. Indian food is superior for the very reason that you're supposed to eat it with your hands!

[Basil]

For some reason I used to be a lot better at it than I am now.

[ian]

I can, if not elegantly, but forks and spoon are a lot more practical.

[T42]

Yeah baby.  I also use cooking chopsticks for deep-frying.

You'll have heard of Restauranteur's Chopstick Soup, of course.  You use only bamboo chopsticks in your restaurant, then once a month you put them all in a pot and boil them up together. Not only does this sterilize them, but the resulting broth serves as base for the following month's chicken soup.

[hellymedic]

I could use chopsticks before my MS took hold. Now I can't use a pen, chopsticks are out...

[pcolbeck]

Chopsticks are interesting in that they are much less practical than a knife and fork. I wonder why the chopstick using areas never dropped them in favour of knives and forks?

Mind you it took until the 18th century for forks to become common in Western Europe so until then people were using a knife and their hands which is less efficient than chopsticks.

Cousine is constrained by the tools as well. Chinese - things are pre cut in the kitchen, European roasts etc where you can carve off what you want with a knife.

[Mr Larrington]

We're repeatedly told how clever the ancient Chinese were; they invented gunpowder and printing and bagpipes and the helicopter¹ and all sorts of Super Stuffs.  But not the fork?

1: Lie.

[Cudzoziemiec]

They can't have been that clever if they invented bagpipes.

Then again, maybe they were clever enough to get the rest of the world to blame the Scots.

[orienteer]

Being a half-Japanese household, of course! Eating peas is still a bit tricky though.

Has anyone tried the oriental diet? Eat as much as you like with one chopstick 

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

They can't have been that clever if they invented bagpipes.

Then again, maybe they were clever enough to get the rest of the world to blame the Scots.

Don't diss the bagpipes, very effective weapon.

Anyway back OT, whilst I am a proficient chopstick operator for some reason spaghetti escapes me. I can't do that twirling it around the bow of a spoon thing with any elegance.  I have a special shirt for Italian restaurants, red and white in pattern.

[T42]

Being a half-Japanese household, of course! Eating peas is still a bit tricky though.

Has anyone tried the oriental diet? Eat as much as you like with one chopstick 

No problem: just sharpen it first.

[T42]

We're repeatedly told how clever the ancient Chinese were; they invented gunpowder and printing and bagpipes and the helicopter¹ and all sorts of Super Stuffs.  But not the fork?

Ahem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork

Bone forks had been found in archaeological sites of the Bronze Age Qijia culture (2400–1900 BC), the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1050 BC), as well as later Chinese dynasties.

Although to be honest, I thought they were invented by Ken Thompson and his buddies.

[barakta]

A genuine disability issue for me although I have of course tried them with limited success. Sadly these days even knife-forking together is difficult and on a bad day I can't use most implements so do use my hands for food...

[hellymedic]

A genuine disability issue for me although I have of course tried them with limited success. Sadly these days even knife-forking together is difficult and on a bad day I can't use most implements so do use my hands for food...

I know the feeling!

I use a knife to shovel food forkwards and then feed myself with the fork. I can't lift my right hand much.

Maybe Orienteer should

Eat his peas with honey
I've done so all my life
It makes the peas taste funny
But it keeps them on the knife chopstick

[Sergeant Pluck]

Sort of. The grip is incorrect so while I am really good at picking up very small things, I am no good at pulling things apart.

Big chopsticks are very handy for cooking, I find.

One of the reasons why chopsticks have persisted is that for a lot of Asian food, a knife is redundant. Plus their rice is sticky.

[clarion]

Yeah.  But I much prefer pointy Japanese ones, so I have a stabbity option. 

I do tend to eat a lot slower