General Question

serenityNOW's avatar

Chopsticks For Chinese?

Asked by serenityNOW (3643points) November 17th, 2008

Hmmm… that question sounds like a promotion for some sort of charity, now doesn’t it.

Okay, anyway: whenever I eat Japanese food I use chopsticks; for Chinese, I use a knife and fork. But whenever I see someone in the movies or on TV eating Chinese they’re invariably using chopsticks. What gives? And what do you do?

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18 Answers

lynzeut's avatar

I use chopsticks for both.

eambos's avatar

I’m far too uncoordinated. I use fork and knife for both.

queenzboulevard's avatar

I use chopstix for Chinese and fork for Japanese. On TV I see people eating Thai with chopstix a lot, too.

jlm11f's avatar

Well, since Chopsticks “are the traditional eating utensils of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam”, I don’t understand why you are so surprised by this. source

As for me, I use chopsticks for the first 5 minutes, just for the fun of it and to create a racket. After that I use the fork.

mark2100's avatar

Now that you mention it, I use knife and fork for Chinese but chopsticks for Japanese. But I think it’s cause thats what they give you – cutlery in Chinese restaurants, chopsticks in Japanese ones.

AstroChuck's avatar

Chopsticks for me.

asmonet's avatar

Chopsticks. And sometimes I pretend they’re finger stilts and perform hand dancing and my friends leave the table.

In my 3rd grade Japanese class I was Chopstick Champion. I stacked 23 Cheerios with them. I beat the teacher. It was epic.

matsuri's avatar

Chopsticks were the original eating utensils in the countries PnL has listed, and even more. Similarly, i do not understand why you are suprised at this, unless what they were eating required that you must use another utensil, such as soup.

TaoSan's avatar

Of all the cuisines mentioned above, Chinese is the most unsuitable for chopsticks IMHO.

Hell, even Vietnamese Pho soup is easier eaten with chopsticks than General Tso’s chicken with all those small pieces on so much sauce.

By the way, in China, knifes and forks are unacceptable because they resemble weapons, why doesn’t the chopstick resemble a mini spear? Surely you could poke an eye out :)

loser's avatar

I gave up on chopsticks years ago. Just gimme a fork, man…

ezraglenn's avatar

People eating Asian food with a fork kills me. It is one of my biggest pet peeves. I find eating generally easier with chopsticks, to be honest, but aside from that I just think it’s disrespectful to the culture whose traditions you are essentially rejecting in eating your lo mein with a fork. Oh, and sushi with a fork might just kill me. I cannot imagine watching someone butcher it like that. Call me an elitist, but I just think eating a meal should be more of an experience than a necessity, and the utensils used are definitely part of that experience.

Also, re: thai food – They do not use chopsticks in Thailand.

TaoSan's avatar

OMG, Sushi with a fork!!!!

Now that’s really an image of barbarism, lol

asmonet's avatar

@azraglenn: If I see plastic Buddhas and white waiters, I’m definitely not the one offending the culture with my fork. Also, all my Thai coworkers disagree with you, and I’ve seen them digging in to American food with chopsticks to boot.

TaoSan's avatar

and while we’re at it, here in Vegas all kitchen workers seem to be South American, regardless of the cuisine offered.

ezraglenn's avatar

Although the Chinese brought chopsticks to Thailand long ago, today most Thais prefer to use Western cutlery, though in their own special way. Thai cutlery generally consists of a fork and large spoon. The spoon is held in the right hand and used in place of a knife.

source

cwilbur's avatar

@ezraglenn: the problem is that Americanized Chinese restaurants serve food that is difficult to eat with chopsticks, such as fried, non-sticky rice. If the cuisine is not really authentic, for the most part, why insist on authentic utensils?

nayeight's avatar

Good question. I’ve never used a fork on sushi and probably never will but I think it’s a little much to say that someone is disrespecting the culture if they use a fork to eat sushi. I used to live in Japan and in most cases if you really tried to use chopsticks and couldn’t quite get the hang if it, they wouldn’t be offended and will just give you a fork. We have a few sets of really nice chopsticks at my house but we rarely take them out to eat Chinese or Japanese food. I just don’t think it’s that big of a deal.

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