Could someone please explain chopsticks to me?

[Grym]

IMO They are not very useful only in one circumstance can I see them a better tool than a fork, sushi. I learned to use them because I thought it looked neat, I am pretty good at them(able to pick up anything from a grain of rice to a small spring roll) and it is fun to eat with them around ham fisted goons who cannot. They always seem so impressed.

Arguable.

Noodles, Udon, and such, I prefer chopsticks still. Rice would depends, chinese style dinner (everyone with a bowl of rice, all dishes in middle), chopsticks. A good Chicken Katsu curry, spoon.

[ShuaVerde]

As a stereotypical white american male, I should be adamant that anything other than a fork and knife is sacrilege, however, I use chopsticks more often than anything else to eat with. I think it's because I grew up going out for sushi, Chinese, etc a couple times a month, and my parents taught me that it was disrespectful to use a fork with those meals. I'm just as comfortable using chopsticks as I am with any other utensil. To reiterate what others have said, they also make more sense for certain types of foods (cheetos, noodles, sushi, etc).

I think one of the big reasons that chopsticks have remained the primary utensil in Asian countries is due to the fact that the majority of meals are prepared and served as communal dishes. When meats and vegetables are cut to small sizes so they can readily be shared by a group, chopsticks are the easiest way to serve and eat the food. Just remember that when transferring food from a communal dish to your own, you are supposed to use the large ends (the ends that don't go in your mouth) so that you're only sharing food, and not your saliva with friends & family.

I also think there's something a bit elegant about chopsticks. I actually own several sets of "fancy" chopsticks with different designs and made out of different materials.

I would recommend going in to an Asian grocery store and picking up a pair of decent square wooden chopsticks. They'll be evenly shaped, and you can find some that are thicker and therefore easier to use. Then I would practice using them if you want to build up that skill.

On a side note, I don't think it's a problem that you made the thread here instead of just doing a google search as it promoted a somewhat interesting discussion. Not sure why some people decided to mock you for it. Maybe they accidentally sat on a chopstick?

[Grym]

On a side note, I don't think it's a problem that you made the thread here instead of just doing a google search as it promoted a somewhat interesting discussion. Not sure why some people decided to mock you for it. Maybe they accidentally sat on a chopstick?

It wasn't the "why is chopstick still being used" that annoyed me, it was the "how do they eat steak with chopsticks?" that really, really annoyed me.

[Deleted]

Also, please remember that not everything is about maximising efficiency.

You could cut the english language down to only 200-300 words with no loss of meaning if efficiency was all that mattered. You don't though because culture is beautiful. Whether that's the beauty in the intricacies of a language, art from another country, or just in having different cutlery.

It's no different to saying "Well it's easier or more efficient to eat with a knife and fork than chopsticks". You could probably find a more efficient way to eat than knife and fork for many dishes, but it's part of our culture, even in the same way that it doesn't feel right to eat fish and chips if you take it out of the newspaper, or eat chips from the back of a van without a plastic fork

[Orlong]

WORLD series is because people from all around the WORLD participate in the MLB. The MLB is considered the premier baseball league in the whole world much like the NHL and NBA in their respective sports.

OT: Not quite sure if this is really ignorance or trolling, but think of the foods they eat. Rice, lo mein, chopped chicken, etc. It's small items that can be clamped with 2 small pieces of bamboo. They get the job done for what they are intended.

Rice would be eaten easier with a spoon

[Grym]

Also, please remember that not everything is about maximising efficiency.

You could cut the english language down to only 200-300 words with no loss of meaning if efficiency was all that mattered.

Isn't that how chav talk is invented...???

[IIamaKing]

Arguable.

Noodles, Udon, and such, I prefer chopsticks still. Rice would depends, chinese style dinner (everyone with a bowl of rice, all dishes in middle), chopsticks. A good Chicken Katsu curry, spoon.

I do not enjoy curry, my Asian dishes are typically some sort of meat and veggie tossed and a bowl of rice/noddles. I still think a fork or spoon is the more efficient way to eat any sort of food, there is something elegant about the chopstick.

[Grym]

Rice would be eaten easier with a spoon

Depends!!!!!

In a restaurant, where you all have your own dish, on a plate, yes, spoon is better.

Chinese meals like this: (which is VERY common, this is the more traditional way of Chinese meal)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/...21046920070525

Chopsticks are easier.

[Orlong]

Again you MUST be retarded.

We don't "pick up" the rice, you "scoope" it in your mouth.

Again it is something that should take you 5 seconds to find out on Youtube and Google:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIcltNofLjs

Seriously, try a little yourself next time.

Eating rice like that makes you look like a sloppy hog. He is just ramming it in his mouth

[ShuaVerde]

It wasn't the "why is chopstick still being used" that annoyed me, it was the "how do they eat steak with chopsticks?" that really, really annoyed me.

I get that, but there's still no reason to be rude about it.

I would also mention that a personal trainer put me on a "chopstick" diet a couple years ago that helped me a lot with my portion control. Using chopsticks to eat does tend to take longer, which means you'll start feeling full sooner as you start digesting before you eat too much. It helped me drop about 40 lbs.

[Grym]

I still think a fork or spoon is the more efficient way to eat any sort of food

as we covered before, chicken wings XD

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Eating rice like that makes you look like a sloppy hog. He is just ramming it in his mouth

That is actually, how rice is supposed to be eaten.

[BananaHandsB]

Also, please remember that not everything is about maximising efficiency.

You could cut the english language down to only 200-300 words with no loss of meaning if efficiency was all that mattered. You don't though because culture is beautiful. Whether that's the beauty in the intricacies of a language, art from another country, or just in having different cutlery.

Definitely true. It's true for another reason too. The same reason we aren't running the world on clean power, driving around in automated vehicles, feeding the world's hungry, etc etc. It's not that we can't do these things, but that cultural and infrastructural barriers need a very large push to enact change aside from just having the ability to change; forks/spoons/knives just weren't a big enough upgrade for entire cultures to change the way they were doing things. It's not that they scorn their usage tho. Go to asia and you'll find forks/spoons/knives everywhere, the culture just still prefers their way, for the most part, and I see no reason why they shouldn't. Seems to work great.

[Deleted]

Eating rice like that makes you look like a sloppy hog. He is just ramming it in his mouth

Did you know! Not every culture thinks the same things look sloppy or polite. You hear stories all the time about how such-and-such culture it's polite to burp/not burp, finish your plate / not finish your plate, etc etc.

Just because something looks sloppy to you doesn't mean it looks sloppy to everyone. You probably do things that appear sloppy to people who scoop rice up with chopsticks. Hell you probably even do things that look sloppy to people within your own country. I think it's sloppy when people use the wrong knives and forks for the wrong courses, or place glasses on the wrong side of the plate but I don't tell people they can't do it because everyone's different and things that are important to me arn't important to everyone. Things that are sloppy to me are normal to others and vice versa.

[Orlong]

I actually prefer chopsticks to white people cutlery; you can use them with one hand and they're very versatile provided the dish is prepared correctly.

Not sure how clumsy you are, but I have absolutely no trouble using a fork or spoon with one hand

[IIamaKing]

as we covered before, chicken wings XD

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That is actually, how rice is supposed to be eaten.

Chicken wings, imo, are best consumed by hands.

[Orlong]

ie. as I said before, chicken wings XD

My fav tools for eating chicken wings:

Chopsticks > fingers > knife and fork

How do you eat chicken wings with chopsticks? You have to eat around the bones. Wings are supposed to be eaten with your fingers like a corn on the cob

[ngc2440]

On a side note, I don't think it's a problem that you made the thread here instead of just doing a google search as it promoted a somewhat interesting discussion. Not sure why some people decided to mock you for it. Maybe they accidentally sat on a chopstick?

I have a suspicion it has to do with the type of posts the OP makes.

[Deleted]

Chicken wings, imo, are best consumed by hands.

Chicken wings are best consumed by bacteria in a garbage dump far away from civilization. Vile things.

[Cosmoz]

I'm an avid chopstick fanatic. I don't remember the last time I used a fork.

[BananaHandsB]

Chicken wings are best consumed by bacteria in a garbage dump far away from civilization.

The bacteria in my stomach does a far better job, I assure you . Except sometimes, and it's those times I find myself on the toilet quoting ur words in agony.