<EOM>

I prefer the spork.

Fashion statement! Totally!

chop-whats?

None of the above.

Asian cuisine just TASTES better with chopsticks!

My husband uses chopsticks a lot of times. Rice (white rice) that is used at chinese and japanese restuarants is called sticky rice. It is more functional to eat it with chopsticks because when eating sushi and such it is easier....I dont use them because I can't

Wouldn't eat Asian food any other way... kinda like beer and pizza. They just GO together.

my other half has tried to teach me but I am very inept.......but I am most excellent at eating Indian food with a chapati

ditto

what is <EOM> ?

I use them because I grew up with them=). I was very very surprised when my husband and I were going out. He came over to dinner, my mom gave him a fork and he asked for chopsticks.. ahhh scored brownie pts with the parents. I was again surprised when I moved down here and all his friends were using chopsticks! Made me feel a little less foreign.

Steph,

There's quite a difference between the rice used to make steamed (or boiled) rice, that is eaten by itself or in combination with meats and vegetables, and the 'sticky', or glutinous, rice used for sushi.

I'm with you, sort of, on the personal use of chopsticks - I use them because I can. But I wouldn't if I couldn't.

Yodrak

End of message maybe? You know AS and his IT-geek speak! *hides*

Yes, end of message.

ok...<IRTYFETTM>






(i really thank you for explaining that to me) --duh!

I use chop sticks - my husband dont use them.

Chopsticks just go with Japanese and Chinese food, I guess. Couldn't imagine eating sushi or General Tao with a fork and knife.

Chopsticks aren't that hard to use... and they just go with Asian food, especially when you go to a more authentic restaurant. I like eating it the way it's meant to eat - it feels more culturally appropriate, and less like an inept Westerner gawking at the natives. (of course if I have chinese food at home we just use a fork because there's nobody there to see!)

Too look cool and make Asian people laugh at them.

top ramien got me through college...

I love using chopsticks. My step-mom taught me how when I was a little girl, and there are some things that it's easier to eat with chopsticks than with a fork. In fact, if I eat a veggie bowl from teriyaki stix with a fork I make a complete mess, but if I use chopsticks, everything goes right where it should; in my mouth !

I showed my Fiance how to use them when we were in Amsterdam. he picked it up pretty easily.

Hmm...I've been using chopsticks in Asian restaurants for over 20 years so it's certainly not a new thing or fashionable in some parts.

Same here. I'd been using them for over two decades when I met Lai. And I had the same experience the first time at her house with 15 of her family members; her parents were going to give me a fork, but Lai said, "No, he knows how to use chopsticks!" Everyone was impressed to see the gweilo using chopsticks, and not looking like an idiot in the process Often even at Asian restaurants here, I will be given Western utensils, and I have to ask for chopsticks. To me, it just doesn't seem right to use Western utensils with Asian food; and yes, it tastes better with chopsticks We use chopsticks all the time at home, though not exclusively.

I don't know why, but I like the foreflavor of wood on my tongue better than that of metal with Asian food. Just seems to taste better. I have found it very difficult to eat sushi with a fork or spoon too. You need two firm but gentle sticks to grasp either side of the rolls so that the rice doesn't fall off of the fish.

What if the choice was between wooden western utensils and wooden chopsticks?

Nah...chopsticks are still better, even if it were wooden Western utensils versus non-wood chopsticks.

I get offended when I am not offered chopsticks at an oriental restaurant. On the flipside, when I was in Asia--I saw an awful lot of spoon usage by the natives.

It's kewl to try new things and all, with different cultures, but I still prefer the way the US does it.

Spoons, yes. They have a special kind of ceramic spoon with a deep bowl with a flat bottom that is used with soups and such and is often used in tandem with chopsticks (or did you mean Western-style spoons?). But I didn't see many forks or knives in Hong Kong except in more tourist heavy areas or in non-Chinese restaurants (Thai, Turkish, Western, etc.).

I have never been able to use chopsticks =(

My hands don't get "it", I guess.

When I was in Seoul, I tried to use them with limited success as I ate my veggie roll, thank goodness i was in a "tourist" heavy area because I could only tolerate them so long and had to give in to the power of the Fork!

Side note: the chopstick offered where I ate were metal.

I believe that is a common Korean style..

The metal chopsticks are difficult to use--but I have a secret about chopstick usage--the best way to learn is when you are hungry!

jeje, its true the Koreans were impressed that I could like use my chopsticks--couldn't catch a fly out of the air--but I could pick up dimes and other coins with the chopsticks.

They asked me how I learned so quick and proficient--and I told them it was either go hungry or learn--motivation works wonders.

them damn things are so annoying... now i am craving chinese food lol

I haven't been able to figure em out yet.

Yes--Koreans almost always use metal chopsticks. The only time I ever really use wooden chopsticks in Korea is when eating ramyun. I don't know why--that's just the way my host family did it. Maybe because the noodles are slipperier than other foods.

I don't think chopsticks are a fashion statement and I don't think western utensils are better. At my house we eat with chopsticks 95% of the time (of course we eat primarily Korean food) and I'm not trying to impress my hubby when we're alone or anything.

The reason I choose chopsticks is: 1) I eat more slowly and am less prone to overeat and more likely to enjoy my meal while eating with chopsticks. and 2) there are definitely some things that are easier to pick up and eat with chopsticks.

Things easier to eat with chopsticks include:

1) salad. You know those lettuce leaves you just can't spear with a fork? Well, chopsticks work great to pick them up. Same goes for kimchi and shredded veggies in general.
2) anything you don't want to put a hole in, but don't want to pick up with fingers...like pieces of kimbap--or whatever the Japanese equivalent is called. sushi? or is that only with raw fish? Anyway, you know what I mean.
3) anything you're going to dip in communal sauce. A lot of Asian food is shared with the whole table. I really think less of the chopstick goes into the mouth than a fork and therefore less mouth saliva goes into the sauce.
4) my omelet this morning. I chose to eat it with a fork and it was a pain. When I got the chopsticks I stopped having problems.

Now, I am no chopstick genius--they were elusive little tools for me until I was 24, but once I figured them out I was totally gung-ho about using them. So much so that when I was eating my sticky rice with my chopsticks, one of the teachers at my school asked me 'why are you using chopsticks to eat your rice? We use our spoons.' (Lots of Koreans do eat rice with their spoons--especially when it's accompanied by soup.)

And the cool thing about chopsticks is that you can still use them to spear things if you really need to--like that slippery cucumber. Or you pick one up in each hand and tear things apart if you need to also--like pancakes, etc.

I think forks are cute, but chopsticks are sexy.

I actually just bought a new set of chopsticks

Yeah there are certain foods that are way easier to eat with chopsticks: dumplings, sushi, rice, noodles. Maybe I am biased because I have been using them since I was little, my grandmother was born in China.

chopsticks: because i am a chopf#ck!

no, seriously... because I can! also because it has helped me along the "open mind" personal growth... you know, try different things.. not just the way momma and poppa taught me.



Daniel