h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Does using Chopsticks make Chinese Food taste better? - A858530
Author: spook - U183955

spook

if i ue a fork then i eat so fast that i am sick. chopsticks were what i used to use to slow me down so i could enjoy the food more. but now i am as good with chopsticks as i am with a fork, so i think i'll have to start just using one fork.


FABT

i think you'll find that once u r really good with chopsticks u'll actually eat your food faster then if you were using a fork.

spook

Why not try using just one chopstick?

Hmmmm. What about if you eat with a knife - jabbing at pieces of meat and veg the way that you'd see (for instance) Charles Laughton doing in The Private Life of Henry VIII? The utensil never enters your mouth at all (of course, you'd have a hell of a time eating rice that way ).

And if you watch people who've been to finishing school (or who are really, really precious and prissy) eating, the fork hardly enters their mouth, in fact they don't even close their lips over it - they pull the food off the tines with their teeth. They could never use chopsticks.

Nice entry mate

I would disagree with your description of the Chinese method of using chopsiticks. The only time food is eaten in the way you describe is when eating rice. When eating pieces of meat and vegetables, the food is picked up from the plate with the chopsticks and placed in the mouth similar to what you describe as the British method.

What might be an interesting addition is why the Chinese and other oriental prople use chopsticks. There is a very good reason. A clue; there is no mention of a knife, a common eating utensil in the west, but something that will never be seen at an oriental table.

Oh, yes, Chinese food does taste better when eaten with chopsticks. It is prepared and served with the intention that it should be eaten with chopsticks.

Stuart

i've updated the entry a bit. what do u think?

spook

The amendments make it better. However, a Brit confonted with a bowl of rice and only a pair of chopsticks would have to revert to "the Chinese method" as you describe. There is no other way to eat rice with chopsticks. Personaly I would remove any reference to the Chinese and British methods. There is only one way to use chopsticks and that is the way the Chinese have been doing for thousands of years when the western world were still using their fingers.

As regards the knife at a Chinese table. It begs the question, why do the chinese not use a knife at the table?

Stuart

when eating rice, the british usually use chopsticks as a scoop, while the chinese use them as a shovel. i've combined the two methods under one header, and changed it slightly.

i think u'll find that the reason the chinese do not use a knife at the table is because when the chinese are preparing their food, they cut it into very small pieces, making it ideal for being eaten using chopsticks and making a knife unnecessary. i've updated that section slightly to.

spook

I believe it's to do with cooking methods. Chinese and Japanese cooking is very quick because cooking fuel is relatively scarce compared to, say, Ireland where peat was always plentiful, which is why there are a lot of things like slow-cooked stews in Irish cookery. The smaller the pieces are cut up, the quicker they cook, so food is cut into bite-size pieces before cooking.

You are getting mixed up between cause and effect regarding using a knife at a Chinese table. The knife is not necessary because the food is cut into small pieces, the food is cut into small pieces because the knife is not allowed.

The Chinese, like all Orientals, take their food seriously. They believe that the meal table should be a place of peace and harmony, enabling the food and company to be enjoyed to its maximum extent. Introducing a knife into the proceedings will disrupt the harmony as a knife is a weapon. The use of a fork in a Chinese restaurant is a condescension to Europeans as that to can be used as a weapon. All part of the Yin/Yang principle.

To maintain the harmony, the knife and anything else that might disrupt the harmony is banned. Consequently, the food is cut into small pieces by the chef and eaten with chopsticks that can in no way be construed as a weapon. It is for the same reason that dining tables in a genuine Chinese restaurant are round with a revolving centre piece. With a round table, no one is in a more superior position than any other. The food is placed on the revolving centre piece and is turned, allowing the Diners to take their share of the food. If you go into a Chinese restaurant and the tables are rectangular you are in a restaurant catering for Europeans. If the tables are round, you are probably in a genuine Chinese restaurant catering for Chinese and anyone else who wishes to partake of genuine Chinese cuisine.

As for speed, if a Chinese meal takes less than two hours, you have rushed it. A proper Chines meal will consist of at least eight courses and probably as many as fourteen and can take many hours.

One other thing. To skewer your food with a chopstick like you would with a fork is the height of bad manners. No Chinese or respecter of Chinese culture would ever dream of doing such a thing. It is the same as using a knife to put food into your mouth in European culture.

Stuart

ok i've updated the entry a bit taking into account some of the things u've said and to make it clearer.

spook

god i'm so thick,. i keep telling people how toredi am but they never seem to believe me.

i meant one chopstick. not one fork.

i don't think it'll make much difference if u r just shovelling the food into your mouth whther u use 1 or 2 chopsticks. but, if u try picking food up with 1 u may have a bit of trouble.

spook

Forget utensils. Just hold the bowl up to your mouth (like it's a cup) and pour it in.

I suppose ivory chopsticks are out of the question?

coul dbe useful padding.

Trout

i don't think using the bowl lik a cup is realistic, and is very bad mannered.

i think ivory chopsticks are out of the question. i wonder why...

i'm not gonna add that other picture to the entry as i don't want to fill the entry up with pictures at it would probably just be removed when it is is sub-edited.

thanks for commenting

spook

At many Chinese restaurants chopsticks are single use only, and I had understood that that is the way the Chinese like it. I'm not quite sure why, but I suspect it's something to do with hygiene. Stuart, you seem to know these things. What's your opinion? (Anyone else knowing the answer is free to comment as well!)

Chopsticks are usually single use in restaurants. Every Chinese restaurant I have been in, both in UK and Hong Kong, the chopsticks have always come in their own individual packaging. I imagine that plastic chopsticks could be recycled and repackaged although I have no knowledge of this happening. Wooden chopsticks, originaly made from bamboo, would certainly be single use.

However, in Chinese homes, each member of the family would have their own chopsticks, usually made of something better than the common or garden plastic ones found in most restaurants, so hygiene wouldn’t come into it. Like having your own toothbrush.

As for gold chopsticks as suggested by spook, I have never come across them. Perhaps its just that I didn’t move in the right circles. I wouldn’t think gold chopsticks would be single use. Ivory chopsticks will be a bit rare these days because of the restrictions on exporting elephant tusks but I am sure that they are still available in Hong Kong at a price.

A couple of Web sites that may be of interest:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2039.html

http://mothra.rerf.or.jp/ENG/Hiroshima/Things/85.html

http://www.chopsticks.com

A search on Google will reveal loads of information on Chopsticks.

Regards

Stuart