Quote:
Originally Posted by pholy
Every one of those guys held their chopsticks differently! Finally I asked one of them why that was. He said they started using chopsticks before they were two, and by the time they were three or four, they'd figured out some way to get food into their month, and forever after they do it that way. I suppose there is a proper way in polite settings, but we were just having lunch...
|
And THAT'S the truth! Just like using knives, forks, and spoons, there is a 'proper polite way' and a way 'to get the grub down yer neck!' We've all see folks hold spoons with a 'tennis grip' with the thumb closest to the bowl as well as those that use the reverse with their little pinkie extended. Then there are the cultural differences... do you use the fork with the food on TOP of the downward-facing tines or balance the food in the upward curve? Do you switch hands when you use a knife and fork while eating, shifting the fork from one side to the other?
Every day I see dozens of local folks eating in restaurants. (I eat out for my lunch every day.) I see some of the most bizarre methods of using chopsticks, but I guess it's the results that really count; how do you get the food into your mouth. I see people 'cutting' food with one stick while pinning it down with another. I see people 'spearing' certain foods (I do this one myself with larger chunks of fried chicken to keep them from rotating if I have to bite off a section.) I see people holding both sticks side-by-side and using them as a shovel to push food directly from bowl to mouth (VERY common, especially with rice! And in Japan and China it is polite to lift the bowl to your mouth. Leaning down over your bowl to get your mouth closer is called 'Dog Eating.' ) And of course, I see plenty of people using them in the 'polite' manner shown in the video, which was what I was taught as a child by the Chinese waiter in the restaurant my family ate in every Sunday night since my earliest memories.
Last night I used waribashi to spread glue over the plastic case of an electric fan. If I were in the US I probably would have used a Popsicle stick.
Stitchawl