This is one that has many a Westerner going into a Chinese restaurant totally mystified, but once the author learned to eat this way there are many dishes both east and west that are better eaten with chopsticks. The author actually prefers to eat with chopsticks when at home. You might say the author learned to eat this way in the old country; he was a guest of Uncle Sam in Korea in early 1953. Several times it was either eat with chopsticks or starve. Did you ever eat rice and ants?

Eating with chopsticks is really easy, so easy in fact that the author once won a $100 bet because the other guy didn’t believe you could eat spaghetti with a set of chopsticks. Who did he think invented spaghetti in the first place; it was Marco Polo who brought it to Italy from China 700 years ago. Bet you never won a $100 from eating with a knife and fork!

Some of the horror shows I have seen over the years of Westerners trying to eat with chopsticks in an oriental restaurant would leave you speechless. However the truth is that any westerner can learn the technique and with very little practice can become quite proficient in their use. The real trick in using chopsticks is that you don’t use them like telephone poles or use both hands when using them. Chopsticks are really used as tweezers to pick up your food.

Grasp the pair of chopsticks in your right hand or left hand if you are left handed. Place the sticks so they rest in the vee formed by your thumb and forefinger. The bottom chopstick rests against the side of your middle finger acting as a solid piece for the other chopstick to work against. The top chopstick is held between your thumb and forefinger. The bottom chopstick doesn’t move; all movement is done with the top chopstick. Be sure the ends are even, and grasp the chopsticks near their thicker end.

Chopsticks have two ends; the narrow end is the business end used to grasp food particles like tweezers. The big end is used to grasp the chopsticks. The proper place is about three-quarters of the way up the chopstick from the business end. You should never try to eat soup with chopsticks as the Chinese themselves use a large spoon made out of porcelain for this job. The same spoon has a flat bottom so that it can be placed on a table to be used as a chopstick holder when you are not eating or have finished eating.

There are many Western dishes that are eaten more efficiently using chopsticks a couple that immediately come to mind are dumplings because you can pick them apart with chopsticks. Another is tossed salad it is easier to grasp the different ingredients of the salad with chopsticks rather then a fork.

Allegedly the Chinese originally used something like a fork to eat with but gave up on the device once they invented chopsticks. Most of the rest of Chinese dinnerware would be familiar to us because the Chinese have used the same kind of dishes as we Westerners have for thousands of years.