Do you use chopsticks when eating at a Chinese restaurant?

No, and I don’t get why people do. They don’t do anything that forks don’t do.

Yes. Chopsticks are fun. You know what would be hard to eat with them? Couscous. Or quinoa. Both useless tiny carbs.

No I just can’t use them.

They’re not very practical for eating soup.

Sometimes i do, sometimes i don't. i usually make a try at it (i'm not very adept even though i'm not new to chopsticks). if i keep having problems using the chopsticks, i'll switch to the fork. i don't give a fuck what people think of me. i just want to eat.

Why don't they have chopsticks at Mexican restaurants?

Because Mexicans are barbarians and eat with their hands.

The rice should be in a rice bowl. You lift it up towards your mouth, tilt it, then use your chopsticks to shovel the contents in.

IMO, the kind of chopsticks they give you at Chinese restaurants is hard to use (huge, heavy, squared sides). Compare to the kind you get at Japanese restaurants, which are much easier to use.

I ask for a fork.

No matter how many times I have tried to use chopsticks I just can’t get the hang of it. Therefore I use a fork.

I know how to use them, but I'm pretty clumsy with them, so I always use a fork. I have friends who grew up using them who handle them beautifully, so I used to aspire to do the same, but I've stopped making the effort.

r8 - FAIL. I have to have the meat, veggies and especially the meat SAUCE on my rice when I consume it. I'm not gonna eat rice dry and alone.

The trick is to fix one chopstick steady and move the other back and forth against it. If both chopsticks are moving you'll look like a klutz.

Has anyone tried Korean chopsticks ?

Which kind? The worst are the long stainless steel ones you find in cheap Korean restaurants. Too heavy and slippery.

And while we're on this, its only for east Asian food. do not use with Thai or other Southeast Asian food.

Between this thread and the one not knowing what mango with sticky rice is, is DL just full of country bumpkin rubes?

The only time I use them is for sounding. Yeeouch!

Rice? Ha -- try eating peas with them!

Forks are for dorks and spoons are for goons.

“This is America and in America we use forks!”

R19 peas are best eaten with honey on a knife.

[quote] Which kind? The worst are the long stainless steel ones you find in cheap Korean restaurants. Too heavy and slippery.

I've used the short stainless steel ones. Hard to use.

It takes a few minutes to become comfortable using them. If you are right handed, hold one steady like a pencil between your thumb and index finger.

Kungfu masters catch flies with chopsticks

but r24, that says nothing about RICE. Everything else would work fine.

Listen up. All of you need to learn to use chopsticks, or just leave your tiaras at the door on the way out.

For rice, you use the chopstick at an angle to the bowl and shovel it through the rice so you have a pile. If it's on a plate, then slide the chopsticks into the pile of rice until you have a pile.

You can chase individual rice bits at the end.

The high class ones of jade are hard to use. Sniff.

A friend showed me how . It's not easy all the time, but it all revolves around the way you hold the two chopsticks at opposing angles. I always enjoy it, but then I only mainly eat California rolls and easy to pick up things.

The Chinese eat rice from bowls and just put the bowl to their lips and rake the rice into their mouths with the chopsticks. Only stupid Americans try to pick up rice with chopsticks.

Except Chinese restaurants in America almost never serve their food in bowls, R30, so you have to learn how to use chopsticks to eat rice from a plate.

cultural appropriation scares me off of usage

I can use chopsticks but now I eat food like that with a large spoon and a fork.

Classy people would prefer wetter rice; only piss-poor plebs eat throat-blasting dry rice.

I try but all the food falls off except a couple of grains of rice.

I know how to use them but feel awkward and have to think about it too much.

I love chopsticks. I bought a set of sustainable black resin sticks inscribed with tiny Chinese characters that offer grip and will last a lifetime.

I always thought white people using chopsticks was pure pretentiousness but then I dated a Chinese American guy. He was 2nd generation and more American than Chinese. He knew all the forks, knives and spoons of Western dining but given a choice always went for chopsticks. He felt that chopsticks encourage you to consider the food, its shape, its size, its flavor and to choose carefully which accompaniments would compliment the main bite. Ultimately a more interactive and appreciative experience with your food. This as opposed to a Western approach of “DIG IN!” where we just star spearing food with fork tines and shoveling it in.

I’m ok with shoveling it in when the food requires it. We’re not going to eat lasagna with chopsticks but with the proper style of food and cut, chopsticks definitely allow me to slow down and appreciate the food a little more.

R31 If rice served on a plate, always use fork and spoon.

Me Chinese me make joke me make chopstick white man choke!

I've used them since I was a kid. I think it is a west coast thing

R8 that is not polite in all Asian cultures.

I consider that to be real cultural appropriation, as opposed to some of the other things that get called cultural appropriation. If you don't normally eat with chopsticks, why would you use chopsticks at a Chinese restaurant? It's stupid and insulting.

Some Chinese restaurants around here won’t provide a fork unless you ask.

R42 I agree. I wouldn’t use those words, but if ever they’re appropriate, it’s here. There’s not something special about Chinese food that makes it easier to eat or taste better with chopsticks. So why use them there? It’s almost condescending. It turns the Chinese restaurant into some amusement park ride.

R1 You are totally wrong about that. There are plenty of foods that are easier to eat with chopsticks. Noodles, for one, especially noodle soup is much easier with a soup spoon and chopsticks than anything else. Same goes with dimsum. And, even most stir fried dishes are easy with chopsticks, as they make it easier to grab the smaller pieces of food with.

Like others have said, rice is usually held up to the face, or made sticky enough that it clumps together.

I lived in Asia a long time and my husband is Asian. At home, when eating asian food we only use chopsticks. Actually, I use them for potato chips as well because its means my fingers don’t get greasy.

In an asian restaurant without my husband, I I used to feel a little bit awkward using them because I didn’t want to seem pretentious. But, honestly no one gives a fuck so I stopped giving a fuck as well.

I do find the flat metal Korean chopsticks a bit difficult however.

R37 Lord is isnt that serious. They are just fucking utensils. Use them when they are best suited for a food: no different than using a shrimp fork when eating shrimp.

No, I am not racist

I've been to Asian restaurants before where I've seen Asian people eating their rice with spoons and eating the rest of the meal with chop sticks.

Not only that, I have my own real ones for eating take out at home. They came from Japan. They all have color coded matching ends, but I like to throw caution to the wind and randomly grab any two.

Confucius says make white men use chopsticks and look stupid.

R45 well you lived in Asia. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. And once you’re used to them, it would make sense to use them in America as well. But for an American raised on a fork and knife, it’s never going to be easier, even for the foods you mentioned (and let’s be real, most Americans aren’t using them for that, they’re using them for the Orange Chicken at P.F. Chang’s.)

[quote] I've used them since I was a kid. I think it is a west coast thing

You may be onto something. I grew up in San Francisco and all the white kids knew how to use chopsticks. Several families would regularly go out to dinner together at a Chinese restaurant, the adults at one large table, the kids at another, and if you couldn't use chopsticks, you'd be teased. It came in handy when, during my work career, a group of us would walk up to Chinatown for dim sum and I didn't have to be the boorish white guy asking for a fork.

When I was still dating, I dated a lot of Asian guys and they'd invariably say 'You use chopsticks really well' (translation: 'You use chopsticks really well...for a white guy'). I figured it was Potato Queen 101: compliment the white guy on his ability 1) not to have to request a fork or 2) not being so inept at using chopsticks that food goes flying all over the restaurant.

(I would never think to say to a dinner companion at a steak house: 'You use a knife and fork really well', but I took it as a compliment anyway, especially if it got me one step closer to getting into his pants.)

BTW: After sitting next to a most handsome young man at a sushi bar in Osaka, who ate his nigiri sushi with his fingers, I was surprised to discover that eating sushi (not sashimi) with one's fingers is perfectly acceptable, and actually preferred as you can better appreciate the texture than if you use chopsticks.

No chopsticks with Thai cuisine though.

Muslims use their fingers to pick up food/eat. Look! No utensils

[quote] After sitting next to a most handsome young man at a sushi bar in Osaka, who ate his nigiri sushi with his fingers, I was surprised to discover that eating sushi (not sashimi) with one's fingers is perfectly acceptable, and actually preferred as you can better appreciate the texture than if you use chopsticks.

Sushi is a sandwich.

It’s like eating those California rolls. Is that what you call them ?

My partner is half Japanese and taught me how to use chopsticks, which I do, and no one has yelled at me for "appropriation."

Actually, at one restaurant this fat bitchy little hostess started yelling at him, saying "No one Japanese has the last name Smith!" and then stole his dessert at the end of the meal in revenge for "pretending" to be Japanese. I presume her problem was that she thought he was appropriating the culture because he didn't "look Japanese" or whatever, but even she didn't take our chopsticks away.

R54 only their right hand, the left hand is considered unclean.

R58 I was gonna say it, but I knew somebody else would. DL never disappoints.

R53, do you know how something like Thai firecracker shrimp or chicken satay should be eaten if you can't eat with your hands? Just asking, that blog you posted was really interesting but left me with more questions than answers.

R52 Dear, if you are a white guy on a date with a potato queen, you could have shat your pants and still gotten into his.

R58 What about those left handed Muslim men ?

[quote] Sushi is a sandwich.

That was news to me. In fact, the guy was pretty hammered and I thought he was just too drunk to use chopsticks. It wasn't until later, when I was reading a blog about manners in Japan that I realized he was being perfectly correct;. Who knew?

At the risk of sidetracking this thread, I was surprised to see that, in Italy, in a restaurant, they eat pizza with a knife and fork, while here in the US, it's perfectly acceptable to pick up a slice and eat it with your fingers. Luckily, I'm the type of guy who looks around to see what others are doing and I quickly realized, literally, 'when in Rome...', so I picked up a knife and fork before I embarrassed myself.

[quote] He felt that chopsticks encourage you to consider the food, its shape, its size, its flavor and to choose carefully which accompaniments would compliment the main bite.

What a load.

R64 I’m not disagreeing with you but a lot of Asian cultures take the dining experience to a whole new level. Navigating it is confusing. One minute their loudly slurping ramen like cows at a trough and the next their delicately tweezing their sushi like the precious things they think they are.

^^^Their / they’re - sorry 😞

Thai people adopted “western” utensils for eating back in the 1800s although there are plenty of ethnic Chinese Thais who might use chopsticks.

I use chopsticks but if my dining partner or partners don’t, I don’t either.

Americans barely use knife and fork!

You don’t need utensils to scarf bag after bag of Doritos down your sleep apnea-scarred gullet.

[quote] The rice should be in a rice bowl. You lift it up towards your mouth, tilt it, then use your chopsticks to shovel the contents in.

So elegant.

I like to enjoy a meal, not work at it.

Liberace uses chopsticks. Or was it chapstick?

[quote] dimsum

Disgusting!

I often end up using both chopsticks and a fork (not at the same time).

I love using chopsticks. I even ask for it when I go to Panda Express. I can pick up a single grain of rice or just a few with ease. I like it because I get to enjoy my food for longer. If I use a fork, I'll just absentmindedly shovel it into my mouth and be done in no time.

No. I love Chinese. So delish.

I love stabbing dumplings or chicken balls with my chopsticks!! Makes me feel powerful and stops me from killing people. It's my stress release!

Food tastes better with chopsticks 🥢

dicksticks!

I cringe when I see people eat sushi with chopsticks-- it's meant to be eaten with your fingers.

I’m not a chink, I use a knife and fork like a civilized person.

R82 is the chinks/orientals troll. Why is he allowed to post his racism all over this site, thread after thread? Other sites would have banned his ass already but casual racism is celebrated on Datalounge.

R82 fuck off racist.

R37: "I dated a Chinese American guy. He was 2nd generation and more American than Chinese. He knew all the forks, knives and spoons of Western dining but given a choice always went for chopsticks. He felt that chopsticks encourage you to consider the food, its shape, its size, its flavor and to choose carefully which accompaniments would compliment the main bite. Ultimately a more interactive and appreciative experience with your food."

Oh brother.

I think we have two of them, R83. Matt A. was using that word a lot a couple of weeks ago but I haven't seen him in a while, so I assume he's banned for now. R82's posts out in the ignored tab don't look like Matt's. I couldn't picture Matt chatting about his vaccine side effects, for example, not like R82 has.

I love the DL sleuths!!