chopsticks?

[debthecook]

I have at home the ones from Benihana, and we use them with asian food. There is a difference in chopsticks!

 

[Chopstix]

Different people hold their chopsticks in different ways. Just like different people hold their pencils in different ways. If you ask the old Chinese, there's really just one correct way of holding chopsticks.

Here's a very simple animated illustration of that. It's very easy to follow. Just remember, the chopstick on the bottom does NOT move. It is lodged firmly at the base between thumb and index finger and pinned montionless by the fourth finger tip. It is the chopstick on top that moves freely.

Good luck!

http://east.portland.ne.jp/~k_tok/life01.htm

 

[Psiguyy]

Barbara, I feel for you. One thing I've learned about eating in Chinese restaurants all over the country is that the best food is found at restaurants where the table is set with chopsticks and the only way you can get a fork is if you beg for one.

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

Thanks for the illustration Chopstix! Youre the perfect person for this topic.

 

[subfuscpersona]

yup - always use chopsticks for Chinese or Japanese food whether at home or a restaurant - if they don't have them on the table I ask the waiter to bring them. I use them sometimes when I cook too.

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

FOR THE TREE-HUGGERS
But when it comes to eating utensils, no-one can out do Japan. The use of waribashi, or disposable chopsticks, is rampant, and unstoppable. It is deeply ingrained in the culture, and there is no escaping the delicately split shards of hardwood, appealingly wrapped in their own paper case. In restaurants, in friends' houses, at school, at work, at Lawsons, one is constantly bombarded with waribashi. These innocent looking little sticks are slowly, but surely, gobbling up the world's forests, reducing our carbon dioxide sinks and contributing to global warming.

Japan is the world's biggest importer of tropical and temperate hardwoods, responsible for over half the world trade in timber. The Japanese use 23-25 billion chopsticks every year. If these were placed end to end (in pairs), they would stretch from Sapporo in Hokkaido, to Nagasaki, in Kyushu.

Even better, find creative uses for used waribashi. Prop up plants; make a mobile or a sculpture. If you teach in school, use them to make signs which students can hold up. Get your elementary school kids to colour in flags and attach them to waribashi, to decorate the classroom. If you have an open fire, they make great fire starters. There is no escaping waribashi. Modern innovations in producing "'recycled wood" chopsticks will take a long time to catch on, being new and expensive. Right now, it looks like Japan's mission to gobble up the forests of the world in the name of disposable eating utensils is set to continue into the distant future.

 

[Psiguyy]

I go through about 300 waribashi a year. Can't blame the Japanese, though. The only Japanese waribashi I can find is made out of bamboo. The wooden kind I buy comes from China.

 

[SizzlininIN]

Gosh I haven't used them in years. I always did when I was a kid when mom would make chop suey.

 

[Barbara L]

Barbara, I feel for you. One thing I've learned about eating in Chinese restaurants all over the country is that the best food is found at restaurants where the table is set with chopsticks and the only way you can get a fork is if you beg for one.

I'll have to ask. Maybe our Chinese places have them and I just don't know about it. Absolutely no Chinese people eat at them though (other than the people who run them--the only Chinese people around here appear to run restaurants), so I guess they figure no one will want to use chopsticks. None of the Chinese restaurants in the area are very good. The Japanese restaurant near us is WONDERFUL!

Barbara

 

[Chopstix]

Thanks for the illustration Chopstix! Youre the perfect person for this topic.

Gee thanks Deadly Sushi!

 

[SierraCook]

I use chopsticks at one of my favorite Korean restaurants, but I hardly ever use them at home. I love all kinds of Asian food. My favorites are bulgogi, kung pao chicken, general's chicken, wonton soup, spring rolls, etc. I could go on for forever!!

 

[Juliev]

I use chopsticks at one of my favorite Korean restaurants, but I hardly ever use them at home. I love all kinds of Asian food. My favorites are bulgogi, kung pao chicken, general's chicken, wonton soup, spring rolls, etc. I could go on for forever!!

I love Kung Pao, and General Tso's chicken!!!!.. I love spring rolls, and eggrolls made with pork or shrimp..I also love wonton soup.. I could go on forever too.. I also love Moo Goo Gai Pan.

 

[SierraCook]

I forgot Mu Shu Pork with plum sauce. I love the light pancakes. YUM!!

 

[wasabi]

Juliev wrote: I also love wonton soup.

Wonton soup is a must for me when I have a cold.

 

[Juliev]

I forgot Mu Shu Pork with plum sauce. I love the light pancakes. YUM!!

yummay! I like pepper steak with onions too... ummm.. jumbo shrimp with lobster sauce.. Szechuan chicken/beef... Szechuan shredded beef with curry sauce... etc.. etc .. etc

 

[honeybee]

I have never been able to handle chopsticks well. Maybe if I used chopsticks I wouldn't consume so much food so quickly. :roll: