Forks for the Twenty-first Century

This should be in quotation marks because it isn't me that calls chopsticks "the fork of the twenty-first century" it's my Mom, Romig. 

She may have a point don't you think ? Most of Asia eats with chopsticks. Not India. Not Thailand. but pretty much everywhere else. Wherever Chinese culture has had an influence, they eat with chopsticks. I think there will be more and more of us that will find they like eating with these tools too ! 

Different materials in different cultures. Koreans like smaller, brass (now non oxidizing stainless steel ) chopsticks. Japanese like lacquer ones with fine pointed tips. Chinese chopsticks are longer and have blunt tips. They are probably plastic but could be metal too. That blunt tip is a sure sign that they are of Chinese origin. 

I love the precision of chopsticks. You can pick out individual ingredients. Communal eating eating out of one large platter, which is fun, seems a bit more hygienic. You don't need serving spoons or forks or even knives as everything is cut into more or less bite sized pieces. 

Learning to eat with chopsticks requires a bit of practice.

When I moved to Japan on my tenth birthday ( August ) Mr Miyagawa, the father of the family we were exchanged houses/cars/lives with, said that on New Years Day, we would be invited to a neighborhood celebration. All of the kids would play a game of picking up as many dried peas from a large center plate and transferring them to a smaller plate as they could in a minute's time using their chopsticks. In China, they practice with larger, squishy cotton pompoms. Japan ? Slippery itty bitty things !

He strongly encouraged me to practice this bean transfer daily so as to not to embarrass myself in front of the other kids. All I needed to hear. Quite a competitive little girl, with four months daily practice, I was a wiz at picking up dried beans come Jan 1st!   

I've got a small collection of chopsticks that I use daily. Still practice bean transfer from time to time just for fun. It's no longer a competitive sport in my world thank goodness !