This debate always proves lively elsewhere; forks are far superior to chopsticks.

[BubbaZanetti]

seriously, anyone that thinks chopsticks are a more efficient or better method for consuming food are just plain wrong. yeah, i can see what your thinking now, you walk into your favorite thai place, you think your all worldly and culturally accepting, so you go ahead and ask for the chopsticks with your meal. you use them, you have a smile on your face, you're not dropping anything, you finish the meal. sure the inside of your palm hurts, yeah, that meal would have been much more enjoyable with the fork, but you stuck it out, you trooper! :brad


i see this scene play out on a weekly basis where i live. i inhabit one of those regions where there are about 5 college kids for every one year round citizen. the kind of place that has more shushi bars than traffic lights. i'm all for trying new things, but i refuse to use chopsticks cause its like using a needle and thread when a sewing machine is sitting right there. my girlfriend yells at me, my friends give looks of "oh, we're not really with this caveman, he just followed us as we walked past the mcdonalds" but i refuse to be embarassed, i hold my fork up proud, make a quick jabbing motion at my avacado maki and relish in the fact that i am eating with the worlds finest production eating device


(p.s. i do use chopsticks on occasion, just to reaffirm my dislike)

[knary]

sushi just aint right with a fork

[GeoffMiller]

delete "with a fork"

[BubbaZanetti]

sushi just aint right with a fork


yeah, i know, i was being dramatic to prove a point, i usually eat shushi with my fingers if acceptable

[knary]

yeah, i know, i was being dramatic to prove a point, i usually eat shushi with my fingers if acceptable

Chopsticks are always preferable for sushi. Sticky rice + soy + wasabi + ginger + plum sauce + ??? = very messy fingers.

hmm...we need a good sushi restauarant on our street.

[username]

i'm a spork guy, it's all i ever use. i carry sporks with me in case i go to a place that doesn't provide them. i can eat sushi, and enjoy my miso soup with the same utensil!

[Xaque]

i see this scene play out on a weekly basis where i live. i inhabit one of those regions where there are about 5 college kids for every one year round citizen.

yeah, i can see what your thinking now, you walk into your favorite thai place, you think your all worldly and culturally accepting, so you go ahead and ask for the chopsticks with your meal. you use them, you have a smile on your face, you're not dropping anything, you finish the meal. sure the inside of your palm hurts, yeah, that meal would have been much more enjoyable with the fork, but you stuck it out, you trooper!
Hah! yeah, I'm right there with you on that! I grew up in that town, and spent alot of my time across the river in Northampton.

Everyone feels they need to prove that they are better than the average citizen...

Hence the chopsticks,
Hence falling into a Spanish accent when ordering at a Mexican restaurant,
Hence swishing the wine around and smelling it before you take a drink.

(now, there are exceptions to this, but from my observations in my town....)

I think it's a decent idea that people should know *how* to use chopsticks... just so we can all be better, more well-rounded people. But one should use what they find easiest and most appropriate.

Of course, I also harbor alot of animosity from having to deal with these "super cultural" types and all the "know it all" college students that would invade my home town while I was growing up.

Oh course... considering that the fork is a step up from the chop sticks... why aren't we all using Sporks in everyday life... that truely would be the easiest most convenient method for consuming all types of foods!


;)

-Xaque-

[flash412]

I frequently travel in Asia. If you don't know how to use chopsticks there, you'd better be toting a buncha Wetnaps or Babywipes.

When in Rome, do as the Romans. (Eat spaghetti with a fork and a spoon.)

When in Asia, do as the Asians. (Eat squirming octopus tenticles with a set of sticks.)

[Belquar]

I want to see someone get into a nice steak with a spork. A nice thick steak.

I lived in japan when I was young. I like using good chopsticks. they absorb the flavors of the various foods you are eating, enhancing the experience. Good chopsticks are square, not rounded and tapered. They are one use only. Great for chewing on later to savor your dining experience on the ride home.

[BubbaZanetti]

Hah! yeah, I'm right there with you on that! I grew up in that town, and spent alot of my time across the river in Northampton.

Everyone feels they need to prove that they are better than the average citizen...

Hence the chopsticks,
Hence falling into a Spanish accent when ordering at a Mexican restaurant,
Hence swishing the wine around and smelling it before you take a drink
-Xaque-


oh man, you surely hit the nail on the head!

haha, i've got a 60s/70s mod/soul night thing at the former Bishop's Lounge tomorrow night, you should come, PM me for deetz.................

[kbasa]

I'm pretty proficient with chopsticks. I used to manage a team of folks that were from China and they taught me how to use them effectively.

It's all in the technique, man. Just like a bike, you need to know how to work it to make it really perform. :D

[jmerlino]

i usually eat shushi with my fingers if acceptable

It is most definitely acceptable. Sushi, as I understand it, was originally meant to be finger food.

Mmmmm... sushi.

[Hodag]

I like using sticks. Miss lillie taught me how to use them from watching Kayoo. She likes to use them on her Mac and cheese, at the Noddle Company. She's an odd duck though.

[Bob_M]

It is my long held conviction that people who insist on chopsticks are just showing off. One sees people holding their ramen bowls to their lips and slucing the noodles, or rice down their gullets like corn mash down the throat of a fois gras goose. How that is superior to knife, fork and spoon is that? I do however always keep a pair of bamboo chopsticks with me for MacGyver purposes.
:stick

[RTRandy]

If you're eating Sushi it's gotta be chop sticks.

Otherwise you'll be drinking beer through a straw and dipping lobster in catchup.

[Montana]

I vote SPORK, too.

You could eat a nice, thick steak with a spork if utensil makers would respect the tool and produce industrial-strength versions. I think it's a conspiracy.

[Belquar]

What is wrong with dipping lobster in ketchup? :laugh :sick

[selil]

Why use any of those silly civilized tools. One nice 8 inch wide bladed sharp as heck knife is all i need. Besides I've never been mugged while carrying it, it is self cleaning on my sleeve, and it makes a great coversation piece with the police.

[Xaque]

I vote SPORK, too.

You could eat a nice, thick steak with a spork if utensil makers would respect the tool and produce industrial-strength versions. I think it's a conspiracy.
You're right.

By forcing the public to purchase both a spoon AND a fork, they make twice as much money than if there were to produce sporks.


:hide (Formed in 1952, the Cutlery & Allied Trades Research Association (CATRA) was formed as a research and development center for cutlery and knife manufacturers. It wasn't long before they discovered the threat that the "spork" posed for the top utensil makers. This revolutionary eating tool could single handedly overthrow the delicate balance that is the spoon and fork retail market. The flat ware companies banded together, and like so many school yard bullies, they put the humble metal spork makers out of business. Of course, the utensil community is no stranger to conspiracy. Just take a look at THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. AMCEL CORP., DISPOZ-O PLASTICS, INC., LLOYD GORDON, and PETER IACOVELLI (http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f0700/0714.htm).)


Shhhhhhh!!!!! I think I hear black helicopters… I think it’s best we stop talking about this….


:hide

[Callmethebreeze]

i'm a spork guy, it's all i ever use. i carry sporks with me in case i go to a place that doesn't provide them. i can eat sushi, and enjoy my miso soup with the same utensil!

User, that Texas State School training is really working out I see.

I bring my designated feeder who also doubles as a poetaster. Just in case one of you mopes is trying to poison me.
Bon Apetit
Breeze :D

[Xaque]

Creepy... Not sure if you knew this Bubba when you posted it, but I was researching sporks and this is how they came to be:

The spork was invented in the 40's. when the us army occupied japan after the war, Gen Mcarthur (who wanted truman to enthrone him as emperor of japan) decreed that the use of chopsticks was uncivilized, and the conquered foe should use forks and spoons like the rest of the 'civilized' world. but fearing that the japs might rise up and retake their country with their forks, he and the us army invented the 'spork,' which was then introduced into the public schools. the army, which had taken over all government enterprises and the schools, enforced the use of the 'spork,' and made the use of chopsticks in the schools a punishable offense. this is a bit of spork history that's absolutely true, but not very funny.

But then there is the patent information:

1970 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 11 Aug. tm 65 Van Brode Milling Co., Inc., Clinton, Mass... Spork for Combination Plastic Spoon, Fork and Knife.

"A spork is a perfect metaphor for human existance. It tries to function as both spoon and fork, and because of this dual nature, it fails miserably at both. You cannot have soup with a spork, it is far too shallow; you cannot eat meat with a spork, the prongs are too small."

-Xaque-

[The_Veg]

I use both, just depends on how I feel. I don't much like sporks. I often wonder why the Asians didn't invent something better, but then I wonder if it's some sort of minimalist-Zen thing. I've alswo heard a quick and loose telling of how the king of Thailand tried to get his country to switch to western-style utensils, and the result is that instead of doing like westerners, Thais use the fork to puch solid food into the spoon...odd. And considering that I've never seen skewered east-Asian food with a possible exception of something Indian, I think maybe there's some cultural aversion to poking holes in food.
As for sushi, I will never understand the appeal. I don't dislike it, but I don't get why so many Americans get so excited about it. Just a snack anyway.

[lorazepam]

Not all chopsticks are one use only. In Korea, I used metal chopsticks that taper down to almost a point. Seems they feel it is better to use metal ones than to keep making disposable ones.
But in China, it was wooden chopsticks all the time. I did have one place offer me a fork (not a spork) but I could pick up two peanuts at one time so they took it back into the kitchen.

[kbasa]

Not all chopsticks are one use only. In Korea, I used metal chopsticks that taper down to almost a point. Seems they feel it is better to use metal ones than to keep making disposable ones.


We have a couple dozen nylon ones we keep at the house. I think I paid all of about $3 for them in Chinatown. Most of the decent restaraunts around here use the same ones.

[BradfordBenn]

It is part of the experience.

Good sushi is finger food.

However here is one thing I learned from a protocol training when I was doing lots of work with Japanese clients... if they use forks you use a fork. :eat

[flash412]

I think maybe there's some cultural aversion to poking holes in food.It is considered "disrespectful" to the food to poke it. (I ain't agreeing with that, I'm just telling you what their culture sez.)

[RTRandy]

. I could pick up two peanuts at one time so they took it back into the kitchen.

I'll tell you when you're good with those things, when you can catch a fly in mid air with them . . . . . . . . WAX ON . . . . . .WAX OFF.

[jgr451]

I didn't know they made Rednecks in Massachusetts...
Chopsticks are very efficient if one does not try to use them as pincers.It is standard that Orientals use them like a mini shovel,holding the food bowl right up to their mouths.Jolly good form,I say!!
And when solid pieces dictate the use as pincers and fingers aren't the right thing,why chopsticks here I come!!

Use Chopsticks
It's fun!!

As for sushi:put a well done California roll up against chips and dip;no brainer!

Back to VIP with the sound off.

[BklynPete]

this post cracks me up. i remember taking friends to chinatown and telling the waiter to only give chopsticks with the meal. of course i would teach them how to use them, never lost a friend yet. some restaurants have training chopsticks for kids, they are actually tied together to make it easier for little hands to use. bubba, maybe you can ask for them to use :laugh growing up, i never saw single use chopsticks that are so popular nowadays until i went to japanese restaurants. all restaurants in nyc chinatown use either plastic or wood ones for their customers. i always had a pair of ivory ones at home that were given to me when i was very young. thanks for making me smile tonight...

[Callmethebreeze]

It is considered "disrespectful" to the food to poke it. (I ain't agreeing with that, I'm just telling you what their culture sez.)

"You disrespect me again with that spork and I'll Gung pow you in your lip......"


:laugh
Breeze

[Belquar]

The one use chopsticks are what I learned on when I lived in japan as a child. That is why I am partial to them. I found that the smooth plastic ones, the polished, decorative wooden ones, and the tapered ones just don't pick up the food as well which can sabotage the user ability from the get go. I just think the old bamboo square ones that you have to break apart and rub the splinters off of are the most useful. But as this thread clearly shows...it is all a matter of preference. I don't have any good oriental restaurants around here. So I haven't used chopsticks in ages anyway.

[Braddog]

I don't have the patience to use chopsticks. I've tried sushi, there are better things to eat, and easier ways to eat them. If I find myself in an Asian country where only chopsticks are available, I suppose I'll muddle through.

I'm a knife and fork kind of guy, all the way. Every Chinese/Thai/Korean/Japanese restaurant that I've ever eaten at has had conventional knife/fork/spoon. I use them. Of course they also have chopsticks, but I've never bothered to attempt their use.

Am I a heathen? Uncultured? Unwillingly to try new things? Nope, I'm just a guy that likes to eat, and has mastered the use of the knife/fork/spoon. Heck, give me a knife and 2 forks and I'll show you how to REALLy go to town on a pile of food. ;)

True story. We had a young man from Shanghai (high school foreign exchange student) spend a weekend with us. Very nice young man, extremely polite, very bright, very good command of the English language. His first few weeks in the U.S. were very challenging. His host family was concerned that the only thing he ate was pizza and hot dogs. Guess what? He had no clue as to the proper use of the knife/fork/spoon utensils, and didn't want to embarass himself, so he stuck to finger food. The goofy host family never thought about offering the kid chopsticks. Of course, when he stayed with my family, we found out a lot about other cultural differences related to food as well. He had no idea how to operate a toaster.

[Mika]

Part of the mastery of any set of tools metric, standard, kfs, or chop sticks is the proper application of them at the proper time. :eat

[BubbaZanetti]

i often use chopsticks to stir coffee or eat ice cream sometimes when i have no silverware left :wave

[jgr451]

Never tried chopsticks on ice cream;but Bubba ,isn't that poking the food?Or do you just kind of surround it?
Unless ice cream is not really food...
:type

:eat ...

[Callmethebreeze]

Part of the mastery of any set of tools metric, standard, kfs, or chop sticks is the proper application of them at the proper time. :eat

Jeez, after reading this post I have the compulsion to drive chopsticks into my eyes. But I'll have to practice first. Any volunteers?

Breeze

[tessler]

So what's the big deal? Chopsticks. Forks. The fingers of the right hand. A large Wooden Spoon. It's all good. And so are the plethora of Asian restaurants in this town.

[jmerlino]

i often use chopsticks to stir coffee or eat ice cream sometimes when i have no silverware left :wave

You could just do some dishes.


Nah.

[dlearl476]

I personally have a hard time eating sushi, pad thai, or Pho with anything BUT chopsticks. The GF loves pad thai, eats it 2-3 times a week, with a fork. I don't understand how she does it. Just falls off the fork when I try.

[Callmethebreeze]

A friend of mine owns an Asian restaurant. The cooks and waiters eat with forks. They chuckle over the silly affectations of Westerners and their insistence upon chopsticks. I guess we all want to feel special in some way.


Breeze