Chopsticks

Chopsticks are a lot of fun!! It's absolutely a skill, though, haha. Eventually you get to a point of comfort where you can easily eat things like rice and noodle soups, though. Not that I am enough of a masochist to enjoy eating rice with chopsticks anyways.

 

I learned how to use chopsticks at age 18 when I visited my aunt out in California. I grew up seeing my father and brothers use them but I never felt the inclination to learn to use them myself.

Now I quite enjoy using them, though I am not that good and need more practice. Guess I have to make Chinese food again.

 

Seriously, though, I know how to eat with chopsticks. I'm not an expert, since I don't often eat with them, but I'm fairly proficient.

 

IMO, chopsticks are another incarnation of evil, besides myself, of course.

 

My parents taught me as a kid to eat with chopsticks. I'm a mixed ethnicity with a good portion of it as Asian. (Even though I look predominantly white)

The only problem is that we seldom go out to places like sushi restaurants or noodle places to use chopsticks.

I kind of hold pens and pencils differently than other people, using my right thumb to wrap around and push down and up as I go across. Wears you out quickly though. Oddly enough, I hold chopsticks in a more traditional manner.

Best advice I can give you is to not apply too much pressure when trying to pick something up. Over-squeezing can actually cause your food to break up which IMO is worse than dropping it. Try to keep it gripped delicately when you're dipping a sushi roll in soy sauce to avoid it swimming if you lose grip. I would practice. Start out with rice and work your way into noodles. It takes time, some can get it within a meal and others could take months.

However I will say with the westernization of most east Asian cultures, a lot of restaurants will also have forks for use and most of the time, they won't look down or think any less of you if you prefer the traditional utensils.

 

I'm not sure if I've ever actually used chopsticks another way than sticking them into stuff like a one-prong fork.

 

i actually taught myself how to use chopsticks when i was around 13 or so!! in my town we have a really good chinese/japanese buffet and i never use silverware there because eating food meant to be eaten with chopsticks with chopsticks is really satisfying~ especially since im the only person in my entire family who actually can use chopsticks!!!

 

I live in a place with many eastern restaurants and I have gotten really good at using chopsticks. I often eat rice, chicken, and even noodles with chopsticks and prefer them over regular utensils. However, its exhausting on my hand. Because of muscle issues, I have to grip chopsticks really tightly. Even if the force that I put on my food isn't that much, the force I use to keep my muscles aligned wares on me.

 

Oh my gosh! I suck at using chopsticks I just can't use them!! I try so hard but I think forks are just my thing.

 

I use chopsticks a lot! I find it really fun to just try and see what I can eat with them! My parents taught me how to when I was little, so it just kinda comes naturally to me now. I eat a lot of noodle dishes nowadays since its pretty cheap, so I think I probably use them more than a spoon or fork!

 

I've got a two-step program to learning how to use chopsticks:
1) go buy chopsticks and (choose one: a bag of party mix chips-and-pretzels-and-stuff, a bag of cheetos, mini pizza rolls, popcorn chicken, wheaties cereal, something else of similar size and hardness).
2) eat that food using only chopsticks and vaguely-correct hand shape, preferably off of a plate.

You will rapidly learn how to use chopsticks in an effective (though perhaps not proper) way in a safe, low-cost environment. I for one do this at work just about every day so that I don't need to wash my hands before and after each bite and because eating pretzel wheels with a fork or spoon is wack. And for this reason, I like chopsticks almost more than using a fork. It can start to feel barbaric, stabbing my food with a weapon just to then stab it into my mouth.

 

I figured out chopsticks the moment I picked them up for the first time. There was an East Asian Festival at my college where there was this game that involved picking up marbles with chopsticks. Smooth spherical objects are hard to pick up with chopsticks, but I did really well once I figured it out. I don't use them very often though.

 

*reads the title* oh please! I can't even figure out how on the planet earth do they eat with things that are, to the very core, sticks!! How do they even manage to pick up rice, those little things that are many times hard to even pick up with a fork, with those two sticks!! How do they eat with, seriously, sticks!? How do they manage not to hurt their lips or tongue while using sticks!?
If I were to eat a little tomato with those sticks, I wouldn't even use the second stick, you know.

 

I've always attempted to eat with them, and never could learn. I blame this on the fact the way I hold my pencil is extremely unconventional and thus makes holding chopsticks about ten times harder than it needs to be. I always feel embarrassed when I'm in an Asian restaurant, speaking Korean and such to the waiters, and end up having to ask for a fork.

 

I used chopsticks once, I think two years ago. I’d love to relearn how to use them, but I don’t really eat foods that use them too often.

 

I've tried to eat with them a couple of times before but I could never get the hang of using them properly. I ended up just jabbing them into the food instead :p