I am going on a trip the last two weeks of July to Weihai, China. This will be my first trip to China and I am extremely excited to go. I am excited to meet the people, learn the culture, and see the sites.
One thing I am not looking forward to is eating with chopsticks. I have tried before and I am terrible at using them to eat. It takes me forever to simply balance the food on the chopsticks long enough to actually think I can take a bite. However, the shaking and movement that the journey from the plate to my mouth makes 99% of the food fall off leaving me even hungrier. Eating with chopsticks is like one big tease. You have got to be like a ninja or Jedi-master to eat with them.
I am seriously scared that if I have to use chopsticks for two weeks straight I will go without food for two weeks straight. It will be like being on an involuntary fast. You know how little kids try to trick their parents by playing with their food enough to pretend that they actually ate their food? That is what I will be doing except not on purpose if I have to eat with chopsticks for two weeks.
I recently was sent an informational article to read entitled “Chinese Dining Etiquette”. Inside this article was a section called “Simple Steps Explaining How To Use Chopsticks”. According to this article, there are eight steps to taking one bite with chopsticks. EIGHT STEPS! How is anything with eight steps considered “simple”?
Eating with a fork is simple: (1) grab fork, (2) stab food with fork, (3) lift stabbed food in fork up and insert into mouth, and (4) eat the food.
Anybody got any chopsticks tips? I am in trouble and I need some help. A man has to got to eat.
Can we just use one chopstick?
stab the food, and eat it with one.
Are we considered rude if we don’t eat with chopsticks?
Let’s go back to the infant stage and eat with our fingers. They have napkins.
Can’t use the stab technique. We will talk about that and more eating etiquette stuff at our meeting tomorrow.
I used to work with a lot of Chinese students when I lived in Salt Lake City. A few times they took me to what they considered to be the best local Chinese restaurant, and politely didn’t laugh hysterically when they saw me eating with chopsticks. For the record, I’m fair at it. Anyway, they told me that they don’t use the chopsticks necessarily to bring the rice from the bowl to their mouths, but would actually hold the bowl much closer to their mouths. Not such a long trip to make, so less space to spill things. But even if you don’t do that, practice with chopsticks between now and then, and you should be able to become reasonably proficient.
My boss eats with chopsticks and he brings the bowl of rice up close his face. And he says that your wrist needs to be relaxed and your index finger does all the work, the second chopstick stays still but the top one moves. Hope that helps… GOOD LUCK.
Your father says to carry a small pencil sharpener to sharpen your chopsticks. Then follow the 4 easy steps of the fork to eat your food.