Respect Nintendo’s heritage: Do you use chopsticks?
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 4:25pm by Blake
WARNING: This post is a stretch, even by Infendo standards. In any case, I gotta ask: do you use chopsticks when eating Chinese, Japanese, or otherwise Asian cuisine? I sat at a table last month among 10 other diners and was the only one using sticks. For shame. Sure, it’s difficult to transition from the convenience of a fork to miniturized cue sticks, but once you get the hang of it, it’s the only way to go. And I’m convinced it makes my Kung Pow taste better. Am I wrong?
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I use whats provided. If the restaurant has forks on the table, I wont request they bring me chopsticks. But for sushi, ya, I use em.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
If I can get chopsticks at an Asian restaurant, I will use them. It’s a matter of respect. You use your hands to eat a burger – not a fork and a knife – because that’s what was intended. Likewise, I’m going to eat Chinese food the way it was intended – with chopsticks.
Also, I think the traditional way to eat sushi is with your hands, but most folks these days, including the Japanese, use chopsticks to eat sushi.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
And you’re right, this post is a bit of a stretch.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I’d always wanted to learn how to use them. My Japanese teacher taught me etiquette, but never put any in my hand and taught me.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Blake is absolutely right: chopsticks make Kung Pow (AND Sushi AND Sashimi!) taste much better! Although I have never used anything other than chopsticks to eat those foods.
I’ve been using chopsticks ever since I had sushi for the first time… I honestly don’t know how I would use a fork or anything other than chopsticks to eat sushi.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I usually use a fork, but probably 20 percent of the time, I’ll use chopsticks, at least for part of the meal. I like to use them, but I’m not very good with them so I usually quit about half way through.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Fork for North Americanized Chinese food, chopsticks for more traditional fare. Definitely for sushi though.
Now I’m hungry. Thanks, Blake.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I’d gotten so used to using chopsticks while I was living in Japan a few years back, that these days I tend to use chopsticks as my default, not knives and forks.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
No offense, but using chopsticks is kind of pretentious. Unless that’s all they have.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Love chopsticks – I could never use them as a kid and gave up but tried one day as an adult and found them easy!
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I’ve always found the majority of asian food is easier to eat with chopsticks, though when I’m scraping the last little bi t off my plate I usually go for a fork.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I wont go out of my way to ask for sticks, but I will always use them when I can
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Yes. My wife is Japanese and we use them almost more than other utensils. Again, it depends on what we are having but mostly asian cuisine. I find it difficult to eat sticky rice with something other than hashi (箸).
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I use chopsticks on a regular basis and find it to be very versatile especially for asian cuisine. Its second nature for me to pick up a pair of chopsticks at my place unless theyre all in the sink and in need of some suds.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Yes. In fact, I used them last night eating sushi.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I use both. At the same time. Yarly.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Chopsticks are part of the atmosphere and dining experience, so I use ‘em whenever they are offered. It only takes a little practice. Hold one of the sticks like you’d naturally hold a pencil and the other at an angle. Clinch w/ the index finger and that’s it. The Wii remote did and Motion Plus will come naturally w/ a bit of practice.
Funny thing is I just ate at a Korean conveyor-belt restaurant (kinda like in Furu Furu Park), and ordered a triple helping of gyoza and it was goooood.
Why is it that gyoza is never offered as a main course, only as an appetizer? I mean those little pork/beef dumplings totally rock. I’m too lazy to find a proper forum to vent about that, so I’ll do it here in a Nintendo-related blog.
This post is a stretch (as is my rambling), but I don’t mind. Would it kill anyone to have a “normal” conversation about culture once in a while?
And if any Korean restaurant managers are reading this for whatever reason, please consider gyoza as a main course.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 pm
I use chopsticks but the fork is easier to use.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:10 am
I’m Asian and I grab the fork more often than I do chopsticks unless it’s for rice or noodles.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:40 am
I’m the weird kinda guy that will use chopsticks to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, just because.
Well, not really.
But I always request and use them at Asian restaurants. I find it makes the meal more interesting.
As an aside, nothing bothers me more than when people use their chopsticks to actually poke through the food and pick it up that way. *shudder*
June 24th, 2009 at 4:55 am
I use chopsticks whenever I’m in a restaurant that offers them. I even carry around a set of metal, reusable ones although they can be a little slippery sometimes and I like the feel of wooden ones.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Asian countries aren’t exclusively using chopsticks. Some chinese also use spoons (traditionally they are made out of wood too).
I find it a bit funny that Thai restaurants offer chopsticks when they don’t use it in their own country. They use the spoon and fork in south east asia.
I’m European but that didn’t stop me from learning how to eat with chopsticks early in life (I was inspired by vietnamese immigrant classmates). It’s kind of fun when I’m eating with chopsticks at an asian restaurant with colleagues, who didn’t know before that I could, are fascinated by it.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
“eating rice with chopsticks ? no thanks” is what I say and millions of Chinese as well, they just use their hands as a spoon
Like everyone in Holland walks on clogs, and all Italian men are womanizers..
June 24th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
This is a pretty funny comedy routine about chopsticks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKHsyadN_lE
I do use them when I got eat Vietnamese food.
June 25th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I use chopsticks sometimes. A friend from Vietnam taught me how to use them.
@Steve D.: Thank you for the link!
He was funny and wise. I hadn’t heard of him before.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:48 am
I’ve gone to a Japanese steak bar a few times. I used chopsticks a few times, and I can hold them fine, I think. The trouble is the rice! I can pick up the bits of chicken, beef, vegetables, all of it! But I can’t ever figure out the technique of keeping the rice from falling off.
/shamed American
June 26th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Mattiac: I love the Vietnamese people. Maybe it’s because some of my in-laws are from there??
Yeah I love Brad Stine, he is really an awesome comedian, and he is clean. I get tired of people using F-bombs all the time. It get’s boring.