Chop, chop: Learn to eat with chopsticks!

If you’ve ever been to a fine Chinese restaurant, you’ve probably seen them. Those long, thin, tapered pieces of bamboo that adept diners use in place of spoons and forks to eat. They’re called chopsticks and they originated in China.

Chopsticks were developed in China some 5,000 years ago. At that time, people cooked their food in large pots and ate with knives. Those in a hurry to eat often used twigs to reach into the pots and retrieve the food. By 400 B.C., the Chinese population had grown and resources were starting to dwindle. As a result, many people began chopping their food into little pieces, which would cook faster and conserve fuel. The little pieces could be picked up easier with twigs than knives, and thus chopsticks were born.

Today chopsticks are used all over the world and are made of a variety of materials. Bamboo tends to be the most popular, though wooden chopsticks are not uncommon. Using chopsticks is not as difficult as you might think.

Simply hold one chopstick between your thumb and first finger and the second like you would a pen or pencil. Then use your thumb and first finger to move the top chopstick to pick up food and keep the bottom chopstick stationary.

Learning to eat with chopsticks takes practice, and as you might have suspected, there are right and wrong ways to use them. When you eat with them, make sure you follow these dos and don’ts:

• Do hold your chopsticks toward the ends.

• Do use the other ends of your chopsticks to move food from a plate to yours if you have already started eating.

•Do lay down your chopsticks in front of you with the tips to the left when you are not using them and after you have finished eating.

• Don’t point at people or things with your chopsticks.

• Don’t spear food with your chopsticks or fish around a bowl with them.

• Don’t move bowls or plates with your chopsticks or pass food from your chopsticks to someone else’s chopsticks. The latter is the way that the bones of a cremated body are passed at a funeral.

• Don’t lick your chopsticks.

• Don’t leave your chopsticks standing up in any rice bowls. This practice is reserved for funerals.

Practice eating with your chopsticks and you’re sure to have a great time at your next outing to a Chinese restaurant.

Good luck!