Chinese chop-chop

[Desmond Hawkins]

I can get by with chopsticks, but I actually disagree with the assertion that they are better for noodles. Using a spoon for spinning, I can consume noodles much faster and with with a fork and spoon while still being comfortable. I mean, I can shove an obscene amount of noodles in my mouth at once with this method.

 

[LucyDuke]

I'm hoping to go to China (around the time of the Olympics, but with an unrelated purpose), but this thread reminds me that I might have to work on those chop stick skills....

Carry a fork?

While chopsticks are clearly uncivilised, some benighted barbarians misuse the noble fork in ways that are much more horrid.

Some inbred islanders to the west of Europe proper for example hold it upside down, which would make eating anything in a tidy way impossible... if much of their ghastly food wasn't so squishy.

I heard that an even more barbarous people even further removed from civlisation can't tell left from right. Consequently, they constantly change the hand which holds the fork.

If it's good enough for Amy Vanderbilt, it's good enough for me.

 

[El Koeno]

Carry a fork?

I've heard that Chinese don't use knive and fork because they are considered weapons. I don't know how serious they are about all that, but I'd rather not take my chances at a dinner party.

 

[Iranon]

You know, if I'd have to fight someone to the death and had to pick my weapon from eating utensils... chopsticks would rate above a dinner fork or the typical knife that accompanies it.

 

[a_propagandist]

While chopsticks are clearly uncivilised, some benighted barbarians misuse the noble fork in ways that are much more horrid.

Some inbred islanders to the west of Europe proper for example hold it upside down, which would make eating anything in a tidy way impossible... if much of their ghastly food wasn't so squishy.

I heard that an even more barbarous people even further removed from civlisation can't tell left from right. Consequently, they constantly change the hand which holds the fork.

So how exactly is the fork better?

Personally, I'm impartial; it depends on what I'm eating.

 

[Iranon]

They do their part keep metalworkers employed and paid, which prevents the trade unions from causing too much of a public embarassment. This is very important. Also, learning how to do wondrous things with metals for millenia, only to fall back on wood or bone or something of the kind seems a waste of civilisation.

Then, there is the shape. Chopsticks have an air of primitive tools from prehistoric times, with multiple uses. One could easily mistake them for tools to bore holes, for knitting needles or for something to hold up one's hair.
Forks are an elegant and sophisticated implement, perfected for their use.

Finally, they are more conductive to one's harmonious body development as one uses both hands for eating. With the relative scarcity of manual labour in many countries, eating becomes the most strenuous activity one will perform (well... perhaps the second most strenuous. But the first relies on very different muscle groups). I don't want my right arm to be twice as musclar as my left!

 

[Ramius75]

i actually prefer to eat with knife than with chop sticks.... i like licking gravy off the blade too.. and plate... having a knife on the table allows me to play with my food too...

 

[plarq]

licking the blade? And cut your tongue? You like bloody meal?

 

[Ramius75]

licking the blade? And cut your tongue? You like bloody meal?

i like my steak medium rare...

 

[LucyDuke]

licking the blade? And cut your tongue? You like bloody meal?

Are you unable to lick a blade in a way that doesn't cut your tongue? It's not hard.

 

[Leonel]

Damn it, stormbind! Spoiler that fish eyeball!

That's the thing I always hated about going to Chinese restaurant's in Hong Kong. They always keep the head on whole animals.

Also I'm already a pro at chopsticks.

 

[a_propagandist]

@Iranon, actually, there are such things as metal chopsticks.

And the immense danger behind licking the knife adds that edge to the meal. Pun intended.

 

[Romanfe]

Bad table manners itt

 

[The Yankee]

I can't handle chopsticks to save my life.

 

[Luckymoose]

I usually only use a knife with steak, which I eat near rare, so if I cut my tongue I wouldn't be able to see the blood.

 

[Dann]

I can eat equally well using chopsticks, knife and fork, spoon and fork, or even my bare hands.

Though the locals say my grip of chopsticks is wrong. Meh who cares as long as I can eat with it.

Another one guilty of licking gravy or other sauces off knives here...