According to the results of some studies, it has been calculated that in our time only 40% of the world's population use cutlery familiar to us when eating. Of the remaining 60%, half prefer to use their hands, the other half - with chopsticks. The dishes you need to eat with chopsticks are Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai. Of course, in any restaurant, a European will bring a fork at his request, but itโs much tastier to try national cuisines with national appliances.
Pick your recipe
You will need
- Sticks
- Fingers
- Oriental dishes
Instruction manual
1
How to hold sticks?
Insert one stick between the thumb and middle finger of your right hand. The stick should take a position in which it lies at the base of the thumb and at the first phalanx of the middle finger. In this case, the index finger should not touch the wand at all.
Place the second stick between the thumb and forefinger. The thumb should rest against the stick from below, and the index finger should cover it from above.
Make sure the ends of the sticks are parallel to each other.
Hold the lower stick motionless, manipulating only the upper stick - move your index finger and thumb up and down.
2
How to choose your own sticks?
Perhaps the reason why you canโt learn how to use the chopsticks in any way lies either in the teachers or in you personally, but simply because the chopsticks are not the same size. Disposable sticks from paper bags are, in fact, the same plastic forks, can they replace good cutlery? If you like Asian cuisine, it makes sense to get your own chopsticks.
Spread the fingers of the thumb and forefinger of your right hand at an angle of 90 degrees. Measure this distance with a ruler and multiply by one and a half. Choose sticks in length, focusing on this figure. The thickness of the sticks depends on both your finger thickness and personal preference.
The pointed end of the sticks is called "grabbed" and it also happens to be different. Noodle sticks come with a faceted "grabber", with a "grabber" with notches and a hollow. Sticks for natto, dishes made from fermented soybeans - with a wide "grasp", for fish - with a narrow and sharp.
3
How to eat rice with chopsticks?
Rice in Asian cuisine is usually sticky and therefore easy to eat with chopsticks.
Take a bowl of rice in your left hand and sticks in your right.
Grab a lump of rice with chopsticks, moving the top and put in your mouth.
All grains that may fall from the sticks should fall back into the bowl.
note
Never stick sticks in food between meals and leave them like that. This is done at the wake, marking the place and food for the dead. If you do this during an ordinary meal, you wish those present at the table of death.
Useful advice
If you canโt learn how to use the chopsticks because they diverge from the thick edge, fasten them there with an ordinary rubber band for the duration of the training.