On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:12:29 GMT, notbob > shouted
from the highest rooftop:

>We've flogged this subject ad nauseum, but have we been honest about it.
>Yeah, we all use chopsticks in a restaurant cuz we wanna SHOW RESPECT for
>the CULTURE (eye-roll). BUT!!... what about take-out? I've been eating
>Chinese take-out all my life and have NEVER found those disposable
>chopsticks in the bag. Does that mean I should have them at home all the
>time?
>
>I may occasionally use chopsticks at home, but I'm weird. I know of NO 0NE
>else who does so. Maybe me and mine are declasse, but I doubt it. Do YOU
>really have your own chopsticks at home for yourself and guests and family
>when Asian food is on the menu? C'mon, be honest. (CC! ... a poll!)

In New Zealand most Chinese takeaways usually come with one or more
pairs of the disposable wood chopsticks without you having to ask for
them.

BTW: The trick with those is - after you break them apart (sometimes a
skill in itself) - remove any splinters by drawing the edges of each
stick across each other like using steel to sharpen a knife. I learned
that from a friend in Hawaii many years ago.

Most NZ Chinese takeaways come in plastic containers you can reheat in
a microwave (and recycle as storage containers), but there are a
couple of outlets that use the kind cardboard containers used in the
USA, etc and I'm always surprised at how much food one of those
containers actually holds.

There's a small boutique hotel we stay in when we have to be in
Auckland for medical reasons because it's close to the hospital. And
since neither of us feels like going out to a restaurant on those
occasions we often get Japanese takeaways from a place that's only a
ten minute walk away in Newmarket. If my wife feels up to it we both
walk down and choose what we want and put it into the little fridge to
keep it cool until we're ready to eat.

Although we take the food from their plastic containers and put it on
plates, I eat mine with chopsticks and my wife uses a fork and knife.

Same thing when we bring Chinese or Japanese takeaways home from town.
We serve them on plates and my wife uses silverware while I eat mine
with chopsticks.

But if there are no plates or bowls available, then we have no problem
eating them from the containers.

We probably have over a dozen sets of chopsticks in the house made
from bamboo, coconut wood, some sort of hardwood from Bali, lacquered
Japanese sticks and some great plastic chopsticks with mother of pearl
tops from the Trade Aide Shop.

The ornate hardwood ones from Bali were a gift from our eldest
daughter and son-in-law and came in an even more ornately carved box
with a sliding lid that features the body of a lizard along the top
and the lizard's head rising from the body so you can use the head to
slide open the box revealing the eight chopsticks.

I also keep a set of plastic chopsticks in the car just in case an
opportunity to use them comes up.



--

una cerveza mas por favor ...

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