On 1/20/2012 4:53 PM, Jerry Avins wrote:
> On Jan 20, 2:04 am, > wrote:
>> Do you use them? For what?
>> Are you proficient with them?
>> How often? For non-Asian foods?
>>
>> The history can be found on wiki, so I'll bypass that. I've been
>> using them, regularly, for about 6 yrs. I still don't consider myself
>> anywhere near having mastered them. More comfortable and use 'em more
>> and more, but still not my primary eating implement.
>>
>> I notice my old geezer honky friend, who uses chopsticks exclusively,
>> has mastered them to a point where it's natural. He even does what I
>> call the scissors method --which is choreographed nowhere on the web.
>> Instead of the narrow isosceles trianble hold, most common with
>> novice/intermediate users, he crosses the sticks and pinches the food
>> item in a backward cross pinch. This is not unusual, having seen
>> scores of old geezers at pho houses using the exact same scissors-like
>> method. My buddy can't even articulate what he's doing, having done
>> it so long. But, I see the distinction.
>>
>> BTW, nothing ****es me off like the lame-O retard TV producers who
>> consistently, to the point of boredom, always show ppl eating Chinese
>> take-out from the box with chopsticks, like every single living
>> individual in NYC is born with the inate ability to eat with
>> chopsticks. The only exception to this insane stereotype is
>> Christopher Noth on Law and Order, who once actually ate Chinese
>> take-out from the box with a plastic fork, like most real ppl! Mark
>> this day!!
>>
>> nb
>>
>> --
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>> Contact your congressman and/or representative, now!http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/
>
> At home, I use chopsticks mostly for cooking. Picking out a piece of
> pasta to check for done, for example, or manipulating pieces 1n Teflon
> pan. (My steel turners are smooth enough for Teflon, but my tongs
> would scratch.) I guess I'm fairly proficient. Being mostly left
> handed, I was eating with my right hand while I did a crossword with
> my left. After a while, I realized that I was eating with chopsticks
> -- crosswords can be distracting. I have eaten stiff Jello with
> chopsticks just to show off, but that's nothing next to a Korean chap
> who broke an egg into desert cup and picked the yolk out whole to --
> as he put it -- "make show". I sometimes make my own version of ramen
> that I eat with a large soup spoon abd chopsticks. If I had to use a
> fork, I would probably use something else or break the noodles small
> before putting them in.

The egg is a real achievement but I can usually pick up cubes of jello
with hashi (chopsticks). I only try that in Chinese buffets and I'm
sometimes reduced to stabbing them. Japanese and Chinese do eat soup
without a spoon by raising the cup to their lips. If there are solid
things, like noodles and meat in Pho soup, I use hashi. (OK, let me be
honest, I don't usually raise a large Pho bowl to my lips and I use the
porcelain soup spoons that are provided.)

Generally Chinese cooks use much oversized chopsticks as cooking
implements. It is also easier to cut food with the large ones.

--
Jim Silverton

Extraneous "not" in Reply To.