On Jun 23, 10:39*am, Gary > wrote:
> Mark Thorson wrote:
>
> > Interesting article about the history of the fork.
>
> >http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/d...istory_of_the_...
>
> > The fork is much more recent than the spoon and
> > knife. *It's hard to imagine eating without it.
> > I'm a bit surprised chopsticks didn't make their
> > way to Europe from Asia during the long pre-fork
> > period.
>
> Interesting article. *I'm surprised that chopsticks are still popular since
> the invention of forks and spoons. Normal people use them now.
>
> Using chopsticks these days are stupid. (inviting flames here, Gary)
> People these days only use them because it's the "cool kid" thing to do when
> eating Chinese or Japanese cuisine.

Forks are stupid. People naturally pick up food with chopsticks, as
they do with spoons, and as they do with their fingers. But, if you
try to pick up food with a fork, it will likely roll off, or fall off.
To use a fork to carry food to your mouth, you have to stab the food.
And who wants to stab every bite they will take?

>
> Think I'm wrong? *How often do you use chopsticks at home with everyday
> meals? *Nope...it's only when eating some rice stuff that's considered
> oriental.

Chopsticks work well when the food has been cut into bite sized
pieces: salads, vegetables, stews, etc. With larger pieces of food,
they are difficult to cut with and awkward to hold food that you must
take bites from.

>
> People ate their food with a pair of sticks when they didn't know any
> better.
> We have evolved way past that then. Eating with a pair of sticks now is only
> traditional or
> cool kid crap.

If you want to spend mealtimes sawing at your food, use knife and fork
by all means.