BY BRANDI GARVIN
CHOPSTICKS ETIQUETTE
Lay chopsticks in front of you with the tips facing left when the chopsticks are not in use.
Chopsticks, called kuaizi in China and hashi in Japan, were developed about 5,000 years ago and have been used for more than 3,000 years in China. They can be made of metal, bone, stone, compound or wood. Wood and bamboo are the most widely used chopsticks in homes, but not all Asian cultures use chopsticks. In India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Central Asia, chopsticks are generally not used. Different chopsticks are used in cooking, eating and picking up sweets.
Use the opposite end of your chopsticks to move food from a shared plate to your own.
Chopstick Do's and Don't's
Do:
Eat sushi all in one bite.
(www.japan-guide.com)
Spear food. Don't stick your chopsticks into your food, especially rice. Chopsticks are stuck into rice only at
funerals where the rice is then placed on the altar.
Don't:
Point your chopsticks at something.
Move around plates or bowls with chopsticks.
Pass food from your chopsticks to another's chopsticks. At funerals, the bones of the cremated body are passed around with chopsticks.
Beat your bowl with your chopsticks. Beggars beat their bowls to ask for food.
Use chopsticks made of two different materials.
(www.japan-guide.com, www.echop-sticks.org)
Chopstick use
The first stick is held still in the small of your thumb and first finger. The top stick is held parallel to the bottom stick between the thumb and the first finger. Hold both sticks horizontal to the table. Use your first finger to move the top stick, keeping it parallel with both the table and the bottom stick. (www.echopsticks.org)
—Brandi Garvin, Jayplay writer, can be reached at bgarvin@kansan.com
Lindsey Riechers/Kansan
8 jayplay
thursday, november 13, 2003