All lovers of Asian food claim that if you eat it with chopsticks, then you will taste the taste much better. But in order to be convinced of this from your own experience, of course, you need to learn how to use Chinese chopsticks. This skill will come in handy even for those who are not going to move to China, but are simply interested in culture.
Correct hand position
First you need to figure out how to properly hold this cutlery. If the sticks are not training, then they are not connected to each other. The first of them must be firmly fixed with two fingers: thumb and forefinger. The stick must not slip. In fact, this situation is reminiscent of how each of us was taught in childhood to write with a pen. Only the stick should be slightly lower than the handle. By the way, not everyone likes this method of fixation: some prefer to hold the wand between the ring and index. Try both options and decide which is more convenient for you.
The second stick, unlike the first, must move. It is due to this that it will be possible to pick up food with a cutlery. In order to make this easy, you need to place a second stick under your thumb. As a result, the thin edges of the sticks should be in contact with each other, and not intersect. If it is difficult to align the position of the cutlery, tap the chopsticks on the table. So they lie down in the hand.
Training and practice
Before you try to pick up food, you need to practice a little control of the chopsticks. Try closing and opening sticks. The ends must always converge normally. Choose the hand position that is most comfortable for you. You can lower your fingers closer to the bottom edge, or vice versa, keep them almost at the very base. But at the same time, remember that keeping your fingers closer to the thin edges of the sticks is uncivilized. The main reason is that with this position of the hands, they practically touch the food, and this is simply unhygienic.
After you have practiced a bit, you can learn to pick up food with chopsticks. Try to eat different types of food. Just because eating rice, for example, is harder than sushi or noodles. Experiment with different sizes and types of food. You need to start with something simpler, such as chopped vegetables, fruits, or pieces of fish. Then you can move on to more complex products. However, some, on the contrary, advise starting their workouts with small items, arguing that if you learn the complex, then the simple will then be much easier to master. Aerobatics is to eat rice and noodles with chopsticks neatly and without much difficulty. But this will happen only after a couple of weeks, or even months of constant practice. So learn something simpler. And only when you learn how to properly handle different dishes, go to a Chinese restaurant.
By the way, beginners are advised to use either wooden or bamboo sticks. They are light, but due to the slightly rough texture, they are very easy to pick up and hold food. It is much more difficult to work with plastic and metal sticks. Therefore, it makes no sense to start your training on them. Another interesting fact that may help you: there are both disposable sticks and reusable ones. The latter must be handled with care. You can either buy them at home or find them in one of the Asian restaurants. Reusable sticks look very nice. Sometimes you can see real works of art, carefully polished and decorated with various patterns. Previously, they were often made from semi-precious and even precious metals. Now in everyday life such cutlery is practically not used. But the desire to decorate your cutlery and enjoy the little things in life remained.
Separately, it is worth discussing the issue of etiquette. Many, for example, may seem strange to the peculiarities of the division of food at the Chinese table. The traditional dining and festive table in Asia is filled with large dishes. Initially, no one divides food into portions, and everyone can get as much as they want. This must be done carefully. And it is important to remember that, after you have already eaten with your chopsticks, it is very ugly to climb them into a common plate. Therefore, you need to either use other edges of the stick, or find common sticks on the table that no one has eaten yet. They, too, can easily collect supplements for themselves and put spare cutlery aside. Also remember that if the common plate is filled with a variety of food, then choose what exactly you will impose on yourself before you reach into the dish with your chopsticks. You can not pick food, choosing the most tidbits.
Many aspiring connoisseurs of Asian culture do not know what to do with chopsticks at a time when they are not used for eating. The Chinese, as well as other Asians, have a lot of prejudice associated with feasts. So, for example, if you stick chopsticks in your food between meals, then this will be perceived negatively. The fact is that such a gesture is a bad omen, because such a design looks like incense at a traditional Asian funeral.
Also, do not pierce food with chopsticks or prick individual pieces on them. Remember, this is not a fork, and if you can’t pick up food with chopsticks, then it’s better to ask to change the cutlery. Trying to pierce food looks very uncultured when viewed through the eyes of an Asian. However, asking for a spoon or fork instead of chopsticks can also offend the feelings of your table neighbor. But the Chinese, nevertheless, are much more loyal to this than the Japanese who honor all traditions.
Also, you should not try to transfer food to someone by shifting it from one cutlery to another. This is also a funeral tradition, and such actions will be perceived negatively. The desire to point at someone with the sharp edges of sticks is also considered uncivilized. However, this should not be a culture shock for you, because such actions are considered ugly in any country. Actually, the best option is to simply put the chopsticks next to the plate at a time when you are not picking up food with them. You need to put the cutlery on the left side, without crossing the sticks with each other.
The incredible popularization of Asian cuisine is increasingly making our compatriots think about how to properly hold Chinese chopsticks in their hands so as not to cause bewilderment among others. After all, what is instilled in Asians from an early age for Europeans is sometimes worse than Chinese literacy.
A bit of history
The history of the emergence of sticks, as well as the entire history of the Middle Kingdom, is rooted in hoary antiquity. The first mention of such a simple cutlery is found in manuscripts dated to the 3rd millennium BC. Legends say that wands owe their appearance to human intolerance.
The unwillingness to wait until the tidbit cools down made the smart Chinese grab it with the first object that came to hand. This object turned out to be a sprout of ordinary bamboo. Of course, the historical prototype, only remotely resembled a modern counterpart. It was a fragment of a bamboo branch, split in the center and bent in half - a kind of tongs that ancient culinary specialists used for cooking.
Then the bamboo branch bent in half was transformed into 2 separate fragments. Several millennia passed before they migrated from the kitchens to the tables of the local aristocracy. In past centuries, the use of cutlery was allowed to representatives of the privileged classes. And only at the turn of the 7th - 8th centuries AD, sticks, which are called kuaizi in the Celestial Empire, came to the people.
What are Chinese chopsticks made of?
But sticks are not only made from bamboo. Also apply:
- ivory;
- sandalwood;
- plastics;
- precious and semi-precious metals;
- wood of noble tree species.
Decorative Chinese chopsticks combine functional and aesthetic components. This is not just a household item, it is a real work of art. Encrusted with precious stones or painted in the best traditions, they are the embodiment of the craftsmanship of the eastern people. Photo collection copies once again confirms this fact.
Restaurants usually serve disposable wooden utensils called weisheng kuaizi. They have no decorative value, since their design is very simple and uncomplicated. A feature of such sticks is the unfinished cut at the thickened base. Before starting a meal, weisheng kuaizi should be divided into 2 fragments and only then start eating rice, sushi or noodles.
Japanese sticks, which are called hashi, appeared in the Land of the Rising Sun much later than in China. Japan acquired cutlery only by 500 AD.
How to eat with Chinese chopsticks
In recent years, the irresistible desire of representatives of other nationalities to master such an unusual device is clearly visible all over the world. This is due to a greater extent with the incredible popularization of Asian cuisine. Sushi and rolls, which were considered exotic food a few decades ago, are now firmly established in the diet of a modern European.
Stick holding practice
Despite the fact that there are generally accepted rules that should be followed when learning to “manage” sticks, no one has canceled improvisation.
We can draw a simple analogy with writing. In first grade, we are all shown how to properly hold a ballpoint pen. And we, observing the correct slope, learn to display each letter. But very soon everyone develops their own individual style of writing. Pay attention to how your friends or colleagues hold a pencil and pen, and you will be surprised to note that in this position there is very little left of what we were taught in elementary school.
It's the same with kuazzy. In order not to experience discomfort during a meal, before learning how to hold Chinese chopsticks, you must try to find the most comfortable position on your fingers.
- To do this, take the lower stick in your right hand so that its thickened end is in the area of the articulation of the thumb and forefinger, protruding literally 2-3 cm, and hold it down. Place the free edge at the base of the nail phalanx. If done correctly, it will be securely fixed, and the index and ring fingers will be completely free.
- At this stage of training, it does not hurt to rotate these fingers, making sure that the clamped stick remains motionless, and the little finger does not stick out.
- After the first stage of training is successfully completed, you can proceed to the next. To do this, lay the second stick on top of the middle and index fingers, and press it with your thumb.
- Adjust the position of the kuai chi relative to each other. The lower one should protrude literally 0.5 cm beyond the surface of the hand. This will allow you to perfectly align the pointed edges while grabbing food and securely hold even the smallest pieces with chopsticks. An indicator of virtuosity is the ability to lift rice grains with the tips.
Detailed instructions with a photo and a thematic video will help to sort out incomprehensible moments.
Proper use of chopsticks
Chinese traditions imply the presence on the table of common dishes with dishes, from which all participants in the meal themselves put food on their plates. And it seems that there is nothing unusual in this, but small details should be remembered. It is forbidden:
- mix the common food, in search of an appetizing piece;
- take food from a common plate with used chopsticks;
- twist the chopstick over the plates, choosing where to start the meal;
- having touched, to leave it on a common dish, it must be eaten;
- move plates around with chopsticks.
You should also pay attention to the position of the arms and hands during the meal. Watch how you take food from a common dish. The fingers should be lowered, the sticks pointing vertically down, and the hands should be parallel to the surface of the table.
When you finish eating, do not put kuaizi across the plate. Such a gesture will be taken as a sign of disrespect. It is better to put on a special stand, the name of which is hasioki.
Choosing the Right Sticks
But the degree of comfort during a meal depends not only on the correct position of the chopsticks in the fingers. Their size also matters. In order to deftly manage pieces of food, the ratio of the length of the fingers and themselves, called kuaizi, should be in maximum correspondence.
- In restaurants, all patrons are served sticks 23 cm long. This is the ideal size for men of average height, their palm size is very often proportional to this length. But it is worth taking into account that the Chinese are significantly inferior in size to the Europeans. Therefore, for a large representative of the stronger sex of the Slavic people, such sticks may turn out to be too small.
- But for a small female palm, a length of 21 cm is quite suitable.
- For children under 3 years old, the ideal size is 13 cm, by the age of 4 their length increases to 14 cm. By the age of 13, children may well resort to using twenty-centimeter devices.
To find out what size is needed for each specific case, you need:
- measure the distance from the thumb to the index finger with a ruler;
- Increase the resulting distance by one and a half times;
- The result of the multiplication will correspond to the required length.
Etiquette and taboos related to chopsticks
Despite the fact that the Chinese are much more democratic than the conservative Japanese in matters relating to food intake, and willingly forgive foreigners for minor mistakes and annoying misunderstandings, it does not hurt to remember the basic traditions and rules of conduct at the table, especially if you are planning a trip to such a remote country. .
- It is categorically unacceptable to prick food fragments using a stick as a makeshift fork. It is better to ask for the usual cutlery.
- It is unacceptable to stick chopsticks in rice. Usually such an action accompanies burial procedures and is unlikely to be appropriate at a secular dinner.
- You should not knock them on a plate, hoping to attract the attention of the waiter. This gesture is inherent in street beggars, but not in any respectable person.
- Even during heated discussions at the table, you should not gesticulate and use sticks as a pointer, much less point them in the direction of the person or object being discussed.
- Some Chinese allow themselves to pass food fragments from “sticks to sticks”, but it is better to immediately eradicate such a habit in yourself. Japanese traditions allow such actions only at the funeral ceremony of burial.
How do the Chinese eat soup?
Asian cuisine is famous not only for second courses. A variety of soups, stews, noodles and even fish soup deserved no less popularity. First courses, often referred to as missito, are also eaten with kuaizi. For this:
- a bowl of food is taken in hand and held on weight in the chest area;
- first, the broth is drunk in slow sips;
- the solid ingredients are then eaten with chopsticks.
Some soups are served with special porcelain spoons. In these cases, the process is greatly facilitated and becomes absolutely identical to our usual soup eating.
Conclusion
Learning how to use kuazzi is not difficult at all. In China, even small children eat nimbly with chopsticks, deftly fingering with their little fingers. All it takes is a little patience, regular practice, and a role model.
Learning how to properly eat sushi and rolls with chopsticks can seem like a difficult and almost impossible task for many. In fact, it is quite easy, the main thing is to master the technique and learn how to properly hold the chopsticks for sushi.
And here some people may come to a real bewilderment, because how many Asian peoples manage to eat with chopsticks not only cubes of rolls, but also just friable rice.
Since ancient times, Koreans have been eating with iron sticks, although no one really remembers where this tradition came from. However, now eating with chopsticks is an integral part of Japanese and Chinese culture. It is better to learn to eat on wooden sticks, as they are less slippery. There are metal, plastic, wooden, regular disposable and hashi sticks.
Instructions on how to properly use chopsticks for sushi and rolls are quite simple. After all, everyone loves them, which means it’s also interesting to learn this.
The upper stick should move with the index finger and with it we just grab the food. We take the lower stick and fix it between the middle thumb. It is better to keep closer to the base, that is, to the upper ends of the stick. Thus, we can move the stick with the index finger and pick up food with it more conveniently.
It is believed that eating sushi and rolls with a fork is simply disrespectful. Moreover, rice in Asian countries is almost a shrine. In the online restaurant "Vilki-Palki" you can order the most delicious sushi and rolls with home delivery.
Japanese cuisine is not only gourmet dishes, but also a whole range of traditions that are unusual for us, associated with behavior at the table. In the Land of the Rising Sun, since ancient times, it has been customary to use not spoons and forks, but special sticks - hashi. Eating food with chopsticks requires some skill and experience. Therefore, you need to learn how to hold chopsticks for sushi, and then also practice at home. After that, you can safely go to a Japanese restaurant, not being afraid to pass for an ignoramus among those around you.
In China, the first chopsticks appeared before our era and quickly became popular in Japan and other East Asian countries. Legend has it that a man invented them, trying to pull a hot piece of meat out of a cauldron without getting scalded with boiling water.
At first, these cutlery was made only from ivory, and only emperors and members of their families could use them. Ordinary people took up chopsticks only in the 8th century AD.
Some interesting facts about hashi
For many years, sticks were made exclusively from bamboo, while they resembled tweezers or tongs. The bamboo trunk was simply divided into two halves, which were folded as unnecessary. Now hashi is made of wood, metal, porcelain and even plastic.
It is customary in most restaurants to give diners disposables, although reusable ones look more presentable and sophisticated. They are decorated with stones, covered with patterns and different colors.
Often chopsticks are served to the table in special cases with a beautiful pattern or logo of the establishment. These cases have already become a collector's item for many.
In Japan, children are taught to use chopsticks almost from the age of one. The first time a baby is given hashi on the hundredth day after birth. Children who can eat with such a device are often ahead of their peers who do not. The fact is that when using sticks, fine motor skills develop, which directly affects mental abilities.
Variety of chopsticks for sushi
There are five main types of hashi:
- universal, made of cryptomeria, pointed at one end;
- from cedar, pointed on both sides;
- Gong Fai - used to transfer food from a common plate to separate ones;
- varibashi - disposable sticks made of plastic or bamboo;
- for cooking, longer than 30 cm.
Disposable sticks should ideally be joined at the ends. This means that no one has used them yet.
In addition to the main types, there are others: New Year's, gift, for the tea ceremony, for sweet dishes. Expensive woods are used to make gift hashi, and they are also decorated with elaborately carved hieroglyphs and intricate designs. Ivory sticks can be decorated with expensive stones.
How to properly hold sushi chopsticks?
At first, Chinese chopsticks seem very inconvenient to use. But after a few workouts, it turns out that learning to eat with them is quite easy.
The base of the lower stick is placed in the recess between the hand and the ring finger, while pressing the thin tip with the thumb. The top is held approximately like a pen.
To set the tips of the sticks in motion, you need to bend or unbend the middle and index fingers. In this case, only the upper stick should move, the lower one should remain motionless. Chopsticks are easy to control if you hold them closer to the middle or bottom.
Instructions on how to learn for beginners
One of the main conditions is lightness, smoothness and freedom of hand movements. In no case should the brushes be clamped.
Detailed instructions:
- Bend slightly and connect the ring finger of the right hand with the little finger.
- Take the first hashi and place it between your thumb and forefinger on your ring finger. The point of contact with the fingers should be at the level of 1/3 from the top side.
- Take the second stick the way you hold a pen while writing. Properly placed sticks should touch only the lower tips, while the upper ones should be 1.5 cm apart from each other.
Knowing how to learn how to hold chopsticks for sushi, you can start training. To do this, you can try to take small objects with chopsticks - peas, corn, matches. If there are no problems with this, then with large pieces of food everything will be even easier.
For beginners, it is best to eat with wooden chopsticks - food does not slip out of them as often as it happens when using plastic or ivory hashi.
How to eat sushi and rolls?
Traditionally, when eating sushi and rolls, they always use a warm towel for hands and face. The sauce is served in special bowls, which are held in the left hand for convenience. Sushi or rolls are carefully taken with chopsticks and dipped edgewise into the sauce. In this case, the piece cannot be completely dipped. Portions cannot be bitten either: they can only be sent into the mouth as a whole or divided with chopsticks into parts and only then eaten.
The culture of eating among the Japanese and Chinese is very different from the European one.
Therefore, you need to take note of the following rules:
- It is forbidden to prick pieces of food on chopsticks or pierce a dish with them. Hasi is only stuck in rice at funerals.
- Do not draw with chopsticks on a plate or table.
- A sign of bad taste is also considered to be licking sticks and wrapping noodles on them.
- After the meal is over, do not put chopsticks across the dish. They can be placed on a stand, on a table or on the edge of a plate.
- If a person wants to ask for more, they need to put the hashi on the table.
Also, do not use sticks as a pointer and clamp them in your fist.
For us, this cutlery is unusual, but it is he who helps to fully enjoy the taste of Japanese and Chinese dishes and touch the culture of these peoples.
I love Japanese dishes, but I don’t indulge myself often on purpose, so that the charm of small culinary masterpieces of Asian cuisine does not become boring.
What do you need to visit a Japanese restaurant? Money, mood and the ability to hold sticks.
I think of the three points, the question can only arise about how to hold chopsticks for sushi and rolls.
But first
A bit of history...
Food sticks(hashi/hashi)- a pair of small sticks, a traditional cutlery in East Asia. The four countries where chopsticks are predominantly used are China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
In Thailand, with the introduction of European cutlery by King Rama V in the 19th century, only noodles or soups are eaten with chopsticks.
Hashi came to Japan from China in the 12th century and were made from bamboo.
The current separate form of sticks appeared in Japan during the Asuka period (593 - 710). By this time, their use had not yet become widespread. It was believed that immortal gods and emperors eat with chopsticks. According to Chinese chronicles, at that time only the imperial court and the Japanese aristocracy enjoyed hashi while commoners still ate with their hands. It was not until the Nara period that the common people also began to eat with chopsticks.
Since then, sticks for the Japanese have been not only an everyday personal item (it is not customary to lend them to others), but also a sacred symbol (the Japanese respectfully call them o-hashi). According to legend, they bring good luck and long life to the owner, and therefore it is not surprising that khasi are considered a good holiday gift.
For example, hashi is presented to newlyweds, implying a wish to be as inseparable as a pair of sticks.
They are given to a baby on the 100th day since his birth, when during the First Chopsticks ceremony adults give him the first time to taste rice with chopsticks.
They also make gift sets for the whole family.
There are many types of hashi sticks: for ordinary food, for culinary purposes, for cakes and desserts. In addition, there are hashi for the New Year, the tea ceremony, for sweets.
Modern hashi are made of bone, wood (from bamboo, pine, cypress, plum, maple, black or purple sandalwood), and silver, iron and aluminum can also serve as a material for them. Recently, plastic has been widely used. Occasionally there are sticks made of such exotic materials as ivory or antler, but this is rather an exception.
Metal chopsticks are mainly used for cooking and not as cutlery.
In Japan, one of the advantages of chopsticks over European cutlery is that "you do not have to scratch your teeth with pieces of iron." Therefore, even in public catering establishments, practical and durable metal sticks are not served. Replace them with disposable sticks. varibashi, which are made from a single, relatively roughly processed piece of wood, sawn along a little not completely - a sign that no one used the chopsticks, so they need to be broken before use.
By the way, now most restaurants serve varibashi sticks made of plastic. They are designed for single use and are served with the dish in a sterile sealed paper envelope ( hashi bukuro), which often turns out to be a real decoration and collectible. It can be painted with whimsical designs, or it can contain the logo of the restaurant. This is significantly more hygienic than using reusable European cutlery.
There are many variations in the shapes and sizes of reusable sticks ( nuribashi), which sometimes represent a real work of art: they are painted, varnished, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and decorated with various patterns. , round or square with a conical or pyramidal point. The appearance of the sticks is quite diverse: their cross section is round, oval, square, with rounded corners. They are pyramidal in shape, with thick or thin ends, flat ...
Usually hashi is placed across in front of the device, horizontally. But, as a rule, there are special coasters for chopsticks in Japan - hasioki. This name is formed by adding the verbal noun oki from the verb oku - to put, to leave.
Put the sticks on the hasioki with thin ends, so that they look to the left.
If there is no hasioka on the table - hashi can be placed next to the edge of the plate or on the table.
Hasioki appeared in ancient times, when during ritual sacrifices, sticks intended for the gods were laid out on special stands so as not to defile them.
Hashioki are made from ceramic, wood, and bamboo and are often of artistic value. Japanese chopstick stands are collectible in the West.
Choice of sticks
Use the sticks that suit you best. Just like every person needs their own clothing size, size and shape hashi It is also better to choose individually. 
Previously, the length of chopsticks was calculated based on the average height and palm size of men and women of the Edo period (1603 - 1867). Now people have become somewhat larger than then, and, accordingly, the standard sizes have changed. hashi.
How to choose sticks of your size? Their usual length is one and a half times longer than chitoate - the length of the imaginary hypotenuse formed when you put your thumb and forefinger at a right angle. The same value is used when determining where to take the sticks with your hand: for this, the distance of the chitoate is counted from the thin ends.
Instructions for use
Currently, chopsticks are used by about a third of the world's population: residents of China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula, where glutinous rice is traditionally the main food. Chopsticks are quite difficult to master, but for those who have mastered them perfectly, they are a convenient and versatile cutlery.
The peculiarities of working with chopsticks determined the way of preparing Japanese dishes, which are served mainly in the form of small separate pieces that are enough to pick up and put in your mouth.
Think of chopsticks as a pair of tongs with two different parts. One stick is held still, and the second moves.
Use sticks like this:
So..
| 1. First, take one stick (one third from the top end) between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. Hold the wand between your thumb and ring finger so that your index, middle, and thumb form a ring. If the stick has one end thick and the other thin, hold it so that the bulge is at the top. | ||
| 2. Take the second stick, placing it parallel to the first, at a distance of 15 mm. Hold it the way you would normally hold a pencil :o) When the middle finger straightens, the sticks move apart. | ||
|
3. Bring the chopsticks together by bending your index finger and pinch the food with the tips. In addition, if the piece is too large, you can separate it with chopsticks, but only very carefully. |
And the main rule - do not strain your hand and fingers. Try to wield the chopsticks freely - one stick should be motionless, and the other should move freely.
In practice, it looks something like this: o)
Chinese / Japanese chopsticks for beginners and children
And for clarity, you can watch these videos
Of course, until you try to hold the chopsticks in your hands once, no instruction will teach you this. So practice eating with hashi sticks first at home. And if there are no sticks, pick up pencils and go ahead, learn oriental culture.
Etiquette
Sticks have become an integral part of Japanese culture and history, their use is surrounded by a lot of conventions and ceremonies. Countless rules and good manners at the table in Japan are grouped around chopsticks.
Chopsticks are only used to take food and put it in your mouth or on your plate. Any other manipulation with chopsticks may be considered inconsistent with etiquette. Etiquette related to chopsticks in different countries has its own characteristics. The general part of the rules as a whole looks like this:
Don't bang your chopsticks on the table, plate, or other objects to call the waiter
Do not draw with chopsticks on the table, do not wander aimlessly around food with chopsticks. Choose a bite before reaching for your chopsticks (this taboo behavior is called "mayobashi")
Take food always from above, don't pick your chopsticks in the bowl in search of the best piece. If you touch food, eat. ("saguribashi")
When taking food with chopsticks, the palms should always be pointing down. Turning the hand over with the wrist and palm up is considered uncivilized.
Do not prick food on chopsticks ("sashibashi")
Don't shake the chopsticks to cool the piece
Don't put your face in the bowl or bring it too close to your mouth to use your chopsticks to stuff food into your mouth
Don't tamp down food brought to your mouth with chopsticks.
- Try not to drip sauce from chopsticks or food.
Don't lick your sticks. Don't just keep chopsticks in your mouth
When not using chopsticks, place them with the sharp ends to the left
Never pass food with chopsticks to another person. ("futaribashi") into a plate or into other people's sticks. This gesture is used by close relatives to transfer the bones of the deceased after cremation into an urn, and is taboo in all other cases.
And in Chinese etiquette, unlike the Japanese tradition, it is quite allowed to pass food with chopsticks to close people (children, parents, relatives), if it is difficult or inconvenient for them to take food themselves. In relation to elders, it is considered a sign of respect to give them food first, even before the start of the meal (which corresponds to the Confucian tradition of respect for elders).
Never point with sticks or wave them in the air
Do not pull the plate towards you with chopsticks. Always take it in hand. ("yosebashi")
Before you ask for more rice, put your chopsticks on the table.
Do not hold two sticks in your fist: the Japanese perceive this gesture as threatening
Never stick your chopsticks straight into the rice. So put on the altar (including home) during the memorial service. If you stick chopsticks like this while eating, then the Japanese grow gloomy - according to legend, this means that someone will die soon ... ("tatebashi")
Do not place chopsticks across the cup. After you have finished eating, place your chopsticks on the stand.
Well, in a Chinese restaurant, on the contrary, after finishing the meal, the chopsticks should be placed across the bowl, with the ends to the left - this is a sign that the meal is completed and no supplement is required.
- enjoy hashi it’s not easy to get used to, therefore, in order to avoid inconvenience, do not hesitate to ask the waiter to show you how to use chopsticks correctly, and if it’s really hard, bring more familiar appliances - a fork or spoon.
But remember that that you can’t eat sushi with a knife, by doing this you show the owner that the cooked dish is tough, and it’s impossible to do without a knife.
Or in a restaurant, you can simply ask for training sticks. Such sticks are connected, and between them something like a spring. So it's more like tongs than sticks. But they are very comfortable to use.
The knife and fork is only used for Western food. Spoons are sometimes used for Japanese dishes that are difficult to eat with chopsticks, such as Japanese-style curry rice. For soups, a Chinese-style ceramic spoon is used.
Interesting Facts:
It is believed that chopsticks train small muscles that develop mental abilities, so in Japan they are taught how to handle hashi from an early age. Raising in children the desire to master chopsticks, Japanese scientists consider an important and relevant task for their country. Confirmation of the effectiveness of "exercises" with chopsticks is the statement of researchers that children who began to eat with the help of hashi immediately after they were one year old are ahead of their peers who could not part with spoons in development.
Many Asian microchip manufacturers, when hiring staff at the factory, conduct a test for coordination of movements: you need to quickly collect small beads with chopsticks.
By the way, in Japan, dishes (bowls for rice, soup, plates for other food) and serving items are divided into “male” and “female”. Sticks are no exception.
In China chopsticks are called kuaizi. Kuaizi are square at the base so that they do not roll on the table. Their length is about 25 cm, and kitchen ones, usually bamboo ones, are one and a half times longer.
In Korea, they eat with thin metal chopsticks. This is a unique custom of its kind - in none of the countries of the Far East where chopsticks are used, they are made of metal (although cooking chopsticks can be made of metal). Korean chopsticks used to be made of brass, but now they are mostly made of stainless steel.
I hope that now you can easily use hashi - chopsticks: o)
Based on materials from ru.wikipedia.org, izum.darievna.ru
