Monday, February 6, 2012

Eating with Chopsticks (Ohashi)

It’s not as easy as the Japanese make it look, but I’ve been practicing. It's important to follow the rules.
These are the chopstick rules:     
Hold your chopsticks towards their end, not in the middle or the front third.
  • When you are not using your chopsticks, or have finished eating, lay them down in front of you with the tips to left.
  • Do not stick chopsticks into your food, especially not into rice. This is only done at funerals.
  • Do not pass food directly from your set of chopsticks to another's. Again, this is a funeral tradition that involves the bones of a cremated body.
  • Do not stab food with your chopsticks.
  • Do not suck on your chopsticks.
  • Do not point with your chopsticks.
  • Do not wave your chopsticks around in the air or play with them.
  • If you have already eaten with your chopsticks, use the opposite end to take food from a shared plate (such as at the pot luck New Year’s party).
Rice eating isn’t too difficult because it’s so sticky.


One thing I have noticed is that it seems to be okay if you pick up your bowl and hold it closer to your mouth. I use chopsticks when we eat out and sometimes at home. I have a confession to make.  When I get near the bottom of the bowl and it’s difficult to pick up the food with chopsticks, I resort to using regular silverware.



Hardanger Heart progress
I’ve finished the hardanger part and added some beads.  Now I need to work on making it into an ornament. Stay tuned.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, I just found your blog and am having a blast reading through!

Here is a fun game to help you practice grabbing those tiny pieces at the end of the bowl. Called Manner Beans:
http://www.eyeup.co.jp/product/mannerbeans.html

snowball1205 said...

When you get near the bottom you put the bowl to your lips and you push the food into your mouth.

Personalized chopsticks said...

Eating with chopsticks is a tradition that had already developed in China 3500 years ago. Buddhist monks later brought this method of eating to Japan and Korea. Knives, however, are not part of a Chinese table setting; they are associated with violence according to Confucian teachings and thus have no place in a hospitable environment. Thus, meat and vegetables are already cut up in the kitchen into bite-sized portions that can be brought from the plate to the mouth with chopsticks. If dumplings or pieces of meat are too large for the mouth, one can simply hold the piece with the chopsticks and take several bites.