2025, Family, Food, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Chopsticks

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I looked up at the television yesterday to see a bit of a cooking show in which famous folks (mostly chefs) weigh in on their favorites.  This particular dish was some kind of dumpling and there was a close up shot of somebody’s hand using chopsticks to pick up the dumpling.   I know enough about this kind of stuff to know that the chances that it was the hand of the particular chef were nil.  Most likely a hand model.  Yes, there are such things although I’m wondering if there is a subgenre of the hand modeling subgenre for chopsticks use.

When I was in college, my freshman year roommate was from Japan – Yoshiko.  We had a pretty good year.  She bought a wonderful stereo half way through and she also taught me to use chopsticks and food that you eat with chopsticks.  There was no Chinese/Korean/Thai/Japanese food in my house growing up.  In fact, the first time I had any Chinse food in my life was that year in college.

These days, we have a ton of chopsticks at our house.  For many years, every time I found chopsticks on sale or that were interesting, I’d pick them up.  At last count, there are about 70.  And the sad thing is that I’m the only one who uses them.  When YA was little, I bought a set of cheater chopsticks but she wasn’t very interested and as she got older, she absolutely refused.  Occasionally if I serve Chinese, a guest may attempt them but usually they eventually fall back onto forks and spoons.

I’m not sure why I like chopsticks so much – I use them sometimes even if it’s a food you wouldn’t associate with them. 

Do you own chopsticks?  Do you have a favorite dish to go with them?

42 thoughts on “Chopsticks”

  2. I knew a couple of hand models. One was married for a time to a friend and coworker. She had previously been married to a guy I was in Boy Scouts with. He went on to be a member of the band The Castaways, who recorded the song Liar Liar. Later he sold real estate. I’m sure he’s retired now. His father was a friend of my father when they were growing up. But I digress.

    I’ve used chopsticks regularly for over 50 years. That’s natural, since Robin and I have been married for over 50 years and Robin grew up in Japan. What I can’t quite remember was if I was using chopsticks before I met Robin. I know that at the time there was a Japanese restaurant in Dinkytown called Tokyo that I liked and alternated between a Japanese curry and oyakodon but I can’t remember if I was comfortable with chopsticks at the time. When I was young, the only “Chinese” food we ever ate was take-out Chow Mein and no chopsticks were involved. But I digress.

    We have a fair number of chopsticks but probably not 70. We tend to use them for something at least once a week. Certainly anything served with rice, and that includes stir fry, fried rice, curries—Japanese, Thai, and Indian, the aforementioned oyakodon, and numerous other dishes. Despite having so many from which to choose, we tend to use the same simple natural wood Japanese chopsticks every time.

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    1. I stand corrected. Out of curiosity I counted and came up with 106 chopsticks. I may have missed a couple but certainly more than 100. Perhaps excessive since we always use the same 4.

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        1. The funny thing is I can’t remember ever buying a set of chopsticks. They just accumulate.

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  5. I have a few pairs of chopsticks that came home with me from dining at a Chinese restaurant. I really intended to learn to use them, and I tried, but I failed. My brother learned to use them. He and his wife and kids use them most of the time.

    I’d have to choose baked tofu to eat with chopsticks. I know I can do that, although I don’t understand how you can eat a rice bowl that way.

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  6. I first encountered chopsticks at a Japanese restaurant in the Marina district of San Francisco, although I must have eaten Chinese food in college at some point.. I remember that I was not yet fond of the new tastes and textures (tofu). I was fascinated with learning to maneuver these things, and at least succeeded in getting something to my mouth by the end of the meal.

    I just counted and have, for some reason, 9 ½ pairs of chopsticks – 8 ½ wood, one with some carving, and a red heavy plastic (or something) pair.

    Who knows where that last stick is lurking? And now today I’m going to have to clean out the silverware drawer where these reside. (This is your fault, VS.) And will probably let go of some chopsticks…

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  8. Rise and Pinch those Chopsticks, Baboons,

    I have never learned to be competent with chopsticks, so I have none at all. I gave up years ago. When I was a teen Chop Suey was introduced to the American diet and to our household, but my understanding is that it does not resemble any Asian food at all. I do not remember when I first ate at a Chinese restaurant, but it must have been in college. There were not any such restaurants in NW Iowa when I was a kid. I think I was first introduced to Asian food with the dish Sweet and Sour Pork. By the time I was in Grad School (1979-1981) I was living in Minneapolis and was eating it regularly.

    Last night I went out and got myself some Pho, that healing Vietnamese Soup that makes a cold go away. And I am better this morning. It always works.
    –

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  9. I think we have two sets somewhere in a kitchen drawer. Haven’t used them in years. My wife has virtually no dexterity so she won’t even try them anymore. I’m not a fan of using them, but it does slow one’s eating speed when using them. One positive I suppose.

    Best Chinese I’ve had and remembered was Dim Sum at a Toronto Chinatown restaurant. WOW, I make a stir fry now and then in my wok, but we don’t even think to use chopsticks. Hard to improve on a knife, fork, and spoon combo.

    (FINALLY seeing some snowfall as I write this at 9:35. Precip was scheduled to start at 5:00 am.)

    Chris in Owatonna

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  10. I am good with chopsticks but don’t have any. We had wonderful Asian food in Winnipeg. The choices in Dickinson are limited. I make my own pot stickers. I don’t know if usuing chopsticks would make them yummier.

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  12. For much of my life I didn’t care for any Asian food – no need to learn to use chopsticks. Even after learning to like some Chinese/Japanese/Thai/Vietnamese food, I never mastered the art of using chopsticks. I do have two pair of decorative chopsticks – 1 set from China and 1 set from Japan.

    OT – the Galápagos Islands were fabulous (despite being rained on several times – it is their rainy season). Giant tortoises, sea turtles, Sally Lightfoot crabs (the orange ones), sea lions, and hundreds of iguanas.

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  13. We have a handful of plain bamboo chopsticks, and a pair or two of fancy “ivory” ones (plastic, I suspect). I rarely use them, though I’m reasonably proficient with the bamboo ones, mostly because Hans never mastered them and therefore wont use them. The “ivory” chopsticks are too smooth for my liking, food slips off them before it reaches my mouth. I’ll occasionally use chopsticks if I’m at a restaurant that offers them.

    As is usually the case, I’m unable to “like” individual posts, but I sure appreciate many of today’s quips.

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    1. I agree about the plastic “ivory” chopsticks and the fancy lacquered ones. I suspect they were meant as a gift item, an omiyage, and never ones you would actually use.

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    2. I had lunch yesterday (Tuesday) with about a dozen people, most of whom had been missionaries for all or part of their careers. One couple are currently “home” from work at a theological college in Colombia. They mentioned that, in the “missionary house” where they are staying there is a drawer full of chopsticks, and asked those of us who had lived in Asia if that was where WE had stayed on similar occasions in our life. Several nodded.

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  14. My first exposure to Chinese food was at the Shanghai restaurant in Copenhagen. It was a large, beautiful and busy place near the central railroad station. Somehow my mother knew the owner, a petite, smiley woman, who flitted about to ensure that all her guests were well taken care of. Now that I think of it, mom may not have known her at all, but she was so friendly and attentive that it seemed like she did.

    At any rate, I loved the food, though I have no recollection of individual dishes.

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  16. i learned chopsticks proficiently when i started visiting china regularly late 80’s.
    i have 20 or 30 pairs that show their ŵear and tear. i like almost all chines veggie meals although the can get a little crazy. baby bok choy is something i learned to love. its cheap easy to prepare but only found in fresh produce sections of chinese grocery stores. boil it and eat it. its perfect as is.

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  18. Remember from summer (or whatever) camp, gluing popsicle sticks together to create containers/boxes? For those of you with dozens (or hundreds) of chopsticks, get yer glue gun and have at it! Bigger than the popsicle stick container, but just that much more useful!

    No idea what I’m talking about?
    https://www.bing.com/search?q=popsicle+stick+box+craft&qs=UT&pq=popsicle+stick+box&sk=MT1&sc=11-18&cvid=0ADD3A7FAEC5474E807CCC148D80A14B&FORM=QBRE&sp=2&ghc=1&lq=0

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  20. I remeber being in a restaurant a few years ago. At a nearbuy table, some young women were talking. They seemd to be talking about what they had in their purses, and why they had to carry such large purses. One young woman was taking things out and putting them on the table, defneding why she had to carry so much stuff. “Cell phone…wallet…sunglasses,,,chapstick…sunblock…keys to my mom’s place…bus card….eyedrops…prescriptions….wet wipes…antibacterial gel…emergency chopsticks!” I was delighted that she had emergency chopsticks.

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