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Do Asian Americans eat with chopsticks?

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Quick

Banned
I mean I'm not telling you how you should east but noodles with a fork you just do it like this:
stock-illustration-93110961-pasta-fork-vector-logo-roll-symbol-concept-of-noodles.jpg


And for vegetables: Forks are pointy, you can just stick it in there and eat.

Pretty much this. lol

I don't know if Filipinos really consider themselves Southeast Asian.

uF9MjJo3QIaijySXC4iL_Confused%20Christian%20Bale.gif
 

Kinyou

Member
That thing can't work all that well as a fork.
Is the fork too short? Sure. Does the soup drip from it? Of course! But this is a tool for men who dare to look beyond our simple concepts of spoons and forks and are willing to bear some stained shirts on their way to the ultimate eating tool.
 

Ricky_R

Member
Not Asian American here, but I try to use those fuckers when I eat sushi and I usually end up using the fork on those son of bitches.
 

massoluk

Banned
BTW I recently learned that in Thailand, chopsticks are not used for most foods. They predominantly only use the spoon actually, with the fork used to push food onto the spoon. Just goes to show that being Asian doesn't mean you automatically know everything about all the Asian cultures.

We do use chopsticks a lot though, to be fair, having the largest population of Chinese outside China and all.
Traditionally we use bare hands. (still do for a lot of foods)
Then nationalist propaganda machine said we would be savage if we don't start using spoon and fork.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Not Asian American here, but I try to use those fuckers when I eat sushi and I usually end up using the fork on those son of bitches.

Fucking why? Just use your fingers at that point.

I don't think people get why chopsticks are used in the first place.
 

otapnam

Member
Not Asian American here, but I try to use those fuckers when I eat sushi and I usually end up using the fork on those son of bitches.

hey im chinese american and i use chopsticks improperly via scisscor method. Used to get shit from the adults cuz its wrong but whatever. I get my food to my mouth ok. lol.
 

vern

Member
I mean I'm not telling you how you should east but noodles with a fork you just do it like this:
stock-illustration-93110961-pasta-fork-vector-logo-roll-symbol-concept-of-noodles.jpg


And for vegetables: Forks are pointy, you can just stick it in there and eat.

You are saying it's easier and more efficient to scoop noodles on to the fork then twist it around, instead of just grabbing them with chopsticks and biting? Ok...

Sometimes the pointy bit doesn't penetrate the vegetable bit, and again salads sometimes maybe are stuck to the bowl or there is one leaf left or something... Or just instead of penetrating a bunch of leaves cuz you gotta apply downward pressure with a fork into your salad bowl you can just grab what you want with chopsticks. It's much easier.
 

Ashhong

Member
Unless your rice is very sticky, a fork (not spork) can not scoop the rice.

I cant think of a single rice that my fork can't pick up. Maybe the last little pieces, but I just scoop that with the bowl

You are saying it's easier and more efficient to scoop noodles on to the fork then twist it around, instead of just grabbing them with chopsticks and biting? Ok...

Sometimes the pointy bit doesn't penetrate the vegetable bit, and again salads sometimes maybe are stuck to the bowl or there is one leaf left or something... Or just instead of penetrating a bunch of leaves cuz you gotta apply downward pressure with a fork into your salad bowl you can just grab what you want with chopsticks. It's much easier.

I hate biting my noodles and try not to if i don't have to. You're left with a ton of small noodle bits in the end. Twirling on a fork is much better.
 
BTW I recently learned that in Thailand, chopsticks are not used for most foods. They predominantly only use the spoon actually, with the fork used to push food onto the spoon. Just goes to show that being Asian doesn't mean you automatically know everything about all the Asian cultures.

How much a regional culture use chopstick basically depends on how much this region is influenced by China vs India. Thailand is about in the middle.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
And for vegetables: Forks are pointy, you can just stick it in there and eat.

Forks would have a rough time with kinpira or bean sprouts:
Sure, you can treat them like noodles and just fork a whole glob of the veggies, but the point is chopsticks gives you precision. You can get half the bowl or a mouthful, or even a single strand, according to your will.

With a random spread of Chinese/Japanese/Korean food you don't know if you need forks or spoons or both, and it's more efficient just to use chopsticks because it's the most generalist utensil for East Asian cuisine. You can even use chopsticks for molluscs and crustaceans like clams or crab, whereas you'd have to resort to those tiny forks as normal sized ones are too clumsy. Rather than have 3 different kinds of forks and spoons, we just have chopsticks and the porcelain spoon. Forks would also shred the meat on a lot of smaller fishes like Mackerel or Saury, stuff you sometimes eat off the bone which makes both spoons and forks awkward to use.
 

nel e nel

Member
Mostly Chinese people. Then Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese. The ex-Vietnam Southeast Asian population in America is pretty small. I don't know if Filipinos really consider themselves Southeast Asian. They're kind of their own category and the only major ethnic group in America that identifies as Asian who don't primarily use chopsticks.

Thai cuisine is not traditionally eaten with chopsticks.

EDIT: beaten
 

vern

Member
I cant think of a single rice that my fork can't pick up. Maybe the last little pieces, but I just scoop that with the bowl



I hate biting my noodles and try not to if i don't have to. You're left with a ton of small noodle bits in the end. Twirling on a fork is much better.

So you just inhale a huge clump of long noodles?
 

Onemic

Member
Eating rice on a plate with chopsticks is impossible.(Well not impossible, just very impractical)

In fact eating non-sticky rice on anything with chopsticks is impossible.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Yep. Except Thai food. You are supposed to eat Thai with a knife and fork because the King was once a UK weeaboo.
 
I mean I can see the problem people have eating rice with chopsticks when they're trying to eat the soy sauce drowned fried rice from American Chinese restaurants.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
Twirling with a fork makes the most sense in dishes with a thicker sauce. Think of how we eat Spaghetti or Linguini. If the clumps are too big you can always take a few less strands onto the fork, or cut the noodles with a knife to make them shorter.

But I can see the point of chopsticks for noodles that come in a broth. You need a bit more precision with something like that. You need to be able to grab as opposed to stab or scoop.

Sushi is absolutely an "overthinking it" sort of thing. I never use chopsticks there. I've tried but as long as my hands are clean, it's just easier to use hands and it's culturally acceptable too.
 

No_Style

Member
I'm an Asian Canadian and I use chopsticks regularly for noodles to potato chips (avoid greasy hands!). I'm not using it for rice though; I'm not a savage.
 

Ashhong

Member
So you just inhale a huge clump of long noodles?

You don't grab a huge chunk of noodles to start with. You start with a few noodles because you know that once you twirl them there's going to be a lot more. It's not rocket science lol
 

ultra7k

Member
Every Korean knows (or should know) the spoon is for rice and soups, chopsticks for everything else.

That being said, you've got to pick the right tools for the job.

I once saw a co-worker eat sushi with a fork and knife.
 
Eating rice on a plate with chopsticks is impossible.(Well not impossible, just very impractical)

In fact eating non-sticky rice on anything with chopsticks is impossible.

Rice belongs in a bowl. If you're having a rice plate, use a fork. Home-cooking though, it goes into a bowl.
 

vern

Member
Yes? I mean Spaghetti aren't eaten with chopsticks. People in Italy don'r even use spoons most of the time.

Even when I eat Italian noodles with a fork and do the twirl method I don't eat the entire big ball of noodles in one go. Seems crazy.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Nope. I'm not wasting my time time when I can just stab it with a fork,or scoop with a spoon.

What? You're not wasting any time using a spoon or a fork vs a fucking chopstick. If anything the only thing you're wasting by using chopstick is more energy using the fucking thing. Are people in this thread being serious right now?
 
Generally use chopsticks for everything at home, unless it's something better eaten with my bare hands. I only ever break the fork and knife out if I'm eating a steak.
 
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