Which implements do you use when you eat?

[rjm1604]

I have become enamored of the Thai method of eating: one large dessert spoon in right hand and fork in left hand to assist in loading up dessert spoon. Much easier to eat rice with curry-type items.

[PPPans]

I have become enamored of the Thai method of eating:  one large dessert spoon in right hand and fork in left hand to assist in loading up dessert spoon.  Much easier to eat rice with curry-type items.

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That's the Filipino way too!

[Angela Alaimo]

I have become enamored of the Thai method of eating:  one large dessert spoon in right hand and fork in left hand to assist in loading up dessert spoon.  Much easier to eat rice with curry-type items.

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That's the Filipino way too!

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That's my preferred way of eating, though the utensils are switched because I'm left-handed. I had no idea it was anything other than, "Mmm. This is not only useful but gets the good food in the maw without it ending up on the clothes."

Mabuhay! <sp>

A

[misstenacity]

I eat my daily HUGE lunch salad (served in a 4 qt stainless mixing bowl - hee!) with chopsticks only - it takes 15-20 minutes, just long enough for one Tivo'ed 'Molto Mario' episode.

*grin*

Andrea

http://foodpart.com

[PPPans]

Apparently, the Filipino or Thai method is not acceptable in one Canadian school:

Filipino table etiquette punished at local school.

Hmmm...

[Dian]

Apparently, the Filipino or Thai method is not acceptable in one Canadian school:

Filipino table etiquette punished at local school.

Hmmm...

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That is one shocking article!

In any case, most cultures that have rice as a staple eat that way, am I not right?

[PPPans]

Yes indeed, Dian. As far as I know, most of Southeast Asia eats that way.

[alanamoana]

i also think there are asian cultures who eat rice with their hands. they cup the first three fingers and use the thumb to push the rice into their mouth....

i eat just about anything i can with my hands

asian style meals with chopsticks of course

i love (but am having a hard time finding) korean style spoons. they are great for soup, cereal, ice cream...just about anything. the handle is flat like korean chopsticks and the bowl is almost perfectly round but rather shallow. i love these spoons.

[PPPans]

Hi alanamoana,

It's mostly those Asian cultures that eat rice with their hands who use forks and spoons together. You see, when we take rice, it's with the index, middle and ring fingers - or the pinkie, ring and middle fingers - that "rake" it while the thumb pushes it in. That's how you use a spoon and fork. The fork works like the thumb (of the same hand).

Edited April 30, 2006 by PPPans (log)

[H. du Bois]

My grandmother had those Blue Willow plates, too! Loved them.

I eat with conventional cutlery, but after spending long spells in England, have acquired the fork in the left hand, tines down method for cutting & eating meat. But I think I switch back to American style when eating pasta.

If I'm eating rice with chopsticks, it has to be Japanese style (in a little bowl, held in the hand), although I don't see people eat that way here - somehow it feels rude. And though in Japan I was always instructed to slurp my noodles with gusto, I never got the hang of it (and always burnt my mouth!).

As for ice cream, I stir it till it melts, and then I eat it like soup.

[jo-mel]

I like soups in big mugs or deep bowls. Easier than a shallow bowl with a flat bottom.

Chopsticks for most stove work that requites mixing, and if you can maneuver 3 chopsticks in one hand, you'll find that beating eggs is a breeze. (not whipping -- just beating)

Eating Chinese food with chopsticks, of course, but it is always from a bowl held in my hands. (I'm not Chinese, but it really is the best way)

Asparagus with fingers, if they are spears and not overdone. But at home, only.

Anything with bones -- I cut the meat off, like a lady, then I pick up the bone, like a gourmand.

[racheld]

We use chopsticks for all varieties of Asian food, in restaurants or at home, as well as for a lot of cooking, stirring, etc., at the stove. Though I might stir up eggs for scrambling with a fork, when it's time to add the eggs to Egg Drop Soup or Hot and Sour Soup, I always grab a chopstick for beating.

I like teaspoons for soup and ice cream; most cream desserts we eat with a little set of round-tipped silver spoons with a "TWA" monogram. Chris likes a tablespoon for soup.

And from the section of the silverware drawer which holds all the small tableware items for our two Granddaughters' visits, I sometimes eat my morning yogurt with one of the small-bowled spoons with the longish thin handle...just feels like a link to them so far away.

And I put out cocktail forks for fruit salad---reminds me of the lovely service at the tearoom-type place where we had lunch when we went to the neighboring town to shop during my childhood. A slice of banana just feels so ELEGANT, somehow, off a teensy fork.

[Gigi4808]

Oh I am probably going to be the freak of this group.

I HATE metal in my mouth- be it sterling, stainless or even the goomba-chic 24 karet gold plated of my youth. When at all possible I prefer plastic disposable flatware. Obviously is is often not an option but I admit to being happy when it is.

There is also practically nothing I cannot eat with chopsticks.

[mizducky]

Let's see ... another Caucasian here who has adopted using chopsticks. And for anything that I can't get to my mouth with chopsticks, my weapon of choice is a big spoon. Forks and I just don't seem to get along--anytime I try to scoop up rice or peas or other small food items on that utensil, I always have a few escapees. I've been known to eat salads with a spoon (when chopsticks aren't available). Yeah, some people might look at me funny, but they'd look at me even funnier if I wound up wearing a third of my salad on my shirt.

When I do use knife-and-fork, I eat in what I've come to understand is the Continental style. I just did it because I'm left-handed and it made sense. Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing any of my family ever do the American zig-zag method. Maybe it's because my grandparents were all immigrants and thus my parents missed being indoctrinated by Emily Post.

I do also tend to have a favorte knife at any given time. Currently it's this little cheapo steak knife, completely unremarkable except for the fact that it just happens to fit my hand perfectly. Or something. I dunno. Human behavior shore is innerestin', innit?

[hungryCAT]

Don't laugh - I've never been able to master chopsticks.

I eat sushi with a fork. In fact, I cut up each piece into 4 or 5 smaller

pieces and eat them with the fork. I have always eaten smaller bites.

It doesn't matter what it is. Pieces of sushi are just too big for me, besides

I like to savor the flavor and too much food in my mouth at one time

just doesn't cut it.

That being said, I usually get my sushi from the grocery store and eat it

at home. Eating sushi in this manner in a restaurant get a few strange

looks, as you can imagine.

[jgarner53]

I eat sushi with a fork.

Isn't the traditional way to eat sushi with the fingers? Flip the sushi fish-side down to dunk into the soy sauce, then eat it so that the fish side goes against your tongue? No chopsticks required! Though I believe that maki are eaten with chopsticks?

I just spent 11 days in Japan. You'd think I'd have looked around enough to notice how people were eating their sushi.

I love the Thai/Filipino method of spoon/fork and adopted it on a trip to Thailand three years ago. But only for Thai food. Asian soups get the porcelain spoon; western soups a soup spoon. Chinese and Japanese food get chopsticks.

I loved watching little kids trying to master their chopsticks in restaurants in Tokyo. They hadn't developed the dexterity just yet, and were pretty awkward. I even saw training chopsticks for sale that had round finger grips in the right places, so you could learn. (I think they were connected at the top, too).

[Grub]

Isn't the traditional way to eat sushi with the fingers? Flip the sushi fish-side down to dunk into the soy sauce, then eat it so that the fish side goes against your tongue? No chopsticks required! Though I believe that maki are eaten with chopsticks?

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I think nigiri sushi can be eaten with your fingers, the way you describe -- but it can also be done with chopsticks. Other types of sushi (and sashimi) is eaten with chopsticks.

When I was a kid, our little town was visisted by some engineers from China, and people were extremely excited about it because they'd heard that Chinese people eat their food with just two little sticks. As everyone knew, Chinese people know Kung Fu and can break bricks with their bare hands -- but eating RICE with sticks, now that's gotta be just AMAZING to watch... So the local hotel obtained some chopsticks, and tried to prepare a Chinese style dinner (as I said, it was a small town). My cousin went to the dinner, and the entire family were just dying to hear his report of the event. It was a huge dissapointment: they hadn't done anything magical or fantastic at all. They'd simply held the plates up to their mouths, and shuffled the rice into their mouths with the chopsticks. Huge letdown.

[liuzhou]

I eat my soup with chopsticks!

 

 

Seriously. The local way is to pick out any solids with your chopsticks, then pick the bowl up and drink the liquid part.  I haven't seen a soup spoon in 30 years.

 

🥢

 

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

On 8/12/2025 at 7:24 AM, liuzhou said:

I eat my soup with chopsticks!

 

 

Seriously. The local way is to pick out any solids with your chopsticks, then pick the bowl up and drink the liquid part.  I haven't seen a soup spoon in 30 years.

 

🥢

 

Are short-handled, often flat-bottomed spoons of this general type never used for soup in China?  If it’s not a soup spoon, does it have a different name?

 

I’ve been served soup in both Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the US with chopsticks only or with both chopsticks and one of these spoons.

I’m pretty sure I saw them in restaurants in China as well but it’s been a while and I don’t remember exactly. 

Some of my Chinese colleagues often used this style of spoon, usually metal instead of porcelain, along with chopsticks for soups they'd brought for lunch. 
 

[liuzhou]

@blue_dolphin

 

Good question.

 

I'll start with the name. They are 匙 (chí) or 勺 (sháo), literally just 'spoons'. If you really  must specify (not usually necessary) you can add 汤 (tāng), meaning  'soup' to get 汤匙 or 汤勺.

 

In most restaurants, you will be given both chopsticks and a spoon whether you are having soup or not. They are used in pairs to eat many things. For example, if a particular food item is slippery and difficult to pick up with the chopsticks alone, then it is polite to use the chopsticks to push the item into the spoon then carry that to your bowl or mouth. Stabbing food with the point of a chopstick is a big faux pas.

 

No one will blink if you use it to eat your soup, but most people don't.

 

I don't recall ever seeing a western style soup spoon in China.

 

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

Thinking about this a bit more, I remembered that all food deliveries here come with a set of chopsticks, spoon, napkin and two toothpicks, no matter what you order.

 

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[Maison Rustique]

I fear I'd starve to death if I lived in China. Do the Chinese never get debilitating arthritis in their hands? I could not eat with chopsticks--even if I tried to stab with them. I can't hold onto thin utensils/items. All my pens and pencils have soft rubbery grips on them and even that is difficult if I'm having a bad day.

[liuzhou]

35 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:

Do the Chinese never get debilitating arthritis in their hands?

 

I've never seen knowingly seen anyone with arthritis in the hands, but I'm sure there must be. We all get the same ailments.

 

I can't remember learning to use chopsticks but it was at a very early age. Chinese (and other chopstick using nationals) learn as infants. I certainly prefer them for Chinese food.

 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[Alex]

About ten years ago I bought two dozen plain bone china spoons, about 5½"/14 cm long, made by Xiahe Porcelain, from their Sam & Squito line. I like using them as serving pieces for one-bite items. 

[Katie Meadow]

14 hours ago, liuzhou said:

@blue_dolphin

 

Good question.

 

I'll start with the name. They are 匙 (chí) or 勺 (sháo), literally just 'spoons'. If you really  must specify (not usually necessary) you can add 汤 (tāng), meaning  'soup' to get 汤匙 or 汤勺.

 

In most restaurants, you will be given both chopsticks and a spoon whether you are having soup or not. They are used in pairs to eat many things. For example, if a particular food item is slippery and difficult to pick up with the chopsticks alone, then it is polite to use the chopsticks to push the item into the spoon then carry that to your bowl or mouth. Stabbing food with the point of a chopstick is a big faux pas.

 

No one will blink if you use it to eat your soup, but most people don't.

 

I don't recall ever seeing a western style soup spoon in China.

 

 

 

Exactly. I love my ceramic spoons. I just sang their praises on the soup vs table spoon discussion. For wontons and wonton soup I always use chopsticks and the spoon.