The Chopstick Topic: Your Favorites

[KennethT]

13 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Non PC confession: I have accumulated a large collection of ivory chopsticks by rooting through kitchen and junk drawers in garage and estate sales.    Thrown in along with look-alike plastic chopsticks.   I rationalize them by their age.   Ivory is always totally wrong, but I would rather revere these and save them from landfill.   And at $.25, find them hard to turn down.   They are simple, beautiful and have lovely hand-feel.    When we use them, I respect their tragic origin.

I personally feel that if you have something that's ivory, that was made a long time ago, it's best to just enjoy it.  Throwing it out or not enjoying it would not help the elephant it came from.  I have 2 things made from ivory that I adore and you'll have to pry them from my cold, rigor mortis induced grip - a pre WWII piano with ivory keys (it was my grandmother's) and a cast bronze elephant statue with ivory tusks made in the late 1800s I think. My other grandmother was a big fan of antiquing and picked it up probably some time in the 50s maybe.  I don't support buying anything newly made with ivory - not that you could probably even find anything.

[KennethT]

13 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Non PC confession: I have accumulated a large collection of ivory chopsticks by rooting through kitchen and junk drawers in garage and estate sales.    Thrown in along with look-alike plastic chopsticks.   I rationalize them by their age.   Ivory is always totally wrong, but I would rather revere these and save them from landfill.   And at $.25, find them hard to turn down.   They are simple, beautiful and have lovely hand-feel.    When we use them, I respect their tragic origin.

Do you have any photos of these?  I'd love to see them.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

Do you have any photos of these?  I'd love to see them.

Here's a representative handful.   All very plain, classic.

[liuzhou]

Tonight a lovely young nurse tried to feed me some rice noodles because she assumed a foreigner couldn't use chopsticks. I didn't want to embarrass her but I've been in China longer than she has and been using chopsticks three times longer than she's been alive. So, I just asked her for the chopsticks and fed myself. Instead of being embarrassed, she was delighted and spent the afternoon giggling.  Real sweetie.

Edited November 25, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Alex]

On 11/21/2023 at 12:20 AM, btbyrd said:

Anyway, I did some sleuthing recently and found a similar looking pair on Bezos.com. (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

"Currently unavailable."
"We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

 

eG'ers must've cleaned them out.

[Katie Meadow]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Tonight a lovely young nurse tried to feed me some rice noodles because she assumed a foreigner couldn't use chopsticks. I didn't want to embarrass her but I've been in China longer than she has and been using chopsticks three times longer than she's been alive. So, I just asked her for the chopsticks and fed myself. Instead of being embarrassed, she was delighted and spent the afternoon giggling.  Real sweetie.

Did I miss something? Please tell me you are not in the hospital again!

[liuzhou]

13 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

Did I miss something? Please tell me you are not in the hospital again!

 

Afraid so. Nothing too serious. 

[liuzhou]

Have any of the inexperienced chopsticks users tried the training type  I'm not sure if they are sold adult size but maybe. These are what I see advertised here.

 

 

I have no idea how helpful they are and none of my friends have use them with their kids. But they're cheap enough to play with. Maybe Amazon?

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Smithy]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Have any of the inexperienced chopsticks users tried the training type  I'm not sure if they are sold adult size but maybe. These are what I see advertised here.

 

 

I have no idea how helpful they are and none of my friends have use them with their kids. But they're cheap enough to play with. Maybe Amazon?

 

 

 

Yep. I went to Amazon and found a bunch of them. Surprisingly, some are labeled as being for right-handed users (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) or left-handed users (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). This set (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is listed as being useful for right- or left-handed users, or for seniors who simply need more help. There are also cute children's helper sets.

[liuzhou]

On 11/27/2023 at 3:11 AM, Smithy said:

 

Yep. I went to Amazon and found a bunch of them. Surprisingly, some are labeled as being for right-handed users (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) or left-handed users (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). This set (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is listed as being useful for right- or left-handed users, or for seniors who simply need more help. There are also cute children's helper sets.

 

Just saw this. I've been busy trying to see at all.

 

Those in your last link look most sensible to me, even for children, despite lack of cuteness. Cuteness at the dinner table is not encouraged here.

 

That said I don't recall seeing elders struggling here but maybe a lifetime of daily usage at every meal fossilizes the hands in just the right grip. Dunno.

[Katie Meadow]

I have some jazzy colorful plastic chopsticks which I don't use. I also have a couple of pairs of lovely gifted ivory ones that have remained buried out of sight for years. I like wooden chopsticks best. I tend to use the cheap wooden unvarnished ones by default. Also I would suggest that those who are just learning to use chopsticks go for wooden ones that are often shorter  and easer to grasp than ones that have slick finishes.

[liuzhou]

29 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

I have some jazzy colorful plastic chopsticks which I don't use. I also have a couple of pairs of lovely gifted ivory ones that have remained buried out of sight for years. I like wooden chopsticks best. I tend to use the cheap wooden unvarnished ones by default. Also I would suggest that those who are just learning to use chopsticks go for wooden ones that are often shorter  and easer to grasp than ones that have slick finishes.

 

 I agree that unvarnished chopsticks are easier to grasp (and hold the food better) but in my experience shorter sticks are not an advantage. Less leverage.

 

 

[Duvel]

[liuzhou]

A lot of people carry these 'travel chopsticks' to use in restaurants rather than the disposable or possibly, badly washed sticks supplied. The are in two parts to be screwed togather like a snooker cue and come in a carrying case. These are usually stainless steel, not my favourite, although I do have a pair.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Mjx]

I usually carry a pair of chopsticks in my bag, but use a pair that's meant for children, and fits nicely into a pencil case at the bottom of my bag (Pearl River Mart, about USD 3 when I got them). They're very short, but I don't think this would pose a problem to anyone with small to slightly-large-but not-enormous hands.

 

 

I have other pairs which are much nicer-looking, but I find these the most pleasant to use.

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

Looking for something else at home, I cam across these which I'd forgotten about. A friend gave me this set a few years back as a kind of joke. A portable set of chopsticks, a  spoon and a fork. They are pretty useless. The chopsticks are a mere 6 inches long and difficult to use, although they may suit a child, but I'd still advocate even children using longer sticks.

 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

I recently visited my best friend and her husband for a few days. One night for dinner they served marinated and grilled chicken tenders, kimchi, rice and broccoli to be placed atop kim and eaten out of hand like a taco. (For those who are unfamiliar with "kim" as I was: kim seems to be the Korean version of nori: seaweed, cut up and mixed with oil, then dried until crisp.) We each got to choose our chopsticks from the assortment they have: beautiful metal, which I was warned were the most slippery and difficult to use; plainer metal that were less tapered and looked more like cylinders; restaurant plastic, and wood. I think I chose the wood.

 

 

The spread, as you see, quickly succumbed to standard forks for dishing onto our kim or plates. That's the kim in the background, in the plastic container.

 

 

After a slice or two of kim I placed the rest of my portions atop the rice and ate it that way. But I served my portion with chopsticks!

 

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

I recently visited my best friend and her husband for a few days. One night for dinner they served marinated and grilled chicken tenders, kimchi, rice and broccoli to be placed atop kim and eaten out of hand like a taco. (For those who are unfamiliar with "kim" as I was: kim seems to be the Korean version of nori: seaweed, cut up and mixed with oil, then dried until crisp.) We each got to choose our chopsticks from the assortment they have: beautiful metal, which I was warned were the most slippery and difficult to use; plainer metal that were less tapered and looked more like cylinders; restaurant plastic, and wood. I think I chose the wood.

 

김 (transliterated as ‘kim’ or more commonly, ‘gim’) is indeed the same as the Japanese  海苔 (nori) which is a type of laver.

 

The wooden chopsticks would certainly also be my choice. The metal ones are indeed slippery and also many people dislike the netallic 'taste' they detect. Some plastic ones are alo slippery.

 

The forks for serving surprised me. Here, if anything, it would always be serving chopsticks or spoons.

 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by liuzhou (log)