Oriental traditions: how to hold chopsticks for sushi.

AT modern world every person is trying to somehow diversify his life, make it brighter and more attractive, richer and more fun. We fill it with all the colors of life, thereby smoothing out acute problems and annoying vanity of everyday life. To take off emotional stress or, on the contrary, not to bring ourselves to the so-called edge of the limit, we have to attract our curiosity with something interesting and useful. We immediately plunge into the study of various kinds of cultures, greedily absorbing what seems unusual or congenial to us. So, let's say, many of us are simply driven crazy by China and all its subtleties of being. Someone is fascinated by the clothes of the beloved country, the history of the emergence of most traditions, and someone, on the contrary, is tempted by an unusual cuisine for each of us with all the richness of the exotic. If you, Dear friends, the latter beckons more, then be patient with the recipes you like and be prepared to purchase the necessary utensils for cooking and serving dishes to your table. By the way, do not forget to buy appropriate cutlery in the form of Chinese chopsticks. They will play an important role in the meal of your family or friends, mentally take you to China, fill you with incredible feelings of calm and goodwill, harmony and joy. Especially this simple fiction will be of interest to your children. They will gradually develop the fine motor skills of their hands, from which they will get great pleasure. If you are new to this business and would like to simple tips how to learn to eat Chinese chopsticks then stay with us in the vastness of our useful article. It will reveal many secrets for you, through which you will hone your skills and feel like a professional.

The birth of Chinese chopsticks

Holding wooden Chinese sticks in our hands, for sure, none of us today thinks about how and when they arose. Yes, in principle, this will not seem like such important information, according to many, but you should not be careless and disrespectful to this object of Chinese culture if you are seized by an uncontrollable desire to use these particular cutlery for a delicious family lunch or dinner. Before taking this traditional thing for the ceremony of eating food in the spirit of the Asian people, you should know that it appeared many years before our era in China during the reign of the Shang - Yin Dynasty (1764 - 1027 BC). But historians say that this item appeared even earlier - about 4000 years ago, since its obvious presence during the life of Emperor Zhou can be traced.

Chinese sticks were then made from Ivory. They could only be used by people from the family of the emperor himself. This was considered a kind of luxury that ordinary people could not see, much less use as a cutlery. Somewhere in 700 - 800 years of our era, such an opportunity was finally provided to ordinary passers-by. This important and valuable thing has appeared in almost every home, without which not a single family in China can do today, both on a holiday and in everyday life. It is worth noting that this auxiliary tableware did not always play the role of, say, a spoon or fork. At the very beginning of its appearance, it functioned in the kitchen of cooks as our current spatula for turning over pieces of food during frying, but by the will of fate, everything fell into place. And already in the modern world, we are interested in how to eat this contraption in a cafe, restaurant, at a party, at a party or at home, so as not to make a bad impression about our own person in the environment.

Varieties of Chinese sticks

If you don’t know what types of Chinese chopsticks are and how to use the theme or other types correctly, our tips will definitely help you in quickly mastering the practice at home. By training daily with your family or friends, you will be able to accumulate incredible experience in this area in just a few days or even hours, pass it on to your children, who will also want to learn how to hold them in their hands at least for the beginning, and only later use them in time for eating exotic food. But before we get to this point, we would like to tell you a little about existing types cutlery data Far East. Back in the 12th century, the Chinese seduced their neighbors with this ingenuous little thing, it seemed to them so convenient and practical that the Japanese, Koreans and other Asian peoples introduced this innovation into their everyday life. Since then, each nation has developed a personal model of sticks, giving them desired shape, length and texture. Previously, the main material for the manufacture of this kitchen utensils bamboo served. It was carefully cleaned, polished, brought to desired thickness, divided in two and fastened together with separate auxiliary elements. Their final appearance was more like, of course, a large tweezers, which was called "kuaizu". The Chinese came up with a separate form a little later, it has come down to our times and is now enjoying great success among adherents of Chinese cuisine. The human desire to constantly change and improve, of course, also affected these cutlery.

Today they are made from various kinds of metals, wood, bone, plastic and much more. In restaurants, cafes and other establishments of this kind, preference is naturally given to disposable appliances made from cheap wood options, but for those who see something more in these items than just facilitating and convenience of the process of eating, those on the shelves of specialized stores offer a wide range of products. Here you can find real masterpieces of art, both for amateur collecting and for household use. Carved kuaizu, usually made of sandalwood, cypress, cedar, pine, maple, willow and other most suitable natural materials, varnished, painted, inlaid with metal, precious stones, complemented by author's ornaments and so on. The shape of Chinese chopsticks also varies, ranging from square, pointed to rounded options. In Japan, this cutlery is called "hasi". Pronounced pointed ends wooden product and smaller size strikingly distinguish them from the neighbor's invention "kuaizu", but make them a little similar to Vietnamese ones external properties. The Korean people decided to give their preference to metal table utensils. For ease of use, they invented thin devices that appealed to almost all citizens of Korea.

In general, every self-respecting state has its own merits, which it is proud of and differs from all other countries and cities. But one way or another, and Chinese sticks, in addition to admiring, you must be able to masterfully master at the table at home and in a public place, so as not to become the subject of ridicule and heated discussion of the assembled environment. What are we actually going to do now, dear friends. So, we learn to eat with Far Eastern appliances correctly and skillfully.

Principles of owning Chinese chopsticks

To learn how to properly hold Chinese chopsticks exotic dishes It is better to start learning at home. This way you don't have to worry about being laughed at by friends or strangers, and the curious glances of strangers will not annoy your eyes and "burn" the back of your head. Set aside all your accumulated affairs for later, mentally calm down, and most importantly, relax. Pick up the props prepared in advance and start mastering the technique, referring to our provided tips in the photo and recommendations below:

Mentally separate the sticks into upper and lower, as shown in the photo above.
Unleash your palm as much as possible along with your fingers, since with tension you probably won’t get anything sensible.
The little finger and ring finger should be slightly pressed against each other, and the middle and index fingers should be left alone.
Now we take the lower Chinese stick and put it between the large and index finger so that its narrowed part rests a little on the nameless one.
We place the upper product in the palm of our hand in the usual way for us, as usual a pen or pencil.
Start the first food seizures with small pieces of food. Remember for yourself that in this work only the upper part of the cutlery is active, and the lower part remains stationary all the time.

In general, these are all the secrets that allow you to master all the principles of using Chinese chopsticks masterfully. If you get excited and study your skills daily, you will achieve brilliant success. Without a note of embarrassment and insecurity, you can indulge yourself and your family with famous Asian dishes in public places, while you will not, as before, be embarrassed by the moment of managing special cutlery. The experience gained at home will help you always be on top and feel like a duck to water in any restaurant.

Useful video instruction on how to use Chinese chopsticks

Do you love Asian food but want to experience the full spectrum of pleasure using chopsticks? Some claim that this way the food even tastes better, and you want to see for yourself, but not look stupid. From the outside it looks simple, but when you try to repeat the same thing, everything ends up asking for a fork. Here's how to say goodbye to that fork forever and start using chopsticks!

Steps

Maneuvering

Grab the first stick with your middle and thumb fingers. You must hold her tight - wand should not move. The wide end of the stick should lie in the fold between the thumb and forefinger. The wand itself must pass through the pad thumb and lie on the middle finger. It should be practically motionless. It's similar to how you hold a pen, but a little lower.
- Some prefer to hold the wand not on the middle, but on the ring finger, holding the end with the tip of the index finger.
Hold the second stick between your index and thumb. This wand must move. Place your thumb on the second stick so that it is higher than the first. Position your fingers so that you can comfortably grab food. Make sure the thin ends of the chopsticks are touching to prevent the chopsticks from crossing and to avoid a bad grip on the food.
- Try to align them, you can knock them on the table. Eating with misaligned chopsticks will be difficult.
Practice opening and closing sticks. Make sure the wide ends of the chopsticks don't form a cross, otherwise you'll have a hard time grasping the food. Only the top stick moves? Fine!
- If it helps you, try moving your hand up and down in the direction of the sticks, but keeping the same finger position. Some find it easier when the fingers are closer to the end of the sticks, some when they are at the base.
Try to take a piece of food. At first, it will be easiest to keep the angle at 45 °. When you get used to it, increase it. If you feel unstable, move the sticks down and try again.
- When you learn how to eat one type of food, move on to others. Try various sizes and types of products. When you feel quite confident, practice with noodles!
Etiquette

Learn the rules for sharing food. Often Asian dinner table(at home or in a restaurant) is a huge plate of food that people share among themselves. At the same time, it will not right put your individual chopsticks into a common plate of food after they have already been in your mouth. You have two options:
- Use common chopsticks that no one eats and that have not previously been on your or someone else's plate of food.
- Take your chopsticks with the other ends. Serve food with wide ends that you hopefully didn't chew!
Know what to do with chopsticks when you're not eating. The rules for using chopsticks unfortunately don't end when you start eating. Every society has its own rules, but in general:
- Don't stick your chopsticks into your food. This looks like a bad omen, because it looks like incense at a funeral.
- Do not pierce food with the ends of chopsticks. If nothing helps you pick up food, you may think that this is good idea. But it looks very uncultured.
- Do not transfer food from chopsticks to chopsticks. It is also a funeral tradition, and is bad (or even awful) behavior at the table.
- Don't cross sticks. When you're done eating, just place them next to your plate on the left side.
- Don't point your chopsticks at people. Pointing at someone in general is indecent in Asia, and even more so with chopsticks.
  - This page would be infinitely long if all the rules of conduct at the table were presented here. However, this ground rules that you need to know.
If you eat rice, be prepared for painstaking work. If you have a bowl of rice in front of you, you probably feel like a rower without a paddle. But it will be completely normal (and even acceptable) if you take a bowl and bring it closer to your face and start eating from that position. You won't look stupid, you will look experienced!
- Start holding the chopsticks in the middle or towards the ends. This way you will learn how to hold the sticks evenly. As you gain some experience, try keeping them closer to the base.
- Although you may find it easier to hold your chopsticks at the thin ends, holding them closer to the wide ends will increase the angle of your food. The sticks will be parallel to each other and you will be able to scoop food (such as rice) from below. You can also take more large pieces food.
- Take sticks home and practice. Using the previous tips, try picking up a nut, a pen, or a piece of fish. Try eating your dinner with chopsticks.
- The difference between an untrained person and a cultured person can be seen when you hold chopsticks. Do not hold chopsticks at the very end. Your hands should be as far away from food as possible. Do not pierce food with chopsticks, it is uncivilized, rude and may offend the chef.
- Flexible and/or sliced pieces of food, such as cheese or sausage, are great for working out. They will work better than diced food as long as you learn to hold the chopsticks straight and try to figure out how much force to apply them.
- This is The right way hold sticks. Ultimately, if you can take food off your plate and bring it to your mouth without any problems, you are using your chopsticks effectively.
- Clamp the chopsticks firmly, but gently, so that the food does not fall out of the chopsticks onto the table or plate. If you apply too much pressure, the thin ends of the chopsticks may cross over, unless they are perfectly aligned, and the food will splatter across the table.
- Be patient as required certain time to learn how to properly hold chopsticks. It's perfectly acceptable if you ask for a fork or spoon when you're too upset about your failure.
- wooden and bamboo sticks the easiest to use as their texture allows food to be held. Plastic sticks are harder to use. The metal sticks beloved by Koreans are the most difficult to use. Improve your skill with one type of wand and move on to another. AT next time when you go out, people will be amazed!
Warnings
- Chinese etiquette says it's perfectly okay to eat rice with the bowl close to your mouth. However, in Korea it is considered indecent. Be on the lookout for the culture and people you are eating with.
- Do not pick your teeth with chopsticks, even if there are no toothpicks on the table.
- Decide what kind of food you will eat before you start picking it up with your chopsticks. It is considered indecent to choose food already on a plate.
- Avoid passing food with chopsticks. As already mentioned, this is part of the Japanese funeral tradition, the relatives of the deceased transfer the bones from one stick to another, and then put them in an urn. Instead, put the food you want to give to someone on a separate plate. Use new chopsticks, or if you don't have any, turn your chopsticks over and use them, then pass the plate to another guest.
- Don't tap your chopsticks on your plate or bowl. This is what beggars did in ancient China.
- Using chopsticks isn't easy, so don't lose your temper as you learn.

Chinese cuisine is becoming more and more popular every year. Chinese sushi and rolls win first places in the ratings of taste preferences even among the most conservative gourmets. A good Chinese restaurant will definitely serve a fork at the request of the guest, but who doesn't want to feel like a master in eating Chinese food with authentic utensils?

Learning to eat with chopsticks

They say that sometimes the principle of self-learning in the process works: there are Chinese sticks, there are rolls. Somehow you need to grab onto and eat the rolls with chopsticks. True, the sushi at the same time manage to jump off and fall right on the wasabi. Someone thinks that it is enough to watch how others eat with Chinese chopsticks, and the skill will come by itself.

To use Chinese chopsticks correctly, it is better to listen to a couple of very simple tips:

It may not be possible to immediately control the chopsticks at high speed - fine motor skills of the hands are for that and fine motor skills, that the ability to perfectly accurately control the movement of the fingers comes with time. Therefore, do not chase speed. The main thing is not to drop the sushi!
The thick end of one stick should be placed in the hollow between the thumb and forefinger and pressed slightly. The thin end of the stick should be placed on ring finger. Remember - this wand stays still, it just sits comfortably in your hand.
The main secret explanations. The second, "acting", wand is taken as if you were holding a writing pen! Do not think about which phalanx the thin tip of the stick should be at. Just hold it the way you hold a writing pen. With this approach, you will not need to think about how to learn to eat with chopsticks: after all, you can easily manage writing pen, and the familiar position of the stick in your hand will make it easier for you!

Bon appetit!

The first chopsticks appeared in China before our era. But gradually spread to Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other countries.

In the country rising sun sticks are called "hashi". At first they were made of bamboo and were solid: a thin bamboo trunk was split, half was folded across, resulting in “tweezers”. Later, the sticks became separate.

Today, hashi is used all over the world. Their spread, in many ways, contributed to the popularity of Japanese cuisine. We have learned how to hold chopsticks correctly, we eat miso and sushi with pleasure, but few people know the hashi etiquette.

Oh-hashi!

In Japan, hashi is not just a cutlery. Sticks are part of the culture. Therefore, the Japanese respectfully call them "o-hashi".

According to one legend, the tea ceremony guru Sen no Rikyu invented the hashi, who went to the forest for brushwood and stripped a couple of twigs to enjoy the smell of fresh wood.

Therefore, hashi is traditionally made from wood: pine, cypress, plum, maple, sandalwood. But there are also plastic and metal sticks, sticks made of bone.

The length of hashi intended for food is 25 cm. The longer ones, 35 cm, are used for cooking (beating eggs, mixing sauces, and so on).

Khashi also differ in shape: sticks can be round or square section with a conical or pyramidal tip.

When hashi first appeared, they were considered a luxury item. The privileged strata of society used chopsticks - commoners ate with their hands. Since then, there has been a tradition of decorating hashi - varnishing, painting, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold.

Beautiful hashis in Japan are expensive and meaningful gift. They are given to newlyweds so that they are inseparable, like a pair of sticks. Khashi are believed to bring good luck, so name sticks and family sets are often given as gifts.

When a baby turns 100 days old, a ceremony called "First Sticks" is held in a Japanese family - parents give the baby rice for the first time using hashi.

The Japanese try to teach children to eat with chopsticks as early as possible. It is believed that hashi develop fine motor skills and contribute to the upbringing of the baby.

Hashi etiquette

Eating in Japan is traditionally preceded by a bow and the phrase "Itadakimasu" ("I accept with gratitude"). At the same time, in some regions of the country, bowing is performed with hashi in hands, holding the sticks vertically, parallel to oneself.

In restaurants, as a rule, disposable sticks - "waribashi" are used. They are served in a special case - hashibukuro, the decoration of which is often also a work of art.

Having taken out, disposable sticks need to be broken. After that, wooden hashi should be well rolled against each other so as not to plant a splinter.

During lunch breaks, chopsticks are placed on a special stand - "hashioki". The hashi is placed with the sharp ends on the stand so that they look to the left. If there is no hasioka on the table, the chopsticks can be placed on the table or leaned against the cup. But do not put them across the plate.

There are many taboos associated with hashi in Japanese culture.

For clarity, we have drawn the basic rules. You can print it out and take it with you when you travel.

Rule 1

Rule 2

Rule 3

Rule 4

Rule 5

Rule 6

Rule 7

Rule 8

Rule 9

Rule 10

After the meal, a bow again follows and the phrase "Gochisosama" - "Thank you for the treat."

Chinese sticks came to us from China. From the sources of Eastern culture, chopsticks in China began to be used even before our era. They took pieces of meat and fish to turn over when they were cooked. Chinese chopsticks are made different materials such as plastic, bone.

The most expensive sticks for the upper strata of society are made from metal - gold and silver. But the most popular and cheapest of wood are pine, plum, maple, willow, bamboo and others. They can be varnished, painted, applied with various patterns, decorated with stones. They can be a gift idea for birthdays, weddings and other occasions.

In Chinese restaurants, for eating sushi, they give disposable chopsticks, but there are also reusable ones. They are used at home and stored like spoons and forks.
Our task is to teach you how to use Chinese chopsticks correctly. Then you will not be shy and worry when you are invited to a restaurant to enjoy Chinese or Japanese cuisine.

At first glance, chopsticks are very difficult and inconvenient to use. But, if you try to eat them a couple of times, you will already have an idea about the location of the chopsticks in your hand.

So, take one stick in your hand, relax your hand. Keep the little finger and ring finger together, and extend the middle and index fingers slightly forward. Place the stick between the thumb and the hand, let the lower end of the stick rest on the ring finger.

With the first stick sorted out, and now take the second. Place it with the other hand so that it rests on the beginning of the index and middle of the middle fingers, and also holds it with the tip of the thumb. When you eat with chopsticks, the bottom chopstick will be motionless, as if the base. And the second will be movable, with which you will adjust the width of the sticks.

The first two or three times you may not be able to use chopsticks. Well, and then with confidence you will succeed. Practice at home for small items: peas, beans, corn. Then large pieces of food will be an easy task for you.

Chinese chopsticks not only a device for eating, but also a small simulator for your hands. They develop fine motor skills and mental abilities. Therefore, invite your child to play with you - to take objects of various shapes with Chinese chopsticks.