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Also there is something about the metal taste of the fork with the noodly taste of the noodles that doesn't quite go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Debsi
Chopsticks are great for shoveling in food.
Good points!
Added to the non-metallic thing, I think plain wooden chopsticks, or the ones with the little knobs/ridges just pick up noodles easier than a fork. Forks are so smooth and sitting there trying to twirl it, and if it's in soup or sauce, getting flying twirling liquid everywhere. Messy!
And what you said too, Debsi- they're great for shoveling in food!
One thing I thought of about this though, is that you do have to eat like the Asians do too...pick up the bowl and bring it close to your mouth and then shovel away. Can't leave that part out. Westerners trying to leave the bowls on the table and do the table to mouth long-distance thing where it's going to inevitably fall off need to pick up the bowl!
Juggler- chopsticks are more efficient for sushi! They allow you pick it up in one piece from the outside so the roll holds together. If you try to spear it, the sushi will fall apart. Now you walked into that one! lol
Good points!
Juggler- chopsticks are more efficient for sushi! They allow you pick it up in one piece from the outside so the roll holds together. If you try to spear it, the sushi will fall apart. Now you walked into that one! lol
Yup, spearing sushi can be problematic. I have tried scooping it (and dipping it into the sauce) with a fork, and that works reasonably well.
Knives and forks have always seemed barbaric to me. You're seperated from your food, sawing, hacking, and stabbing. Food should be sensual, or at the very least elegant. There's nothing too elegant about a mini-pitchfork.
I use chopsticks for a lot of things. I even tend to vary what kind I use (yep, there are different kinds!). I use melamine or polished wood/bamboo for chinese and vietnamese food, but korean always gets the thin metal kind. They work better for the sliced meat. I almost never use the unfinished wooden ones, unless I forget my own pair. Then again, I'm a snob. To me, forks and knives are for cooking or large cuts of meat.
I also love eating with my hands. According to my MIL stationed in the middle east, they consider westerners dirty for NOT eating with your hands. After all, your hands SHOULD be clean enough to eat from. Normally I'll use a piece of rolled rice or naan bread, or whatever the specific meal calls for to scoop up food. Ethiopian and moroccan food are great for that. I eat sushi with my hands...eating rolls with chopsticks is a terribly American thing.
I just cannot imagine how clumsy it would be to try to eat sushi with a fork and knife. With the chopsticks, you have a pincher-like action going on, there is no precision or adjustment in focus at the tip of a fork with four tines. When I lift a piece of sushi with the sticks, I am able to precisely control which part of my nigiri or roll is dipped in the wasabi soy, and when I place it towards my lips, I don't have to worry about balancing the piece lest it flip off the tines of the fork before I successfully shovel it into my maw. Sorry, but sushi, and noodles as well, are a mess when eaten with forks. The only time I can think of where a fork and knife would be more useful or appropriate is a big steak. Asian cuisine has solved this issue 1000s of years ago by preparing the meat in bite sized pieces before it gets to the table. And let me add - the Asians' mastery of cutlery and cuisine makes all other cultures seem light years behind. Few people I know would be able to take this seemingly clumsy cleaver and use it with such precision and deft:
I use them to play with the cat but thats about all. I cant stand that wooden texture, plastic and the stone ones give me chills when they hit my teeth.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by juggler
but a knife & fork still wins the efficiency battle.
Really ... ????
Not when I see some people use a knife and a fork as follows:
Knife in right hand, fork in left hand, then they clumsily (have you seen how some people hold their knive and fork ???) cut whatever with their right hand, and then ... (why for heavens sake ... ???) switch over, like put knife down, then pick up fork, them stab the food and then finally shove it in their mouth ....
That is efficient ???
LBNL, when you eat with chopsticks, that is the only way to, at this time, make ends meet .....
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by juggler
If you want to talk ridiculous hyperboles, I submit that connecting a solar-powered vacuum hose directly to your mouth and letting your food be sucked up for you and forcible injected into your mouth is even more efficient. You don't have to use your hands at all!!
As a fellow engineer, do you REALLY want me to explain how a utensil with 4 rigid, evenly-spaced sharp-pointed tines is more efficient than two blunt sticks? Even for picking up sushi? Do you really want me to go there? I didn't think so.
I think with your vacuum idea and my Endless Mop Bucket of Chili restaurant idea, we could both be rich men.
Question...have you ever eaten a bowl of sticky rice with a fork? Compare the fork vs. chopstick on picking up that last grain of rice from the bowl. It's psosible. You will end up smashing that grain into oblivion with the fork a good bit of the time. In fact, using a fork to clean up those last few grains of rice takes forever. Chopsticks is all like, "Gotcha!" "Come 'ere last grains of rice!" "Mmmmm, rice." I guess you could use a spoon. Spoon just ends up smashing the grains against the sides of the bowl.
I just cannot imagine how clumsy it would be to try to eat sushi with a fork and knife. With the chopsticks, you have a pincher-like action going on, there is no precision or adjustment in focus at the tip of a fork with four tines. When I lift a piece of sushi with the sticks, I am able to precisely control which part of my nigiri or roll is dipped in the wasabi soy, and when I place it towards my lips, I don't have to worry about balancing the piece lest it flip off the tines of the fork before I successfully shovel it into my maw. Sorry, but sushi, and noodles as well, are a mess when eaten with forks. The only time I can think of where a fork and knife would be more useful or appropriate is a big steak. Asian cuisine has solved this issue 1000s of years ago by preparing the meat in bite sized pieces before it gets to the table. And let me add - the Asians' mastery of cutlery and cuisine makes all other cultures seem light years behind. Few people I know would be able to take this seemingly clumsy cleaver and use it with such precision and deft:
You make some good points. Incidentally, in doing a bit of research on the proper way to eat sushi, I found that it is considered perfectly acceptable to eat sushi (most types) with your fingers, and that many westerners have a hangup about not using chopsticks.
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Messy!
