Which countries use chopsticks? (speak, travel, cons, citizen)
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Asians, East or SE, traditonally eat rice in a bowl with chopsticks only.
In China, usually no spoon or fork is provided for a rice meal in a restaurant.
Southern Chinese and Taiwanese traditionally eat long grain non sticky rice too as SE Asians do.
Northern Chinese eat wheat.
Koreans and Japanase eat stickier rice, which can also be grown on neigboring Manchuria in China.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenTiger
Same reason as Thailand. Rice eaten in East Asia are stickier, while rice in SE Asia are less sticky. It is more difficult to eat the SE Asian rice variety with chopsticks.
they usually eat out of a rice bowl and use the chopsticks to push the rice in their mouth, they dont try to pick it up with the chopstick, so it doesnt matter if the rice is sticky or loose
since Japanese rice is a little more sticky compared to other types of rice ,maybe thats why you see Japanese often eating rice with the bowl on the table instead of holding it up to their mouth
Holding up the rice bowl is more common with the Chinese and to a certain extent, Japanese. Koreans use spoons in addition to chopsticks, and it is against Korean etiquette to lift the rice bowl. They also use metal bowls, which are often too hot to hold anyway.
Asians, East or SE, traditonally eat rice in a bowl with chopsticks only.
In China, usually no spoon or fork is provided for a rice meal in a restaurant.
Southern Chinese and Taiwanese traditionally eat long grain non sticky rice too as SE Asians do.
Northern Chinese eat wheat.
Koreans and Japanase eat stickier rice, which can also be grown on neigboring Manchuria in China.
Koreans use spoons. Rice in Hong Kong or Taiwan or other parts of Southern China are still stickier or at least wetter than those in SE Asia. Filipinos cook rice that are drier than those in HK or Taiwan. Even if they are the same consistency, the dishes in SE Asia are just too difficult to eat using chopsticks. It is easy for me to eat rice with chopsticks in HK or Taiwan, but I can't imagine eating sinangag (garlic rice) in the Philippines using chopsticks. Just too dry. I also cannot imagine adding curry sauce to my rice and eating that with chopsticks in Thailand.
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i think it is a very interesting read with some guided info about the culture of chopsticks and who uses them.
I'm a bit of an expert in this 'subject', having visited Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, the UAE within Asia.
As many have pointed out chopsticks are traditionally a 'Sinosphere' thing, and were invented in China. So they predominate in China itself, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, the core of the 'Sinosphere'. It also largely depends on the dish at hand. In China, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam they'll use chopsticks to eat rice, noodles, and pick up pieces of food, although forks and spoons are often at least available for a lot of rice dishes like katsu curry. From my experience in Korean restaurants probably the same in Korea, although their chopsticks tend to be metal. Japanese and Korean short-grained rice is easily to eat with chopsticks.
Anyway, you probably already knew and suspected that, and are more interested in the situation outside the core Sinosphere...
Well it largely depends on the dish. Noodles are commonly eaten with chopsticks in Southeast Asia (in this context it naturally excludes Vietnam, which uses chopsticks for most things anyway), but eating them with a fork won't raise eyebrows either. In Chinese restaurants in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand (I haven't been to Cambodia or Laos or Myanmar) it seems similar to here: both chopsticks and a fork and spoon are commonly used.
As to the usual implements you'll find in hawker centres in Singapore and Malaysia, of which I'm most familiar with, forks and spoons, and sometimes but less commonly knives, are very common. For rice dishes they tend to be used, things like Hainanese chicken rice, nasi lemak, nasi biryani (Malay version of Indian biryani), chicken curry, but also quite commonly for noodles dishes like fish ball noodle soup, kway teow, mee pok. A lot of Malays and Indians eat with their hands, and ethnic Chinese Malaysians often follow suit when eating more Malay/Indian cuisine, although a lot of Malaysian food like curry laksa and mee siam can best we described as fusion food. They have things like roti canai/paratha which is often just eaten with hands.
In Thailand yes, it's also common to use a fork and a spoon to eat a lot of food. Same with Indonesia. In Muslim Asia and India eating with hands is pretty common. Sorry if this was long, but that's my observation. You could say you were both right to some degree. One should mention the influence of Chinese cuisine in Southeast Asia, and the fact many people in Southeast Asia: particularly Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, have Chinese ancestry themselves. In Thailand these Chinese have integrated and are more just Thai, whereas in Malaysia they kind of maintain more of a distinct identity (e.g. speaking Chinese, celebration Lunar New Year, Mahayana vs Theravada Buddhism).
Your post is a little confusing due to your english abilities.
You meant chopsticks are used in East Asian countries only and vietnam.
people in Thailand, indonesia and Philippines use hands, right?
That is my knowledge too. The malays use hands. The East Asians and ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia use chopsticks.
hahaha,no problem eating using with hands, you see chinese in indonesia they eat often use their hand
A typical east And SE Asian restaurant won't offer forks, guys, for anything, rice, noodles or dishes. The forks are not part of the traditional Asian food culture. If you see them, that's because the restaurants cater to westerners.
My parents for example probaly never used forks in their lives. Go to a neighborhoid restaurant during breakfast hours in Shanghai and watch people: zero of them will eat noodles or anything will forks. If you ask for forks they might not even have them. It is very strange to have noodles with a fork. Spoons are common but primarily for soups. Only children eat rice with spoons because they can't handle chopsticks properly.
The truth is, if you see forks, that's only because you are in a westernized large city or restaurants which frequently serve western customers. Otherwise forks are as common as chopsticks at American burger joints.
Korean use metal chopsticks, which for me are very difficult to eat with. Especially if you have to turn the meat on the bbq and so on. But at least you always get a spoon as well.
I had a discussion with someone about whether Thais use chopsticks or not. I said yes but they said no. This leads me to ask which countries in Asia that regularly use chopsticks.
It is not just country but cuisine within that country. For example, you are in a Chinese neighborhood in say Bangkok, then most likely the cuisine and its service will suggest chopsticks.
The key is the bowl. Veggies and meat with rice in a bowl means chopsticks. Having a variety of plates in which you can pick at stuff and being into your bowl--chopsticks. Note: unlike in the West where bringing the bowl to your mouth is considered uncouth, it is essential when eating with chopsticks. If a noodle soup, then it is chopsticks plus spoon.
But if rice is served on plates with meats and veg, you use a fork. Using chopsticks would be a disaster for your clothes. When I see Westerners think they need to use chopsticks just because they are in Asia, I get entertained by all the food dropping on their shirts/blouses.
S.
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