Eating With Chopsticks

Chopsticks are the slim, elegant sticks used for eating in many Asian cultures. They work for just about every type of food except soup. Often frustrating at first, they are an eating variation that takes just a bit of practice to learn how to use.

You can tell the two main variations apart by looking at the eating end of the chopstick: Chinese chopsticks tend to be blunt on the eating end, and Japanese ones tend to taper down very smoothly. You'll also find chopsticks alongside Vietnamese, Thai and Korean food.

Interestingly, the biggest etiquette "boo-boos" that happen with chopsticks derive from actions which are symbolic of things related to death rituals in China and Japan. All of these things listed below are considered rude or poor chopstick manners.

You should never leave your chopsticks stuck into a bowl of food, especially if they are sticking up. That is what you do when making a food offering to the ancestors, and it is symbolism that relates to the image of a headstone or grave marker. Instead when you need to put down your chopsticks, you use a chopstick rest. These can be ceramic, wood, or folded out of the paper wrapper that held them. (see below to make your own!)

You should never eat with two chopsticks that do not match. Mismatching chopsticks are used in funerary rituals by family members to place the bones of their deceased relative into an urn following the cremation of the body. You should always eat with chopsticks that are made of the same material and which match in color/pattern. If you have one broken chopstick, get rid of the other one as well and get a fresh new pair for eating.