How to hold Chinese chopsticks and how to eat with them correctly.

Nowadays Japanese restaurants and all kinds of oriental dishes have become very fashionable. Asian cuisine has firmly won one of the places of honor on the menu of Europeans. Sushi and rolls, spicy noodles, sashimi and other dishes and drinks are among the favorite foods.

Unlike European cuisine, Asian dishes are mostly eaten with special chopsticks - hashi. Khasi can be different in color, size and material and are selected individually for each person according to preference and convenience. If you are a frequent visitor to oriental restaurants, then you should have your own pair of chopsticks.

By eating food with chopsticks, you will experience all the nuances of the taste of the dish, so try to learn how to use them, because it is not as difficult as it seems at first glance.

How to hold chopsticks correctly

1. Relax your hand, take one stick and hold it between the joint of your thumb and index finger. Hold the stick with your ring finger and thumb, while your middle and thumb fingers close together.	2. Place the second stick parallel to the first, on the phalanx at the base of the index finger. Hold it with your thumb and middle finger; the distance between the chopsticks should be about one and a half centimeters.	3. Straighten your middle finger - this will push the sticks apart. Bend your finger and the sticks will repeat the movement. Manipulate the sticks like tongs - squeeze and unclench the ends by moving your middle finger. When the middle finger is extended, the sticks will move apart, and when the index finger is bent, they will move closer to each other.

How to eat food correctly

Our restaurants usually serve sealed disposable chopsticks. They need to be opened and disconnected. Rub the sticks together.

A wet towel - oshibori, which is served rolled up, can be used not only for wiping hands before eating, but also during and after eating. You can use it to wipe not only your hands, but also your face.

The food is served all at once. It is considered decent to try a little bit of all foods. And if you are visiting the Japanese, then it is even obligatory to take a sample from all dishes in the order they are served.

The meal starts with rice, then comes raw fish and soup. Sashimi sushi and rolls can be eaten at any time, alternating them with other dishes.

Served sushi on a wooden tray where wasabi and ginger are placed. The plate for the sauce is held suspended in the left hand, and the sushi is dipped in the sauce, placed on its side. Sushi and rolls usually start with pieces wrapped in nori seaweed because they quickly lose their crispiness due to the wet rice. Wasabi, ginger and soy sauce are needed to enhance the taste of sushi, so they should not be overused. It is better to drink green tea with food. Sushi and rolls They are eaten either by dipping them into a special cup with sauce, or by brushing them with ginger dipped in sauce. They eat the whole sushi without taking a bite. If the piece is too large to eat whole, use chopsticks to divide it into several small pieces on a plate. Only men can eat sushi with their hands; women eat with chopsticks.

Sashimi and other dishes that need to be dipped in sauce are eaten by raising the plate with sauce to chest level, carefully dipping pieces of food into the sauce. Do not take dishes with shared food into your hands - this is bad form. Carefully take a small pile of this or that dish and put it on your plate.

Soups They eat by first drinking the liquid and then eating the solid ingredients with chopsticks.

Ramen They eat in the reverse order - first the noodles and meat, and then they drink the liquid from the bowl.

Noodles in Asian dishes it is quite long and is eaten by carefully grasping it with chopsticks and sucking it in with the mouth. There is no need to wrap the noodles around chopsticks. Don't be shy about the squelching sound this makes. The Japanese consider him decent and quite worthy.

sake It is customary to pour before each toast. It is considered bad manners to pour more wine for yourself; they will certainly add more wine to you, but you, on your part, must show respect and pour some for your neighbor. An empty cup on the table is considered a sign of bad taste and discourtesy, so those who treat you will constantly refill you. If you feel like you've already drunk enough, turn the cup upside down.

A little about etiquette

Video: How to use chopsticks correctly

In Japanese cooking, it is not practiced to change dishes during a meal, that is, all dishes are put on the table at once. What does a traditional Japanese lunch consist of and how to eat all these dishes correctly?

Soups, stews

A Japanese lunch begins with stew (siu mono). It could be:

potato soup potetto (with or without meatballs),
ukha (suimono, ramen),
buckwheat noodles (sobo),
misoshiru.

"Misoshiru" is the name given to all soups that are seasoned with miso. They are consumed at any time of the day and even before breakfast. Misoshiru is usually served with tofu, seaweed and soy omelette.

How to properly eat Japanese soups

Soups that contain noodles are eaten as follows: first, the cup of soup is raised to chest level and the broth is drunk, and then the contents of the cup are eaten with chopsticks.

Some soups are served with a ceramic spoon and must be eaten with this spoon.

If you are served soup in a cup covered with a lid, then after you have eaten the soup, you need to close the cup again with the lid and put the chopsticks on the stand.

Rice

Rice is eaten with chopsticks from a cup that must be raised to chest level.

Do not add too much soy sauce to white rice (gohan).

Noodles

Japanese noodles are very long, so eating them is not such a simple procedure. It would be wrong to wrap the noodles around chopsticks; you just need to grab them with them. The noodles are pulled into the mouth with a squelching sound, which is quite decent for the Japanese.

Sushi (sushi)

Sushi (maki, nigiri) is most often eaten whole, but if you want, you can use chopsticks to divide the sushi into small pieces.

Women always eat sushi with chopsticks, but men are allowed to eat it with their hands.

Sushi is eaten as follows:

pour soy sauce into a special saucer,
take the sushi, turn it on its side and intercept it,
dip fish, not rice, in soy sauce,
put the sushi in your mouth.

Sushi is a fairly democratic dish that has gained great popularity in many countries. You no longer have to go to a Japanese restaurant to get it; you can order sushi at home

Sashimi

For sashimi, a soy-based sauce is first prepared. Wasabi is added to it in a special saucer and mixed. The saucer with the sauce should be held in the left hand, and with chopsticks in the right hand, pieces of sashimi are taken and dipped into the sauce.

Tempura

Tempura is eaten with chopsticks. The plate with the sauce is held in the left hand, and the tempura pieces are separated with the right hand and dipped into the sauce.

Nabemono

A small portion of nabemono should be transferred from a common dish to your plate. Then the plate should be lifted and eaten from it.

Fish

Fried fish is served on large plates; they do not need to be lifted during the meal.

Beverages

When drinking sake or beer, it is customary to pour drinks for your dining companions and leave your glass empty. If you notice that someone wants to fill your glass, then the glass should be moved towards this person so that he does not have to stretch too much.

In the East, people learn to eat with chopsticks from childhood. Thais and Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese are able to grab not only large pieces with this simple cutlery, but also pick up individual tiny grains of rice from a plate. They easily hold slippery noodles with chopsticks, demonstrating truly masterful coordination of movements. You can learn to eat just as carefully with chopsticks; all you need to do is remember how to hold them correctly and practice a little.
Instructions:
Choose bamboo or wooden sticks. Plastic and glass slide, so they are not as comfortable to hold.
Always make sure that your fingers are closer to the middle of the sticks and that the ends of the device do not cross.
Position the lower stick so that its middle is on the tip of the bent ring finger, and the end is in the hollow between the thumb and index finger. The top stick is located along the index finger, and its middle is sandwiched between the tips of the index and middle fingers. The ends of the sticks are parallel to each other. The lower stick always lies motionless, but the upper one moves up and down, guided by the fingers.
It is not customary to wrap noodles on sticks. You grab it with the tips of your cutlery, as if you were pinching it. If your noodles are the main course, all you have to do is bring them to your mouth and suck them in. At the same time, do not be afraid of squelching, which is considered indecent in Western culture. In Eastern etiquette, this is music to the chef’s ears, showing how much you like his culinary skills.
If you eat noodles in broth, take a special flat spoon in your other hand. Scoop it up with a spoon, pick up the noodles with chopsticks and put them in your mouth, washing them down with liquid from a device more familiar to Europeans. Here you should also forget about Western etiquette and feel free to sip. This behavior also has practical reasons, because in Asian cuisines the noodles are served so hot that they can burn your mouth, and by slurping you draw in cool air and cool the portion, which touches your palate and tongue.

Chinese chopsticks came into my life about 10 years ago. And if at first I tried to replace them with a fork or even secretly eat with my hands, over time I appreciated all their convenience. Moreover, now I use them at home and not only for Asian dishes.

The most convenient cutlery

Perhaps we should start with how to hold chopsticks correctly. Because it's actually not difficult at all. Simply place one stick on your ring finger and secure it with your thumb. But the second one should be held between the index and middle fingers at the level of the second phalanx. It turns out that one part of the device does not move, and you can press or move the second part at your discretion.

By the way, the same dumplings, dumplings or sloth dumplings are much more convenient to eat with chopsticks. The main thing is to allocate yourself a separate gravy boat in which you can dip them.

How to learn to eat noodles with chopsticks

But with noodles everything is extremely simple. But... It’s very unusual and not entirely decent for traditional European society. The fact is that noodles have long been a mandatory dish on birthdays in Asia. And the longer it is, the longer the life and the stronger the health of the birthday person. But only on the condition that he can eat all the noodles without even having a bite. Otherwise, he automatically shortens his life. Therefore, Asians simply grab it with chopsticks, bring it to their mouth and carefully suck it. The sounds, of course, are far from decent. However, these are their traditions, and it’s not for us to judge.

Asian rules of good manners at the table

And this is not the only “oddity” at the table:

Asians make a lot of sounds, including slurping and smacking, because this is how they express excitement about food;
belching after a feast is the norm, and in some countries, without it, a meal is considered incomplete;
For residents of the Middle Kingdom it is normal to talk with their mouths full; at most, they can cover their mouth with their palm.

Also, Asians do not have much trouble peeling shrimp or shellfish. They are simply shoved into the mouth, and then the unchewed remains are gradually spat out.