A shaped pair of equal length sticks that have been used or are being used as the traditional kitchen and eating utensil in virtually all of East Asia especially to savor the Chinese food are the Chopsticks. It is hard to find knives at the dinner table in Chinese food serving. Now you know next time you order food online and you made a choice to treat your belly with the Chinese food don’t forget to ask them to send along a pair of Chopsticks along with your order.

Almost every restaurant in India serves Chinese food but if you want to taste the authentic Chinese food you just need to spend little more time to take out your favorite gadget –your mobile phone and see the reviews and ratings for different dishes in the food technology apps like Zomato, FreshMenu etc. These reviews will help you choose the best place to order food online from.

The mini kitchen model restaurants like the FreshMenu are striving to serve the authentic dishes from different cuisines and also deliver a great experience. So it’s not just the food but how do you savor the food should be exciting.

Here let’s look into the history of Chopsticks and the various do’s and don’ts while using them.

[image source: Google]

Chopsticks in the ancient days, may be some 6000 years ago were called “Zhu”. Chinese ancestors liked to eat boiled food and they found great difficulty in using spoons and forks to dip the vegetables in soup. Thus they have invented “Zhu” to nip food and became the most convenient tableware in their lives.

Development of chopsticks has a long history. Chopsticks were 2 sticks of equal length in the Shang Dynasty (16^th-11^th Century BC).  Chopsticks were also made with elephants trunk by Kings which was seen the most luxurious in the early history of Chinese food culture.

The appearance of chopsticks said goodbye to the habit of eating with hands.  People started applying the lever principle of mechanics into practice and the point where the 2 sticks crossed is the pivot of the lever.

Many foreigners are interested and also puzzled how to use this chopsticks with ease. Here are some tit bits on how to use them. We use the index finger, thumb, middle finger and the ring finger. One stick is against your third finger and the other rests on the lean finger. Remember not to cross the 2 sticks. We use the index and the middle finger to control the sticks when you intend to pick vegetables.

There are some taboos you must remember while using the chopsticks.

• Don’t use the chopsticks to hit the sides of your bowl to make a lot of noise, Chinese people think only beggars make that noise.
• When using don’t stretch your index finger, it would be considered as an acquisition to others
• Do not suck the ends of the chopsticks, it is seen as a very impolite behavior
• Don’t use it to poke every dish without knowing what you want
• At last don’t insert the chopsticks vertically into bowls or dishes. Chinese and Japanese people do this only when they burn incense or sacrifice the dead
• Chopsticks are small but they are adored by many people and its usage is spread to many countries. Practice a lot with them and you will have a great fun on your dining table.

*Guest Post

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