The Taoist and Chopsticks

[Rara]

You're in a Chinese restaurant in the west, and you have a pair of chopsticks AND a spoon for fried rice.

 

Which do you choose as a Taoist?

 

The spoon surely? The path of least resistance and all...

Edited November 28, 2017 by Rara

[Marblehead]

Not always true for me.  After two tours in Korea (South) I became pretty proficient with chopsticks.  I still use them now and then just to see if I still can.

 

[Rara]

40 minutes ago, Marblehead said:

Not always true for me.  After two tours in Korea (South) I became pretty proficient with chopsticks.  I still use them now and then just to see if I still can.

 

 

I guess this applies if you're acquiring a skill and are getting comfortable with it over time...just like any other art we choose to adopt.

 

That, or like you, spend enough time for it to become like a second language.

 

But for those that aren't, I'd say go with the option that requires less effort - otherwise one would either be doing it for a) The novelty or b ) Too feel more "authentic"

Edited November 28, 2017 by Rara
"b)" made an unwanted emoticon

[Stosh]

1 minute ago, Rara said:

 

I guess this applies if you're acquiring a skill and are getting comfortable with it over time...just like any other art we choose to adopt.

 

That, or like you, spend enough time for it to become like a second language.

 

But for those that aren't, I'd say go with the option that requires less effort - otherwise one would either be doing it for a) The novelty or Too feel more "authentic"

The over-all menu is chosen for cultural affiliation , as is the decor, music, the chopstick offer , and it seems , often the chef -serving staff. 

So the whole situation is a presentation , for atmosphere, why should the customer balk?  ( I'll take the spoon though, I don't really like spoons , preferring forks ,, not sporks however. ) 

[Astral Monk]

Tilt bowl, finger shovel rice.

 

 

If u drop it an it breaks--

 

'no rice in bowl, no rice in belly!'

 

8)

[Gerard]

None.

 

https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/8-reasons-eating-hands-awesome

 

 

A good friend of mine who lives in Sri Lanka recommended me using hands instead of the Western (barbaric) way of eating: knife & fork. It promotes mindfulness and eating slowly. I believe him. For soups though use spoon but again eat very slowly. 

[Taomeow]

20 hours ago, Rara said:

You're in a Chinese restaurant in the west, and you have a pair of chopsticks AND a spoon for fried rice.

 

Which do you choose as a Taoist?

 

The spoon surely? The path of least resistance and all...

 

The path of least resistance includes your inner path through your digestive tract.  Chopsticks make that path easier. 

 

Eating with chopsticks paces you, it takes somewhat longer but gives you a chance to start feeling that you've eaten enough much sooner (unless you use the chopsticks as a shovel -- I've seen that in a Japanese restaurant where a hurried mom was shoveling rice into her compliant little daughter's mouth, holding the bowl under her chin and both chopsticks together as one unit, and throwing rice into her mouth at a speed that may have merited a Guinness book of records inclusion). 

 

I've been using chopsticks for so long and like them so much that for me it's out of the question to eat anything at any Asian restaurant with any Western utensils.  For some dishes, however, you need both the chopsticks and the spoon -- e.g. pho (a Vietnamese favorite) can't be comfortably (much less elegantly) eaten any other way than by using both.  There's quite a few other dishes like that, any soup with those long noodles that are kept as long as possible and are not supposed to break (symbolizing long life), you can't eat with either/or, only with both, if you want to use the path of least resistance or don't want to go a-splashing hot soup onto your clothes.

 

  When using a spoon, I much prefer the Asian porcelain one to the Western metal one.  

I've read somewhere that traditional buddhist societies resisted metal utensils for 800 years -- and that includes pots and pans.  From the wuxing POV, metal "weakens" and "defeats" wood, and "wood," in wuxing, is the same as "food" (yes, animals too.)

 

    

Edited November 29, 2017 by Taomeow

[dawei]

I'm not taoist and I use chopsticks in most situations.

[Taomeow]

29 minutes ago, dawei said:

I'm not taoist and I use chopsticks in most situations.

 

I used them before I was a taoist.  For me, subjectively, they were part of "turning American" because I was never exposed to them in the old country but the very first restaurant in this one I was invited to was Japanese, so I got my first chopsticks lesson at the time I was also learning how to write a check, what a credit card is, how to type, how to drive a car, and so on.  An American skill.  

[Sloppy Zhang]

Is this a sticky rice? Chopsticks are fine for that kind of rice.

 

But most fried rice I've had at most Asian places in America is downright impossible to eat with chopsticks. Use the spoon!

[C T]

Spoons? Forks? Chopsticks?? 

 

How about no plates and simply using the fingers?? 

A great experience, and super satisfying!!

 

 

[Rara]

2 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

The path of least resistance includes your inner path through your digestive tract.  Chopsticks make that path easier. 

 

Eating with chopsticks paces you, it takes somewhat longer but gives you a chance to start feeling that you've eaten enough much sooner (unless you use the chopsticks as a shovel -- I've seen that in a Japanese restaurant where a hurried mom was shoveling rice into her compliant little daughter's mouth, holding the bowl under her chin and both chopsticks together as one unit, and throwing rice into her mouth at a speed that may have merited a Guinness book of records inclusion). 

 

I've been using chopsticks for so long and like them so much that for me it's out of the question to eat anything at any Asian restaurant with any Western utensils.  For some dishes, however, you need both the chopsticks and the spoon -- e.g. pho (a Vietnamese favorite) can't be comfortably (much less elegantly) eaten any other way than by using both.  There's quite a few other dishes like that, any soup with those long noodles that are kept as long as possible and are not supposed to break (symbolizing long life), you can't eat with either/or, only with both, if you want to use the path of least resistance or don't want to go a-splashing hot soup onto your clothes.

 

  When using a spoon, I much prefer the Asian porcelain one to the Western metal one.  

I've read somewhere that traditional buddhist societies resisted metal utensils for 800 years -- and that includes pots and pans.  From the wuxing POV, metal "weakens" and "defeats" wood, and "wood," in wuxing, is the same as "food" (yes, animals too.)

 

    

 

Well, I was definitely full half-way through the meal! I started with chopsticks but the part of me that needed to finish what I paid for picked up the spoon to complete the job! I'm away with work, using an allowance so leaving long periods of time between meals - long story....long days!

 

Interesting about the non-use of metal utensils. Ceramic pots maybe doable? I can't imagine putting wood on a stove...

[Rara]

53 minutes ago, Sloppy Zhang said:

Is this a sticky rice? Chopsticks are fine for that kind of rice.

 

But most fried rice I've had at most Asian places in America is downright impossible to eat with chopsticks. Use the spoon!

 

This is EXACTLY what happened. I got fed up half way through haha

[Rara]

12 minutes ago, C T said:

Spoons? Forks? Chopsticks?? 

 

How about no plates and simply using the fingers?? 

A great experience, and super satisfying!!

 

 

 

Sure. In fact, I have a semi-Indian background and use of hands is a regular thing for me when at home.

 

In England, in a restaurant, I'd feel a bit out of place doing so.

[C T]

Apologies.. it was off-topic. Couldn't resist the comparison though. 

 

Personally I'd use a twig to eat if thats what the situation demands. Flexibility and functionality is my credo. 

[C T]

8 minutes ago, Rara said:

 

Sure. In fact, I have a semi-Indian background and use of hands is a regular thing for me when at home.

 

In England, in a restaurant, I'd feel a bit out of place doing so.

 

Have you never seen English folks eating with their fingers? 

Common sight in BBQ restaurants, rib shacks, and even McDonalds. 

[Rara]

10 minutes ago, C T said:

 

Have you never seen English folks eating with their fingers? 

Common sight in BBQ restaurants, rib shacks, and even McDonalds. 

 

Of course. But in these more "high end" restaurants, you see more "table etiquette". We feel obliged to play along

[C T]

Nothing spoils the appetite more than stuffy atmospheres in poshy upmarket restaurants.  

[Rara]

5 minutes ago, C T said:

Nothing spoils the appetite more than stuffy atmospheres in poshy upmarket restaurants.  

 

The appetite is already gone before I walk in. I'm in the West End, London haha

[C T]

West End is still ok - lots of choices.. Wait until one gets to Chelsea, Kensington, Mayfair or Knightsbridge. Then it gets stifling, right? 

[Rara]

1 hour ago, C T said:

West End is still ok - lots of choices.. Wait until one gets to Chelsea, Kensington, Mayfair or Knightsbridge. Then it gets stifling, right? 

 

Yeah, I'm staying in the Kensington area! Working in Oxford Circus by day.

[C T]

1 minute ago, Rara said:

 

Yeah, I'm staying in the Kensington area! Working in Oxford Circus by day.

 

ooops 

[Taomeow]

4 hours ago, Sloppy Zhang said:

Is this a sticky rice? Chopsticks are fine for that kind of rice.

 

But most fried rice I've had at most Asian places in America is downright impossible to eat with chopsticks. Use the spoon!

 

Everything is possible to eat with chopsticks -- you just need to practice.  Of course starting early helps.     

[Taomeow]

3 hours ago, Rara said:

 

Well, I was definitely full half-way through the meal! I started with chopsticks but the part of me that needed to finish what I paid for picked up the spoon to complete the job! I'm away with work, using an allowance so leaving long periods of time between meals - long story....long days!

 

Interesting about the non-use of metal utensils. Ceramic pots maybe doable? I can't imagine putting wood on a stove...

 

I ask for a box if I can't finish a meal -- don't like to waste what I (or whoever pays) paid for.  Don't like the wasteful mentality in all its manifestations, actually.  But "saving" a meal by stuffing it into my own body after the latter said "enough" is even more wasteful, "health care" as we know it is way more expensive than food!    

 

In my long gone but never forgotten childhood, I was expected to clean the plate (this was strictly enforced), but now that I've long been the master of my own stomach, I hardly ever do when eating out (when eating in I know how much I want) -- the portions are nearly always way too large for me, sometimes three, four times bigger than what I need (except at French restaurants where they tend to underfeed you for the money -- but I actually prefer the underfed feeling to the overfed one).    

 

You don't have to imagine putting wood on a stove.  It's called a bamboo steamer.   Well, I'm not that strict with my utensils, I use good quality enameled pots that are reputed to leak nothing into what's cooking (even stainless steel "enriches" your food with cadmium and the like), or cast iron skillets which actually add iron but nothing else.  Ideally though it would be earthenware all the way, but nothing/nobody is perfect.  Even Taomeow.  

[liminal_luke]

I`d use the chopsticks for my rice simply because it`s still enough of a novelty to me to be fun.  Some of my friends prefer western utensils which is odd, but I don`t begrudge them their choice.