So how good are you with chopsticks?

I use chopsticks pretty well. When I went to college, I was surprised and impressed when my boyfriend at the time (a real country boy from New Orleans) took me out for my very first sushi dinner and ate his meal with chopsticks. Determined not to be outdone, I decided to learn how to use them proficiently. So, I ate all my meals for 3 months at school only using chopsticks.

My husband is also very good with chopsticks and we are now teaching our children to use them.

As I recollect both my boys were proficient with them by about age 8 or 9. And, Maria, I might point out New Orleans is a city, not "country".

[Jenise]

I thought proper etiquette was to eat sushi pieces and rolls with your fingers, not chopsticks.

When observing presumably-Japanese diners in sushi places, I've not seen them using their fingers--always chopsticks. But then that was here, not in Japan where customs could be different.

Btw--I find Chinese food a lot easier to eat with chopsticks!

As a kid, I used to be able to pick up a single piece of rice or even a pea with chipsticks - not any more. I guess lack of practice has taken its toll. As a side note: I do recall a customer of my father's who was told by his MD to eat everything with chopsticks as a diet technique. I always thought that that was interesting but never tried it.

[Jenise]

I'm proficient. Most everyone I know here is pretty good with chopsticks. I guess it's because Chinese cuisine is quite common here. Japanese too. My children started learning how to use them at a very early age, as did I.

Good skill to have. I actually grew up eating out for Chinese several times a month--it was my favorite food in the world--but I know we never used chopsticks. Had they been on the table I would have wanted to learn to use them, and my own father was such a stickler for good manners and 'going native' I think he would have to as well, so it's likely that in our hopelessly white conservative town we weren't even offered them.

I thought proper etiquette was to eat sushi pieces and rolls with your fingers, not chopsticks.

When observing presumably-Japanese diners in sushi places, I've not seen them using their fingers--always chopsticks. But then that was here, not in Japan where customs could be different.

One of my regular drinking buddies is Japanese (former president of JP Morgan Trust Bank Ltd, Japan) and my sis-in-law is also Japanese (born and raised in Tokyo). I've never asked them about eating sushi with the hands, but, for whatever it's worth, I can say that I've definitely never seen them do that. They always use chopsticks.

I use chopsticks pretty well. When I went to college, I was surprised and impressed when my boyfriend at the time (a real country boy from New Orleans) took me out for my very first sushi dinner and ate his meal with chopsticks. Determined not to be outdone, I decided to learn how to use them proficiently. So, I ate all my meals for 3 months at school only using chopsticks.

My husband is also very good with chopsticks and we are now teaching our children to use them.

As I recollect both my boys were proficient with them by about age 8 or 9. And, Maria, I might point out New Orleans is a city, not "country".

Ok, yes, he was actually from Houma, LA. But what I meant was he was a "country boy" at heart...a southern gent. Details, details
That's awesome that your boys could use chopsticks so early...hopefully, mine will be able to do that as well.

I thought proper etiquette was to eat sushi pieces and rolls with your fingers, not chopsticks.

When observing presumably-Japanese diners in sushi places, I've not seen them using their fingers--always chopsticks. But then that was here, not in Japan where customs could be different.

One of my regular drinking buddies is Japanese (former president of JP Morgan Trust Bank Ltd, Japan) and my sis-in-law is also Japanese (born and raised in Tokyo). I've never asked them about eating sushi with the hands, but, for whatever it's worth, I can say that I've definitely never seen them do that. They always use chopsticks.

I read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/dining/04sush.html

and here: http://web.me.com/trevor_corson/sushico ... ticks.html

I can use them but if in a restaurant in a western country I'll ask for a fork. Just can't be arsed.

[Jenise]

Like a native. I've been using them for four decades. So has my favorite wife.

Good for you. We actually found them indispensable during the last year--with the kind of food that's easy for us to eat with them, it saved having silverware to wash. And even before that, we were in the daily habit of stirring tea and our single mug french press coffees with them. It's just sushi rolls and rice that make us feel like such rubes.

I'm pretty good with them, Pete's pretty good with them, and the boys aren't bad. But I rarely use them at home, because we don't cook much Chinese food, and I grew up eating my mother's Chinese food with a spoon and a fork. I do use one to operate my food processor though, since it broke and Pete drilled out the switch so we wouldn't have to buy a new one.

I am not too bad with them right handed. When I had my rotator cuff on my right shoulder I had a real problem. I am accustomed to eating with my knife in my right and and fork in my left.

I discovered that it was much easier to eat with chop sticks left handed than with just spoon or fork!! It took a bit more attention and concentration but I think I actually better eating with chop sticks left handed.

Indeed wherever one is in the world it is considered equally appropriate to eat sushi with the fingers or with chopsticks. But if you do eat with the fingers, especially in Arab, North African or Middle-Eastern countries, be sure to do it by using only with the right hand.

Best
Rogov

I thought proper etiquette was to eat sushi pieces and rolls with your fingers, not chopsticks.

I think it varies according to the type of restaurant. At the absolutely delicious but more casual and rustic places (i.e. near the market at Tsukiji) I think you'd be fine with fingers. But if you're spending hundreds of dollars in Ginza I think chopsticks are more useful. But I haven't been to Japan in a while so I'm out of touch.

I learned to use chopsticks eating at Chinese restaurants as a child. For a 鬼佬, I consider myself fairly proficient and can eat E Asian rice with no problem. A small anecdote: last night, I was batching it with Andrew (now 5) and asked him where he wanted to go out to dinner. He stated his preference for Japanese food, so we went out to the most traditional Japanese restaurant in town where we sat on the floor to eat. Although he's a picky eater, he loves salmon, rice and edamame, so that's what he had for dinner. He ate all of his salmon and much of his rice with chopsticks, but because he found the rice too difficult to navigate, he ended up eating some with his fingers and the rest I fed him.

So, Jenise: are you better with chopsticks than a five year old?

Mark Lipton

Hey, if the New York Times says it's ok to eat sushi with my fingers, then that's enough for me

I'm laughably terrible with them. But when you don't make a habit to use them, you're only expected to be terrible I guess...

Jeff

Hey, if the New York Times says it's ok to eat sushi with my fingers, then that's enough for me

Both of those articles are by Trevor Corson. Who is he? (I can find plenty of advocates for no-fingers, too.)

I also have to point out that I have used chopsticks with wine. Before I got my nifty broken cork retriever I used to poke the remainder of the broken cork down into the bottle with a chopstick.

Indeed wherever one is in the world it is considered equally appropriate to eat sushi with the fingers or with chopsticks. But if you do eat with the fingers, especially in Arab, North African or Middle-Eastern countries, be sure to do it by using only with the right hand.

Best
Rogov

The only time I've ever used my left hand for those bathroom duties was when I had a broken right shoulder.

Re: Chopsticks vs. Fingers for sushi, I just asked my sis-in-law (my brother's wife, she's Japanese from Tokyo) about this and she said that these days most everyone uses chopsticks for sushi - but the few purists (or those who consider themselves as such) use their fingers. In any event, she said it is polite to use either fingers or chopsticks.

Every once in a while, to show off, I switch the chopsticks to my left hand to eat a few bites. My lefthanded use is not very skilled, since I don't try this very often, but it is adeqaute for grabbing some large chunks of vegetable or meat.

Righthanded, I can do most anything except use the chopsticks like a wedge to pull apart large pieces of meat or fish.

excellent! i'm asian - 'nuf said hahahahaha! but i do feel surprised when i find some people from where i'm from (philippines) still struggle. chinese and japanese food are such a part of our lives, i feel it must be second nature

Further to my previous post, my mentioned regular drinking buddy just informed me that:

1. Either by hand or chopsticks is conidered polite for sushi; and,

2. The more "authentic" or traditional way, though, is to use the hands and place a little shoyu on the fish side.

So, pretty much what my sis-in-law said.

Oh, and Bernie, I was told that using chopsticks left-handed is considered by some older/traditionally raised Japanese folk as "unrefined". Just saying.

N

noel, the left-handed thing does cause some eyebrows to raise

when i went to japan, i noticed a lot of muttering when i used my left hand to feed myself - i am, after all, left-handed. but there does still seem to be this taboo to it