<p>When I lived in Japan (Osaka), I think I saw a fork once, in a Western-style restaurant. Otherwise, everything was eaten with chopsticks or by hand.</p>
<p>On the other hand, in China (Guangdong Province) I never saw chopsticks, only forks and spoons (and plenty of eating by hand).</p>
<p>I am about to meet my wife for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, where I will request chopsticks. Why? I honestly don’t know. Eating Chinese food with chopsticks just feels right. I honestly can’t stand eating Chinese food with a fork.</p>
<p>Because I usually manage to ruin the cheap wooden chopsticks provided in most restaurants while trying to break them apart, I am glad that a fork is provided.</p>
<p>I prefer eating with chopsticks although arthritis makes it difficult.
I think it changes the taste of the food- similar to having an appropriate wine glass w wine.</p>
<p>Chopsticks for Chinese food, except when it comes to tofu, I then use a spoon. It is strange outside of China to bring a bowl of rice to one’s mouth, it is very hard to pick up soft tofu with chopsticks.</p>
<p>I learned to use chopsticks several years ago, but rarely use them. When I visited China I chose to use them even though I could have requested a fork.</p>
<p>We virtually always use chopsticks in both Japanese and Chinese restaurants (and if not given one of those flat-bottomed spoons with miso soup will indeed pick the bowl up to my mouth). Funny thing, though. When we do take-out, we still use chopsticks for Japanese food, but more frequently use silverware for take-out Chinese. As I think about this , it doesn’t seem to make sense, but I am thinking the take-out from Chinese restaurants frequently doesn’t come with chopsticks, whereas the Japanese take-out always does. Every now and then my H (who grew up on a Japanese Island) will select silverware when I select chopsticks. That always feels weird.</p>
<p>I do not posses skill of using chopsticks. I use fork instead of hands. Although, I eat sushi using hands after I apologize to people at my table. In Japanese restaurant that I go, they provide basket with warmed wet towels before dinner, so I do not feel too bad using my hands eating sushi.</p>
<p>I wash my hands before I eat & some restaurants also provide warm hand towels-
I like to eat with my hands- that is how I generally eat pizza although in a restaurant I have tried to eat sushi with chopsticks.
African food I eat with my hands ( with injera bread), cupcakes, & sandwiches.</p>
<p>I love using wooden chopsticks, but have no use for the plastic ones given in some restaurants. But I have heard that wooden chopsticks are responsible for the deforestation of most of the pine forests in Asia. As usual, there are no simple answers.</p>
<p>Eat nigiri and rolls with fingers - well made sushi will fall apart with chopsticks. Eat sashimi with chopsticks. I don’t have a rule with Chinese food - I use whatever is convenient and easier.</p>
<p>chopsticks unless it’s a rice dish…I don’t like picking the bowl up.
For years I used a fork in an Asian restaurant…and my H and S would rib me about it. Then i had to go to Japan for a trip so I made it my business to learn how to use them. Hard to find forks there! I like them now…but I agree that the wooden are preferred…the plastic are too slippery.</p>
<p>chopsticks, always! Funny story digression-DH learned to use chopsticks in college when he went out to eat with a bunch of friends and no forks were provided. Everyone else at the table knew how to use the chopsticks, and it became immediately evident to DH that if he didn’t master the art right then and there, he wouldn’t be eating during that meal, because his friends weren’t waiting for him. ;)</p>