<p>“I eat sushi using hands after I apologize to people at my table.”</p>
<p>Why apologize? This is entirely proper according to Japanese etiquette. You can use either chopsticks or fingers for maki and nigiri.</p>
<p>The key to eating nigiri, whether with chopsticks or hands, is not to dip the rice into the soy sauce. This is improper (it makes the rice fall apart into the sauce). Tip the nigiri onto its side on the plate and pick it up so that one chopstick/finger is touching the rice and the other the topping. Dip it upside down, so that only the topping touches the sauce. Then put it into your mouth upside down in one bite, so that the topping lands on your tongue. You won’t have a problem with the sushi falling apart.</p>
<p>The real issue with chopsticks is that you don’t eat much off Western style plates in China or in much of Asia. The most typical way is to eat out of a small bowl that you raise to your mouth. You then shovel food (politely) instead of trying to pick up individual grains of rice. Stuff served on platters is generally cut to a size that you move a piece or two into your bowl and then to your mouth. </p>
<p>So, in America, I usually get both chopsticks and a fork because I prefer using chopsticks but the plates are meant for forks. I sometimes take a small bowl, the ones they serve rice in, and use that the correct way.</p>
<p>I use a folk with Chinese food and chopsticks with Japanese food. Not sure how these usages evolved other than our Chinese restaurant uses folks as the default utensil; you have to ask for chopsticks if you want to use them. </p>
<p>Glad to know I’m not the only one who has resorted to using my hands to eat sushi - especially when I’m eating nagiri. I just can’t seem to fit it all into my mouth in one bite, and I can never seem to hang on to it with chopsticks when I bite it in half. Some rolls are too big for my mouth, too. I have to use my hands when I bite them in half, also.</p>
<p>The problem I have is that my favorite sushi place makes the nigiri pieces so large that there is no way they are just one bite and they barely stay together just picking them up - forget about the soy sauce dunk. I have had others that were bite size and have tried your recommendation with good results. I often eat salmon nigiri though with no sauce at all.</p>
<p>No chopsticks in Guangdong? What is the world coming to? Maybe use of forks is an affectation in some parts of China, just as chopsticks can be here. Most of my Asian travel certainly dates me, but years ago, forks were not to be found in China, except in Western restaurants frequented by foreigners. I asked a Chinese friend in HK why he was using a fork while eating Chinese food at a westernized place that used dinner sized plates. He stated that chopsticks were for bowls, and too awkward for rice on dinner plates. </p>
<p>Yet I do the same as you, Mantori, usually eat with chopsticks at restaurants, plates or not. But the Chinese takeout I shared with a friend tonight was eaten with forks on plates. </p>
<p>But I always want chopsticks for noodles, no matter the culture. They just work better, if unconcerned about appearances.</p>
<p>You use chopsticks when you’re trying not to mutilate the food (like sushi or fish) or eating something long that is more convenient to pick up with chopsticks (a crab leg, noodles).</p>
<p>Old people eat rice with chopsticks. Not I, unless I don’t have a spoon.</p>
<p>Forks and chopsticks can actually work together…</p>
<p>Using chopsticks is sort of like snare drumming. </p>
<p>You just find that part of your hand where it’s most comfortable to lift the chopstick with the least effort. Westerners should know Archimedes’ mechanical advantage, right? </p>
<p>I find that the main problem for learners is that apply too much pressure and in the wrong spot of their hand. And they try to separate <em>both</em> chopsticks. As a result, not only do they apply too much pressure and tire out their hands, they also separate the chopsticks by too wide an angle that makes it cumbersome to pick up anything.</p>
<p>I am used to eating chinese food with a fork otherwise I am not able to manage to eat it!! I say, go with what you do best and feels most comfortable! Go for the chopsticks and be proud of it!!</p>
<p>In Singapore when you buy to-go (from the street) you might be eating breakfast noodles from a plastic bag. </p>
<p>I think the hawkers expect you to find a bowl (like at home or at the office), but sometimes you’re just so hungry (on the way to school or work) that you’re guzzling noodles with chopsticks while holding the bag (with soup in it!) to your face!</p>
<p>When we visited China a couple of years ago we never even saw silverware in any of the places we visited except for spoons to use for serving. None of us (including 14 year old son) really noticed. If you are hungry, and there is no silverware around you become adept at using chopsticks pretty quickly. Here at home we often use chopsticks if I make a stir fry or if we go to an Asian restaurant.</p>
<p>Once my daughter, son and I went to a Thai restaurant and another customer at a nearby table asked for chopsticks. My daughter (who visited Thailand twice) rolled her eyes and said that they don’t use chopsticks in Thailand!</p>
<p>This is funny from the chopsticks etiquette link:</p>
<p>“Do not use chopsticks as hair accessories
(As suggested by Yong) I know some chopsticks are very pretty. I know that you see photos of kimono-clad maiko-san in Kyoto with pretty chopstick-like sticks in their hair. The are not chopsticks. They are hair ornaments called kanzashi. Chopsticks are for food. You would look silly with a beautiful fork stuck in your hair, yes?”</p>
<p>DS is spending the year in Japan. Sent pictures from a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by his study abroad program and host families. The turkeys were beautifully carved into bite size pieces and then reassembled. They were eaten with chopsticks.</p>
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