ChopStick Helpers for Lazy People

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amerikajinchop

I just came across this article (which we’ll talk about more below), which made me think… why are you so lazy!? Of course, I’m only talking to those of you who don’t know how to use chopsticks (or hashi, in Japanese). If you’re heading to Japan (or most Asian countries) you should probably get on that, or just use one of these horrible inventions down below. It’s like putting kids with minor learning disabilities into special classes to make things easier on them. Not so good in the long run.

chopstickaidThis one came from SeriousEats which makes me want to SeriousThrowUp. This product doesn’t even let you use chop sticks in a way that’s like chop sticks at all, but I suppose if you’re really really lazy and don’t want to spend a few days learning how to use chop sticks (which really are completely superior to forks … debate below) then go for it… though, why not just bring a fork and save the trouble?

helperchopsticks-1024x768

This is something I came across at a Japanese restaurant in Washington (State). I think it’s the most clever rendition, but still lazy. It’s just rolled up chop stick wrappers in between, plus a rubber band. I didn’t get a chance to try it out, but this is something anybody could do (or, you could spend the time learning how to use chop sticks). [Source]

mid

This is one that I’ve seen around the Internets quite a bit. I suppose there’s a niche / product for everything, huh? [source]

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I know this article is all about products that make using chop sticks easier, but this looks like it’s going to make using chop sticks harder. No springiness or anything. So, I suppose if you’ve already figured out that chop sticks thing, and want another challenge, I think this guy’s for you. [source]

Really, chopsticks are so much better than forks. That’s right, I just went there. Try eating salad with a fork, nothing gets penetrated. Chop sticks? Just pick it up. What do you think? Chopsticks or Forks? Let the battle commence in the comments!

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  • WOTDsctoo

    Chopsticks + Knife just seemed unappealing to me, but I didn't even think of the dominant hand point! It would be craaazy akward.

    And I think the spoon can seperate from the fork/knife.
    Even if you slurp things like soup, someone mentioned ice cream above I believe, and I would eat ice cream with a spoon after eating with chopsticks. :)

  • WOTDsctoo

    >>You know, when you're a drooling toddler and your parents are constantly helping you hold your food to your face?

    Hahahaha, seriously! Lovely image.
    But people are typically much more resistant to that type of humiliation when they're older, no?

  • http://www.ninjatofu.com Per-Gunnar

    well, isn't finding a TRUE steak in japan tough enough?

  • http://www.ninjatofu.com Per-Gunnar

    You would likewise burn yourself on the food, thats all we're saying.

  • http://turning-iwatean.blogspot.com/ kanmuri

    I agree, chopsticks are better than forks. I also think people should make more efforts to learn how to use chopsticks.

  • http://erikagrace303.deviantart.com erika303

    Sigh… if you blow on the ramen, the food's no longer hot, but the fork hidden underneath is still hot, whereas chopsticks wouldn't have gotten hot in the first place. All I'm saying is what happened to me the other day. My one little comment really didn't need to be the start of some big debate.

  • http://erinreina.toffeenut.org/ Oliver

    I'll have to go with chopstick. Even though I was grown to use a fork, chopstick is my superior utensil. I have to agree that those products are just a way to make people lazy about using traditional chopstick.

  • Tyler

    I think it's also because an emperor in China from long ago decided that blades were aggressive, and he wanted to instate a peaceful way among China. I could be very wrong, but it was fun to hear a while ago.

  • http://www.chris-ballard.blogspot.com Chris

    I was very hungry…I learned fast. This stuff should be in the “novelty” section.

  • レイカ♥

    would bladed chopsticks just be teo knives? 0_0

  • Isa

    Never! I can't stand iceberg. Romaine, butterhead and whatever that purple-ish-on-top one is are where it's at. I can't really imagine lettuce floppier than butterhead – what kind of impotent lettuce do they grow over there?

  • Mikoto

    I suppose so, hehe, but to me the road to a goal is much funner than fulfilling the goal some times. I guess looking like a drooling toddler was fun for me XD

  • WOTDsctoo

    Hahaha, fair enough. XD

  • http://www.luiyuming.com astrorainfall

    Chopsticks – somehow noodles and rice just taste better with 'em.

  • http://veronicahebs.blogspot.com Veronica

    What a coinky dink!

    I took my grandma to get bento boxes in Houston last week – she's 80 and she'd NEVER EATEN Japanese food before!!! (she's a Mid-Western barn -raised girl) I couldn't believe it.

    The waitress gave her FunChops since she was having trouble with her salmon :)

  • Kamizushi

    I'm more about forks. mainly becose I alowes let my plate clean/empty. its easyer with a fork. I could also lick my plate but … nah bad idia on a restorant

  • ihaXsakito

    I think I saw these while watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 one night. I seriously think I should suggest these to my aunt. She always looks at me with amazment when we get takeout or whatever and I can use the chopsticks and she can't ^^. Anyways on the great salad debate I have to side with Chopsticks my letus is weak. But eating with your fingers pwns, I mean it might be childish but gosh it's so much easier

  • Cath

    for most foods chopsticks are the best! =D
    but with my many years of experience, i don't think it is possible to eat spaghetti with chopsticks … so far a fork has been the better answer.( i know it's stupid, but it's actually the only thing i can cook right now… i am a really bad cook…)

    but in general, everything is always tastes better with chopsticks

  • Jomann

    I personally think that using chopsticks to eat your food is better anyway, because most western cultures use forks and don't take time to enjoy their food, with chopsticks its a bit trickier to eat fast so you are forced to slow down, and your end up enjoying your food, also it helps your stomach. When I went to seattle last weekend my dad used a fork and my sister and I used chopsticks, so my dad ended up feeling full really fast haha.

  • CuriousKitty

    I've never found eating salad with a fork hard, towards that argument.
    As for the whole fork/chopstick debate, I think they both have their place. I didn't find learning to use chopsticks very difficult, once I got used to it.
    I personally can't use chopsticks for very long sometimes. My hand ends up aching after a while. I was told that sometimes happens and at times it's best to use one of the inventions above, the one that uses the rubber band and the rolled up wrapper.
    On another note it took me a few seconds to realize the first one was actually something other than a chopstick holder.

  • がいじん

    I eat everything with chopsticks even though I am whiter than Michael Jackson.
    Snickers bars, steaks, M&Ms…

  • mochiifiish

    I actually was taught to use chopsticks when I was 4 or 5 years old, and no one in my family is of Asian descent (not that it really matters, tons of Asian people use forks and spoons and such). My grandmother just wanted me to know proper eating etiquette no matter where I was, or what I was using. She also made me walk with a book on my head but that's another story….

    Back to the chopstick/fork debate. I have to admit, eating a salad is really easy with chopsticks, but if you have a proper salad fork, it's easier to pierce the lettuce and therefore also a great choice. Steak on the other hand is easier with forks.

    I guess I would say that chopsticks are good for small pieces of food, or things like noodles, whereas forks are great for big things like steaks, chicken breasts, or things like non-sticky rice, etc.

  • Sky

    that is quite sad… no seriously. i mean it just saying asian are smarter than Americans… and like just making Americans painfully see more of this.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Being able to use chopsticks doesn't make anyone smarter than anyone else. Chopsticks are used a lot more in Asia, so of course Asian people are better at using them. If Americans (or any non-Asians) began using chopsticks as children, I'm sure they would be just as proficient with them.

  • http://www.aggitan.blogspot.com/ aggitan

    I'm so hardcore I eat with METAL chopsticks. The fork-chops are cute though. I could see myself using those.

  • Melly

    Once, I went to a japanese restaurant with my family. I think I was 13 at the time~ they also gave out those strange chopstick wrappers + rubber bands for those who did not know how to use chopsticks. Growing up in a chinese family, I learned how to use chopsticks when I was like, 3. So the japanese restaurant gave me one of those “training chopsticks.” I felt so insulted by pretty much being called a banana. :C

    anyway~

    My dad is also chinese and was raised in america, so he prefers using forks+plates. I actually like using small bowls and chopsticks with my meals because it feels so much more ~ polite. You take smaller bites and you don't look like you're going to eat a mountain of food, haha. So I personally think chopsticks are better just because it looks more polite. C:

  • Yu

    The best part is that we didn't even invent the fork. China did. Then again I swear China invented like half of what we use today…

  • sourkidd

    HANDS FTW. thankyoo.

  • aliene

    I eat my salad with chopsticks too…much easier in my opinion. If you got skills, you can pick up even itty-bitty pieces with chopsticks…but the teeth on some forks are really thick and you can't really pierce anything with them.

    Oh btw, not all people born and bred in Asia use chopsticks proficiently. I've seen “foreigners” here using chopsticks the right way and locals sticking their fingers all over the place and crossing the chopsticks etc. Parents aren't quite as strict with such things as their parents once were.

    anyhow…eating with your hands can be challenging too. Try eating rice with your hands…rice with gravy. You sort of have to sweep everything into a mound, then pick it up.

    Bah, you have to be dexterous to eat anything at all without being spoon-fed hahahha

  • BarbJ

    I'm a Caucasian who grew up in California and learned how to use chopsticks in when I was about 8. I like them and find them quite easy to use.

    It's not any harder to learn than a knife and fork, easier actually than the American way of using a knife and fork, as opposed to the European way.

    As for the salad, I think it depends on how the lettuce is prepared. If it's shredded like most Asian salads, chopsticks work well, if it's torn up larger, then a fork is good. And if it's in such big pieces that you have to use your knife to cut it first, then some one in the kitchen is an idiot!

    By the way, I don't usually stab my salad, that is hard and kind of bad manners. Really you are supposed to slide the fork under the lettuce, shake it a touch to drop off the extra and then bring it to your mouth. At least that's how I was taught, especially if it's on a plate. A little stabbing is OK, but don't attack the lettuce like you want to kill it!

    Also, I think the fork for Asian foods also comes from Asian restaurants catering to western tastes and using long-grain rice. It is nearly impossible to eat long-grain rice with chopsticks, it falls apart. Scoop method with a fork is the only easy way. Myself, if I go to an Asian restaurant that uses long-grain rice for anything other than a curry, I just won't go back, and usually the rest of the food isn't so good either.

    I like to use the utensil the food was originally designed for. If the food is prepared correctly than the correct utensil will work.

    Except those cheap plastic chopsticks in restaurants. Why do they have those? Everything slide through! I'd rather have the cheap wood ones, at least they have some texture to them.

    I have some nice wood ones I use at home, love them.

  • Kimmi

    I totally love using chopsticks, I find it so easy!!! Sometimes I ask my friends if they can eat with them and most of them answer: no it's too complicated. I agree with Chopstick+Knife combination… they should call it the Chopknife :P.

  • Chimiko

    I don't want to argue which one I prefer, chopsticks or forks… Never mind sporks, but that's a completely different topic…

    Anyway. I am Chinese by birth and I've always used chopsticks wrongly. I had difficulties picking up slippery things or round thing, and my father, who is a very fastidious man, forced me to learn how to use chopsticks the “correct” way… By picking up marbles from a can and transferring it to another can…. I know. It sounds convoluted, but as a last resort, if you still can't get it to work right, try this, it should work…

    So, I use the chopsticks quite well now… >.> Everyone should learn, just for culture divisity sakes if nothing else.

  • Kimmi

    Personnally I really enjoy being able to use chopsticks. Like right now, I am eating a bowl of cereal with chopsticks… please don't ask me why.. I don't even know myself. It goes really well with cheerios:P I also love eating with chopsticks because I get to surprise myself, like when I ate sheperds pie with chopsticks… I can do really weird things sometimes…. My friends always ask me how I do it, I just say I practice, I don't really. I'm a Canadian but I learned how to use chopsticks when I was 4 in a restaurant. They gave me the chopstick helper thingy, but I got it the first time, so instead, I gave them to my mom… lol!!

  • http://www.amberlen.com Keyla

    hashi are way way way better than forks…IMO
    they also are way more comfortable to use. I mean everything is weird till you get used to it, but forks are balky and very uncomfortable. I like that weird fork thing you stick to your hashi, i mean yeah i think its the stupidest thing ever…..if your going to turn them into a fork….why not just use a fork or bring one along…so funny. Very interesting though, never new anyone created something like that.

  • Ali

    I think the chopstick helpers with rubber bands are mostly for children- when I was young I used them a couple times, since i had trouble eating without the “training wheels”.

    Since then I've learned to use and prefer the chopsticks when eating chinese and japanese food.

    The fork add-on is weird, but I can see my parents bringing it along just in case… >< they'll get it eventually.

  • Yuki

    Why spoons when you can just eat it like rice?

    Put the bowl up to your mouth and scoop it/ break it up with the chopsticks and POP! fits right into your mouth.

    XD

    Though yeah, Chopsticks for the win. Could sporks possibly win this debate?

  • mydnyt

    lol, I'm Filipina and I was taught to eat with a spoon AND fork. Yes, you heard me, spoon on the dominant hand, fork on the other. That's how we do it in the Philippines. Learning how to use chopsticks took only a few moments though and I love using them whenever it's an option. I don't like those wooden oblong ones though. I much prefer the square ones. And actually found it a bit weird to use a fork first time I tried eating rice with it.

    PS
    I also know how to eat rice on a flat plate with my hands. There's actually a technique in that and it's a good thing to know whenever we run out of plastic utensils on a trip to the beach or the mountains.

  • http://www.lionsdeal.com/dining-and-tabletop.html dinnerware

    A chopstick is always 2 sticks.. It 2 is better than one right?? but for me.. spoon and fork is better to use..

  • HLMozart

    Sadly, he's right…at least for Koreans. I had a friend they did that to.

  • Miku_Sakurai

    Personally, I actually get uncomfortable when I have to use a fork or spoon for certain things.
    At a Chinese restaurant I went to a few days ago we were given special spoons for the soup, and I felt embarrassed that I was just using my chopsticks to pick up the noodles and picking up the bowl and slurping the broth down.
    Ummm…is that weird?

  • me

    I really don't care what I utensil I use; I'll use whatever as long as I can eat the food using it… Hehe i kinda sound like a fatty…

  • hatman900

    I think I like chopsticks better, they just have more awsominity.

  • mila

    I love chopsticks as much as the next person, and I eat with them all the time, but I don't see how eating salad with chopsticks is better than eating it with a fork. I actually went to a restaurant with a friend just last week and we got salads and a bento box each, and that was the first time I had never been handed a fork for my salad. And while I am really good with chopsticks, I found it kind of awkward eating the salad with the chopsticks. I mean, I didn't have a hard time by any means, but it was definitely awkward. With a fork, you can fold the lettuce and control the size, but with chopsticks, you can't as well, and you get a lot of pieces that are too big for your mouth. and, with a fork, you can make sure you get all the goodies in the salad in one bite by stabbing each thing individually for one saladly-diverse bite, but with chopsticks, you have to eat all the different things separately.

    So, while I agree that chopsticks are awesome, I don't agree that they are superior. In most cases I would rather use chopsticks, but I think the fork has it's place for many things, like salads and, as many have mentioned, steaks XD

  • mikimiki

    Now, I'm in Japan, and I'm eating my lunch at a cafeteria. They serve knife, folk, spoon, and chopsticks all at once, so I actually use knife with chopsticks. My friends say nothing about it XD

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  • poppinyouall

    Snacksticks are actually very easy to use, they had them at a restaurant near me.
    Although I always used to complain about chopsticks, they are actually much easier to use htan a knife and fork. It took me a couple of days to use chopsticks well, it took me several years (I WAS a baby) to PROPERLY use western cutlery.

  • Kanoe

    Chopsticks! I like carrying them around in my purse to use to eat salads. They are also really good for eating messy/ greasy snack foods like garlic fries or Hurricane Popcorn (a Hawai'i favorite: popcorn covered in butter, furikake, an arare). Funny thing, it took me forever to learn how to use chopstick. For some strange reason I was only able to figure out how to use chopsticks after I started studying Japanese in college.

  • Kanoe

    Chopsticks! I like carrying them around in my purse to use to eat salads. They are also really good for eating messy/ greasy snack foods like garlic fries or Hurricane Popcorn (a Hawai'i favorite: popcorn covered in butter, furikake, an arare). Funny thing, it took me forever to learn how to use chopstick. For some strange reason I was only able to figure out how to use chopsticks after I started studying Japanese in college.

  • Chaals

    I live in an area where there are many asian people, and thus have seen people eating in the way Yuki described. Honestly, it's probably legit if done right, but oftentimes when I see scooping it involves disgusting slurping and chomping. If you like etiquette and having dinner guests, I wouldn't suggest this method.

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