In Beijing China, there are so much new experience you will learn, and of course, such experience if you decide to stay in this city, must be part of your life.
One of such experiences which as a foreigner you must see as something unique, bizarre and perhaps difficult to master, is using chopsticks for eating.
In China, knife, spoon and fork on the dining table are ‘useless’. Forget about them and embrace chopsticks. Every kind of food here is eaten with chopsticks.
Chopsticks are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks that have been used as kitchen and eating utensils in virtually all over China.
For beginners, honestly speaking, chopsticks can be tricky to manage at first.
Historically, in ancient times, chopsticks were called 'Zhu'. At that time, Chinese ancestors liked to steam or boil food.
It was difficult for them to use spoons to dip vegetables in the soup. So they cleverly invented 'Zhu' to nip food, thus it has become the most convenient tableware in their lives until today.
Chinese people are familiar with the use of chopsticks and many foreigners, including myself, are interested in but find it so hard how to use them.
Well, it is quite tricky for beginners to use chopsticks for the first time. But actually it can be easy after some practice.
One of my Chinese friends told me that apart from being part of the culture, chopsticks boost enjoyment as people get more focused and engaged, even though they were eating a familiar food, which led them to perceive the experience as a better one when it comes to proper meals.
For me, I find it time wasting as using chopsticks will make me take small mouthfuls which tend not to give me that full taste of the food.
Looking at the chopsticks hurriedly and the way Chinese are using them to take food from the bowls in that a sophisticated and fashionable style, you could just think it is a very easy exercise that every layman can do.
To be honest, it is more than placing chopstick between your index finger and thumb --it comes with more sciences and techniques.
Christophe Oswero contributes to the article. The ideas expressed are the author's alone, and do not represent the position of our website.
