In most Asian Countries like China, Japan, Korean Peninsula and Vietnam, food is usually eaten with chopsticks.
These are two long, thin, usually tapered, pieces of wood usually made of bamboo. But now a days, they are made of different quality wood, as well as plastic, porcelain, animal bone, ivory, metal, coral, agate, and jade.
HISTORY
Stage 1
Till the Middle era , Aristocrats were using silver chopsticks as they believed silver would turn color as it comes in contact with poison due to some chemical reaction But later, traces of lemon and garlic juices did the same..
Since boiling was the basic cooking method in Asia, and elsewhere, one should use chopsticks because they are more efficient in picking up the foodstuff (e.g. vegetables) from a stew or any soupy dish.
This was how Japanese miso soup is supposed to be eaten, though many outside Japan use a spoon today. In Japanese meal , grain food was more popular than non-grain food , chopsticks thus were a supplementary element .
Stage 2
The second “push” for the rise of chopsticks in history was the increased consumption of rice throughout Asia, from Vietnam and South China to North China and then to Korea and Japan, from the 11th century onward.
Since cooked rice, which is more consistent than millet, can be transported in clumps, one can now drop the spoon.
And, as non-grain foods—i.e. stew and others—have traditionally been conveyed by the use of chopsticks, so gradually, one need only a pair of them to handle the daily meal in the region, just as the Japanese scholars have observed.
As the time passes by , chopsticks became an “exclusive” eating tool in Japan, so in China and Vietnam.
Korea is an exception because to this day, spoon and chopsticks are still used together as a set by Koreans to eat.
FEATURES OF CHOPSTICKS
- Chopsticks are quite Artistic Sometimes. These are made of lacquered wood and designed with artwork and come in creative chopsticks holder.
- Truly classic chopsticks can be made of gold and imprinted in silver with Chinese calligraphy. In present, Artisans and Craftsman combine variant hardwoods and metal to create absolute distinctive designs.
- “Fork chops” are new invention to chopsticks to be used by insecure Westerners that features chopsticks at one end and forks and knives at the other.
- In Thailand, wood is often intricately carved into chopsticks such that they have rounded or squared ends along with blunt or sharp tips.
