Chopstick Etiquette
Next time you're in Chinatown, take your chopstick skills to the next level with our advanced user guide...
So you have got to grips with the basics of chopsticks, and nineteen out of twenty pieces of chicken now make it from the plate to your mouth without mishap. Well done - but you are not there yet. There is still lots to learn - but if you can remember these, you are almost there.
Do
* Use chopsticks to scoop food from your rice bowl to your mouth. Pick up the bowl in your left hand, supporting it with your fingers, with your thumb on the rim, and scoop away.
* Fold the paper wrapper from your disposable wooden chopsticks to make a chopstick rest, for when you are taking a break from eating. Your chopsticks shouldn't touch the table once the meal has begun.
* Decide what to pick up before you reach with your chopsticks, rather than hovering them over the food or rummaging through it, which is known as digging for treasures' and heavily frowned-upon.
* Extend your chopsticks as far as you can in your fingers when eating with them - or as far as you can without dropping your food. It is considered more elegant.
* Pick noodles out of noodle soup with your chopsticks, put them in your spoon, and eat them that way - rather than slurping them out of the bowl.
* Rest your chopsticks together on top of your bowl or plate when you've finished eating.
* However while many believe that it is perfectly acceptable to lay chopsticks down parallel on top of your bowl, do so with caution as some still interpret this as a sign of dissatisfaction with the meal. Also be wary of building a ‘bridge’ across the bowl with chopsticks, as this too might be considered a sign of bad luck.
Don't
* Pierce food with your chopsticks as if they are a fork, unless you are tearing large items apart with them.
* Point at someone with your chopsticks - any more than you would with a knife and fork. It is considered an insult.
* Tap your chopsticks on the edge of your bowl - just in case you were tempted to. It has connotations of a beggar tapping on his bowl to attract attention.
* Leave your chopsticks stuck vertically into a bowl of food. It resembles the Chinese ritual of burning incense in a bowl of food to honour dead ancestors, and it's the worst chopstick faux pas there is.
