Although chopsticks are small kitchen member, they are an indispensable eating tool in people's life. People learn how to hold chopsticks since they were young, and the table manners derived from chopsticks show the important impact of chopsticks on life. Chopsticks are not only a living tool, but also a symbol representing human civilization. How much do you know about chopsticks, which are usually very inconspicuous? Want to know who invented chopsticks? Chopsticks of various colors and materials, which one is better? Don't worry, the following will unveil the mystery of chopsticks for you.
1. Who invented chopsticks
China is the birthplace of chopsticks. It has a history of at least 3,000 years to eat with chopsticks. It is the region where people eat with chopsticks in the world. Chopsticks seem to be just two very simple sticks, but they have the functions of picking, pulling, clamping, mixing, grilling, etc., and are easy to use, cheap and high-quality. Chopsticks are also a unique tableware in the world today. Chopsticks are a product of the slow evolution of humans in Asia, and were not invented by anyone.
2. Countries where chopsticks are used
All countries in the world use chopsticks as their daily eating tools, including Chinese in China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Singapore and Malaysia. Dietary tools in other countries can be broadly divided into two categories: European, American, and Latin American countries that use the western food system of knives, forks, and spoons; countries that use hand-picked rice, including Africa, West Asia, India, and Southeast Asia, all countries except Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysian Chinese.
3. What material is good for chopsticks?
Chinese chopsticks can be roughly divided into five categories, namely bamboo and wooden chopsticks, metal chopsticks, dental bone chopsticks, jade chopsticks, and chemical chopsticks.
Bamboo and wooden chopsticks: The most primitive chopsticks in China are also the chopsticks that people use the most materials from ancient times to the present. There are many kinds of wooden chopsticks, such as mahogany, nanmu, jujube, and holly wood, all of which can be used to make chopsticks.
Metal chopsticks: bronze chopsticks, gold chopsticks, silver chopsticks, copper chopsticks, iron chopsticks and stainless steel chopsticks. Expensive gold chopsticks are a symbol of luxury in the royal palace, and silver chopsticks have a good disinfection effect.
Teeth bone chopsticks: mainly made of ivory and animal bones such as cattle, camel, deer, etc., and tortoiseshell chopsticks made of sea turtle shells are also available. The dental bones are ingeniously inlaid together with exquisite carvings to become a beautiful work of art.
Jade chopsticks: It can be called a treasure among chopsticks, and roughly includes white marble, suet jade, and jadeite. Because jade itself is relatively expensive, this kind of chopsticks are of high grade, and generally only the royal palace nobles and famous families can enjoy them.
Chemical chopsticks: It is the product of the development of modern science, generally made of melamine, plastic, etc. This kind of chopsticks is very popular because of its high quality and low price.
4. Tips for choosing chopsticks
1. Do not buy chopsticks painted with colored paint, because the heavy metal lead and organic solvent benzene in the paint are carcinogenic and will fall off with wear and tear, and enter the human body with food.
2. The texture of plastic chopsticks is relatively brittle, and it is easy to deform and melt after being heated, thereby producing harmful substances to the human body.
3. The texture of bone chopsticks is good, but it is easy to change color, and the price is relatively expensive.
4. Silver, stainless steel and other metal chopsticks are too heavy, feel bad, and have strong thermal conductivity. Eating overheated food is easy to burn your mouth.
5. Bamboo chopsticks are non-toxic and harmless, and very environmentally friendly. Since most people cannot judge whether the paint is healthy, it is recommended to choose natural-color paint-free chopsticks as much as possible.
6. Try to choose wooden chopsticks with higher density and fine texture. However, due to material reasons, bamboo chopsticks and wooden chopsticks are not easy to clean and will be contaminated by pathogenic microorganisms, so they should be disinfected frequently.
5. How to hold chopsticks correctly
Chinese people have a long history of using chopsticks as tableware, and they pay a lot of attention to the process of using chopsticks. Generally, when using chopsticks, the correct method is to hold the chopsticks with the right hand, pinch the upper end of the chopsticks with the thumb and forefinger, and hold the chopsticks with the other three fingers naturally bent, and the two ends of the chopsticks must be aligned.
Handling method 1: use the thumb, index finger and middle finger to control the upper chopstick: pinch the thumb, index finger, and middle finger, the upper chopstick can move, and the lower chopstick should be fixed (usually pressed by the tiger's mouth and ring finger), and only move the upper chopstick food with chopsticks
Holding method 2: use the thumb and index finger to control the upper chopstick: pinch the thumb and index finger, the upper chopstick can be moved, and the lower chopstick should be fixed (usually pressed by the tiger's mouth and middle finger), and only move the upper chopstick to hold the food
Handling method 3: Put the heads of the two chopsticks together, and clamp the chopsticks tip to tip. Try to use the tip of the chopsticks to pick it up. If necessary, put your left hand under the food to support it, so as to avoid food dripping before it is delivered to the mouth.
6. Special usage of chopsticks
Used as a dowry: "Chopsticks, chopsticks, give birth quickly." One is to pray for a child, hoping to give birth to a precious child early, and the other is to hope that the young couple will be in pairs like chopsticks and never separate.
Used for divination: Chopsticks were often used as divination tools in ancient times, called "Chopsticks". In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, in the Southern Tang Dynasty, chopstick divination was popular every time the Lantern Festival came on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The ancients also believed that chopsticks had divinity, and they could observe and analyze life and the future by using chopsticks.
7. Chopsticks Etiquette and Taboos
Etiquette
1. After picking up the food, it should not be put back on the plate.
2. Do not use chopsticks to point at people or point fingers while eating.
3. Do not insert chopsticks into a bowl of rice or rice. This is the method of placement of ancestral offerings, and there are ominous signs.
4. Do not compete with other people's chopsticks.
5. When going to a banquet, you should not move your chopsticks (spoons) before the host.
6. In some countries, you wait for the guest (or the oldest person present) to move before eating.
7. During the meal, if you have raised your chopsticks but don't know which dish to eat, you should not move your chopsticks back and forth among the dishes or swim in the air, and turn back and forth on the dish without picking up the food.
8. When talking at the banquet, don't use chopsticks as props and dance randomly; or use chopsticks to knock on the table of dishes and dishes, and use chopsticks to point others. Put down the chopsticks gently every time you finish using them, try not to make any noise.
Contraindications
1. Three long and two short: Before or during the meal, avoid placing chopsticks of uneven length on the table. This practice is considered unlucky and represents death.
2. Immortals pointing the way: This method of holding chopsticks is to hold the chopsticks with the thumb, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger, while the index finger sticks out. This is called "swearing at the street" in the eyes of Beijingers, and it is unacceptable .
3. Taste the chopsticks and keep the sound: the method is to hold one end of the chopsticks in the mouth, suck back and forth with the mouth, and make a hissing sound from time to time. This practice is considered to be a lack of tutoring.
4. Knock on the cup: knock the bowl with chopsticks when eating. Because in the past only beggars hit the begging bowl with chopsticks, and the sound it made was matched with the pleading in their mouths to attract the attention of passers-by and give them alms. This practice is very impolite.
5. Touring the city with chopsticks: Holding chopsticks in hand, picking and choosing at the table, this kind of behavior is a typical lack of self-cultivation, which is very disgusting.
6. Laizhu leftover beads: when using chopsticks to pick up vegetables on one's own plate, one's hand is not smooth, and the vegetable soup is dripped into other dishes or on the table. This is considered a gross faux pas.
7. Upside down: use chopsticks upside down when eating, this practice is very looked down upon by people, as the so-called hunger is so hungry that you don't care about your face, so it is absolutely not allowed to turn your chopsticks upside down.
8. Dinghaishenzhen: Use a chopstick to insert the dishes on the plate when eating, which will be considered as a kind of humiliation to the diners at the same table. Doing this kind of behavior while eating is tantamount to extending the middle finger to people in Europe.
9. Serving incense in public: Insert the chopsticks directly on the rice, because the ancient people would put the last bowl of "rice" in front of the coffin after death, and put a pair of chopsticks directly on the rice called "offering chopsticks". Chopsticks. It is not allowed to insert chopsticks into the rice while eating.
10. Cross cross: place the chopsticks on the table casually when eating. This is wrong, because Beijingers believe that striking a fork at the dinner table is a complete negation of other people at the same table.
11. Shocked by the ground: Dropping the chopsticks on the ground by mistake is a sign of serious faux pas.
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