Here's my Chinese carryout cuisine tip:

Keep a small styrofoam cooler in your trunk.
Hot Chinese carryout gets home hot.

So does hot carryout BBQ American food. And hot carryout German, Italian and Jamaican. Our Polish restaurant closed, so I cannot attest to that. We never had a Wolfies in our little town.

They aren't just for getting cherry ice cream home while still frozen anymore.

Chopsticks? I can barely hold on to my fork.

RogueJSK is right, Asian food in general is prepared in a manner that is conducive to using chopsticks, but as I said earlier, some things are eaten differently in Asia, such as shrimp still in the shell.

A former girlfriend of mine was a great cook and used long chopsticks while cooking. You can stir, mix, toss, drop things in oil to deep fry (Calamai) and get them out easily.

But you never get a piece of meat in Asia that you have to cut with a knife and fork, unless you go to a restaurant with western cuisine. All the cutting is done in the kitchen.

I use both fork/knife/spoon and chopsticks. Equally adept with both styles. Like mentioned above, it's a matter of how food is plated and presented. Japanese food in particular is made with chopsticks in mind. Korean food mostly so; modern days it's common to have tongs and scissors table side and almost always spoons. Chinese food depends but largely so as well.

There are many things I will eat at home w/ chopsticks, including italian style pasta (noodles, not things like rigatoni or lasagna or other non-stringy noodles). I tend to use fork and knife only when the dish needs to be cut (like steak). I'll even use chopsticks with eggs in the morning (fried, omelet, scrambled, etc). And especially salads. I HATE eating salads with a fork. That drives me crazy.

I do prefer Japanese style chopsticks over Korean and Chinese. I especially avoid Korean (the thin, heavy metal ones); I can use them but they are not comfortable.

And always wood chopsticks for noodles (the cheap take out chopsticks are good).

Chinese take out around here (basically just 1 mom/pop place or Panda) uses the fancy plastic reusable boxes or styrofoam - not the paper boxes with the metal handle. Of the other Chinese restaurants around here, I'd rather go to Panda. And Chinese food around here, other than dim sum, is not really Chinese food. Would love to have a shanghainese or taiwan/mandarin style restaurant around here. I really miss taiwan style xiao tzr (small dish cuisine).

As has been said, Chopsticks are far superior for noodles and some other foods.

For rice, sticky rice in particular, I don't squeeze the rice, but more scoop it with the chopsticks.

For me, chopsticks are great for the way I eat, take a piece of meat, put a little piece of grilled garlic on top, maybe a little seasoned sesame leaf, and top it with a little dab of some sauce, this assembly for the perfect bite isn't possible with fork or spoon unless I get my fingers involved.

I have far more dexterity with chopsticks than I do a fork.

With all that said I would say I am usually about 50/50 between fork and chopstick use.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Equally adept with both styles. Like mentioned above, it's a matter of how food is plated and presented. Japanese food in particular is made with chopsticks in mind. Korean food mostly so; modern days it's common to have tongs and scissors table side and almost always spoons. Chinese food depends but largely so as well.

Asian food is largely prepared cut-up in smaller sizes so it cooks faster along with the ease to pick-up with a chopstick. I'm sure you know, if the item is too big, perfectly acceptable to pick-it up and chew off the piece, a table manner fopaux in Western cultures.
On the flip-side, only Northern Asian cultures use chopsticks. SE Asian cultures (Thai, Philippines, Malay, Indonesia, India, etc...) use spoons and sometimes forks. Vietnam sits right in the middle: ethnic cousins to southern Chinese, neighbors to Malay cultures, former French colony.

quote:

I do prefer Japanese style chopsticks over Korean and Chinese. I especially avoid Korean (the thin, heavy metal ones); I can use them but they are not comfortable.

I'll take the Chinese chopsticks over the others, Japanese and Korean chopsticks I find too thin. I know metal is culturally important in Korean culture, never liked the metal chopsticks, the metal tea cups drive me up the wall...too hot!

quote:

Of the other Chinese restaurants around here, I'd rather go to Panda.

That's really rough if Panda is your best option. While it'll do in a pinch, and I very much appreciate that the items are actually cooked prior to getting put into the warming tray, Panda is entry-level Chinese-American.

There are a number of Chinese restaurants locally / neighborhood. And it seems like they have some variety until you figure out all the dishes use the same brown sauce and you’re just picking a meat and a veggie. I don’t really consider Panda as Chinese food but I’d rather go there. There’s only one Chinese restaurant that I’ll go to but even they are rather limited and more Cantonese in style. I’ll go there not because I want Chinese food but because I don’t feel like cooking.

There are more decent Chinese and Korean restaurants if I’m willing to drive about 45 min each way. As far as I’m concerned, there are no real Japanese restaurants in my greater metro area. I have not been to a Japanese restaurant in years. Only when I go to OR or Japan. I’m more flexible with Chinese or Korean food. I’m very particular about Japanese food, especially sushi.

I hate the metal used by Koreans as well. Mostly the metal rice bowl because I’m used to picking it up and the metal is too dang hot. But I learned that it’s rude to pick up plates and rice bowl when eating unlike in Chinese or even Japanese style. The saving grace is that it’s common to use a spoon to eat rice Korean style. Korean dinner table settings are hazardous, everything is hot, pointy or sharp.

Panda Express is to Chinese Food like Taco Bell is to Mexican Food... Yuck.

I stick to Dim Sum (usually ToGo), given the choice, or the occasional Americanized dishes at a good local joint (Orange Beef or Kung Pao Shrimp or something).

Most towns of any size beyond Bullshit have 1+ decent local joints.

I have a hard time with egg drop soup and chopsticks. Besides, I have yet to come across a set of left-handed chopsticks.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I have a hard time with egg drop soup and chopsticks. Besides, I have yet to come across a set of left-handed chopsticks.

You're doing it wrong. Hardboil your eggs, cube them, drop the pieces into the hot broth and serve immediately.

If you are white and use chopsticks, you are racist! There! Someone finally said it!

When I was in China or Taiwan, if I requested a fork, they always had them available no matter how small the restaurant. I suppose some private homes may not have had them but I never encountered that either. I have arthritis in my hands from years as a mechanic and chopsticks are only good for spearing food in my case.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
Here's my Chinese carryout cuisine tip:

Keep a small styrofoam cooler in your trunk.
Hot Chinese carryout gets home hot.

So does hot carryout BBQ American food. And hot carryout German, Italian and Jamaican. Our Polish restaurant closed, so I cannot attest to that. We never had a Wolfies in our little town.

They aren't just for getting cherry ice cream home while still frozen anymore.

Just a FYI, I've been going to Hawaii every year since 1983 and virtually all the locals do this.

Took me a while to figure out why.

Yes, I do, when the family is out. But, our local takeout place doesn’t use the cardboard boxes anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:

Keep a small styrofoam cooler in your trunk. Hot Chinese carryout gets home hot . . . getting cherry ice cream home while still frozen

Wait. You are saying that a styrofoam container can keep things hot? And the same container can keep things cold?

How do it know?

Most of our local restaurants have adopted the plastic round containers and only use the old paper boxes for rice itself.

I’m slow with chopsticks, but our kids are proficient. My late Chinese father-in-law could eat oil-coated tiny peanuts with chopsticks one at a time and never drop one…

I could be the entertainment during Dim Sum and have ruined many white tablecloths attempting to eat "Ha Cheung” (light rice noodles, or cheung fun, wrapped around plump shrimp doused in a sweet soy sauce) with chopsticks.
Somehow I always drop the things...

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
I could be the entertainment during Dim Sum and have ruined many white tablecloths attempting to eat "Ha Cheung” (light rice noodles, or cheung fun, wrapped around plump shrimp doused in a sweet soy sauce) with chopsticks.
Somehow I always drop the things...

I can empathize. Slippery things, those are. Those types of things, and soup noodles (noodles in general) are supposed to be eaten with wooden square chopsticks (ie - like the cheap take out kind; but hopefully better ones available) and not the plastic round (or even square) ones endemic in most chinese restaurants.

And it's annoying when you ask the server to cut the things with scissors, they always only do it halfway - like, what's the point? Koreans may have it right - each table gets a pair of scissors (or two; one for raw meat, one for ready food like kimchee).

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I can empathize. Slippery things, those are. Those types of things, and soup noodles (noodles in general) are supposed to be eaten with wooden square chopsticks (ie - like the cheap take out kind; but hopefully better ones available) and not the plastic round (or even square) ones endemic in most chinese restaurants.

The chopsticks that I use at home are the best of both worlds. They're square and plastic, but have a lightly granulated textured on the lower several inches. So they're reusable and dishwasher safe, but can still grip slippery foods.

I can eat individual grains of rice with chopsticks, but it takes longer than using a spoon.

OTOH, I don't use chopsticks more than a few times a year, so I don't get a lot of practice.

A spork is much more efficient.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
The chopsticks that I use at home are the best of both worlds. They're square and plastic, but have a lightly granulated textured on the lower several inches. So they're reusable and dishwasher safe, but can still grip slippery foods.

I have some of those, minus the texture. However, we happen to have a sandblasting cabinet at work... I think I have an idea.

I've tried some chopsticks my sister-in-law brought back for my wife on a trip to Japan. I did not enjoy using them. Too short and too pointy. Felt like I was using tweezers to eat.

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Bob C.:
A spork is much more efficient.

For noodles, chopsticks win. A spork doesn't even compete.