Team pincers. I don't think I have ever see people using the "scissors method". I would definitely pay more attention to how people are using chopsticks after this.
A few months ago I noticed the way I hold chopsticks was different than everywhere I see in media. I thought I was doing it wrong, but can pick up dry rice grains so I ignored it. I sat in a Chinese restaurant and saw the older Chinese patrons held them the way I do, then it hit me. I was taught how to use them somewhere around 5 years old by the Chinese owner of a local restaurant where I grew up because she was very fond of my family and took interest in the little white kid. I inadvertently learned the traditional Chinese method, because we frequented that place so often.
Don't forget that chopsticks also have a huge economic advantage - saving an expensive raw material such as metal or copper - instead they use a cheap and available raw material bamboo Thus the cost is part of the convenience
Food halls are one of the only “third spaces” in my area. Too bad it’s a long drive away. I agree with entirely. It think food halls CAN be good for a community. But they need to be OWNED by that community for it to work.
His way is harder for me to do. When i use just my index and thumb and have it between my index and middle finger it's way easy for me to pick up peas.
My mom hated being taught via the beat-your-hand method. She gave me M&Ms instead. First starting with peanut then graduating to normal ones or Skittles.
Me and some friends learned how to use them (traditional) while watching a movie and eating popcorn, rule being only eat popcorn you manage to pick up. By the end of the movie we could steal popcorn someone else had already picked up withtheir own chopsticks. Good fun way to learn
:3 All four of the Chineseeeee girls had trouble picking up red beans with chopsticks, and I'm not even East Asian, but I can pick up peanuts, small bits of ramen, tofu, broccoli, carrots, chow mein, eggplant, fries, and so forth with them. Lulz. 💀💀💀💀💀
One thing to be said about Korean chopsticks is that, after you're used to them, you can't use anything else. Using blunt Chinese chopsticks feels as if your fingers became twice thicker and using Japanese ones feel too thin when you're eating steamed rice. However, Korean ones are noticeably heavier than any others, so there's that.
@@hewhodoes8073 Unless your hand is covered in oil, no, they are not slippery at all. However, as I mentioned in the original comment, the biggest drawback with metal chopsticks is the weight. I use brass chopsticks and during the first couple weeks of using them, sometimes my hand hurt by the end of meal. By the way, at 6:18 they guy said the reason why Korean chopsticks are flat is to save material, but that is not true. They are made flat and thin because they would be too heavy otherwise.
Im American and prefer to use chopsticks. I recently spent a week making a pair of steel chopsticks by hand. I put some decorative file work near the top. Also put a blue and gold oxide layer on them and made a leather case for them. If you are decent at using chopsticks try using them next time you're eating a bag of chips. It saves your fingers from getting all dirty. Ive had to alter the way i hold chopsticks because i lost about a half inch of my middle finger on my dominant hand. Took a while to re learn how to use them without the tip of my finger. If i can use them then anyone can. Its really not hard.
My favorite utensils are a good spork and chopsticks. Sporks are the best for foods like fried rice, tuna Mac, basically anything scoopable with chunks. Chopsticks are great for nearly everything else. I find that if there’s something I can’t properly and comfortably eat with either of those, then it’s probably not prepared properly or something. People say “what about a steak or something?!” like they got me… you just hold it with the chopsticks and slice it normally.. same as a fork. Pick up your slice of steak and eat it. Or hold it with a spork, cut it… grab a little scoop of mashed potatoes, some veggie and steak.. all in one bite. A spork and chopsticks work for everything. (Obviously a knife doesn’t count… that’s like saying salt and pepper is an ingredient. You include a knife if you need it, like with a steak or something.)
Chopsticks are not my preferred utensil, I was raised with spoons and forks. I'm stunned that people would even think that the scissor method was workable.
I'm not Chinese and no one taught me how to hold chopsticks, but surprisingly, I hold it like the etiquette teacher! I can pick up a single grain of rice with it...
I was 9 y/o and was living in Hawaii when my father taught me to use chopsticks by picking up peanuts. Later, I graduated to grains of Rice. I am 76 now and will sometimes take a pair with me when I go out to eat. Excellent video!
But there are actually much harder things to grab than small hard stuff. Noodles that are too long and slippery like sweet potato noodles in a hot pot 🍜 or Jiaozi 🥟 when they are a bit overcooked and have a bit of weird shape (like self made but your not good at it)
I was thought the same way with peanuts, I was told 1 hour before dinner by my sisters stepmother (Chinese) I wouldn’t have any dinner if I couldn’t manage to get 1 peanut before dinner.. she did that to us a few times and boom.. ahh childhood memories 😁
I remember finding chopsticks hard trying to do it the way someone told me. I eventually tried chopsticks again many years later and just decided to hold them my own way and it was easy, whoever told me I’m supposed to put a finger in between the chopsticks why are you the way you are.
3:00 As a 🇩🇪 I'd have come 2nd place on the challenge easily 😅 I use a derivative of the parallel method, while the lower stick usually rests on my middle finger not on the ring finger and the pinching looks a bit different 😅
I live in Poland, central Europe. I can easily pick up individual grains or small green peas with chopsticks. But I v no idea the differences between the countries, I developed my own "style" 😂😂😂😂
A question to Europeans: how often do Europeans choke while eating? Here in Japan recently a first-grader child died from choking when trying to eat a quail boiled egg. It makes me wonder if the habit of eating with chopsticks has anything to do with it. Chopsticks don't cut the food, they are simply used to bring the food to the mouth. You need to cut the food with own your teeth. But children and old people usually don't have perfect teeth, so it may be difficult for them to cut or chew the food properly, and consequently may end up choking. But Europeans eat with knife and fork. So theoretically it is possible to eat with knife and fork even without having any teeth. So theoretically there are less cases of choking in Europe than Japan???
i think i my teacher in like 5th grade taught us how to use them by practicing picking up marshmallows one day. i wasn't particularly good at it but loved going to Asian buffets. I would just make a point to try using chopsticks each time i went and kept trying different ways. this was before i really knew how to use the internet and i ended up developing the pincer method on my own and its the one thats stuck with me.
I prefer my chopsticks to taper to a fine point. I've hand sanded sets before lol, oddly enough the set of chop sticks included in the kungfu panda collectors edition game for world of Warcraft is the perfect taper lol.
I just can't stabilize my fingers enough to use chopsticks. With the pincer grip, the bottom stick slides off a lot and the pincer fingers are not strong enough to move smoothly and grip.
I had never tried eating with chopsticks, but this video encouraged me, I plan to visit China So I decided to learn the pinchers pincing method because I think it was more elegant. I want to impress🙄 the Chinese by eating correctly and politely with chopsticks,I’m so excited about the progress🙃🤣 ❤
I had no idea there was two ways to hold chopsticks. I thought the pincer method was the only way. I taught myself to use chopsticks by eating bowls of frozen peas. I was a strange kid!
I'd so kick his butt in the beans challenge by using them completely unconventionally. Just hold them parallel and then scoop up a line of beans :P Yeah it's not proper, but it's definitely the fastest for this particular challenge.
I'm a white Canadian who grew up in a rural area with basically no exposure to Asian culture. The first time I ever encountered chopsticks was when I was five and my Kindergarten teacher ordered Chinese food (well, Chinese Canadian food) for the class. I immediately picked them up and used them, in that pincer fashion. No learning curve at all. It just make complete sense from the first moment. I've used them ever since, for eating all kinds of different foods, and even for cooking. So it's a little baffling to me to see people in this video who were raised to use them because of their cultural background, but still can't.
Im Swedish and use chopsticks everyday. It's just easier for me than a knife and fork and having both hands occupied. Also I eat with my legs crossed in my couch. And using a knife and fork that way isnt practical.
I am European American, not Chinese. I taught myself to use chopsticks when I went to Chinese restaurants in America starting at the age of 12. In China, I was declared a chopstick master when I picked up an ice cube from one glass and put it in my glass using only chopsticks. Yes, ice cubes are available in some restaurants in China. Hold one chopstick inside of the thumb pivot fold to across the top of the ring finger nail. Hold the other chopstick in the crook of the index finger to the top of the finger nail of the middle finger. Hold both chopsticks down with the thumb. Then line up the tips of the chopsticks by pointing them down onto a flat surface. To open and close the chopsticks, just move the index and middle fingers in unison. This grip provides maximum control and force to pick up almost any size food. I like to use chopsticks for eating salad, tater tots, and food I don't want to pierce with a fork.
I started out with the scissor method because that was what everyone I knew used, but never quite got the hand of it. Then one day I tried holding my chopsticks a bit different, more like an extension on my fingers, and everything was easy - turns out I switched to the pincer method.
My mother is from Yokohama Japan and I remember as a twelve year old kid here in Texas being taught by my grandmother how to use chopsticks and getting Mad and saying "It's Impossible and I would Never be able to learn!!" My grandmother very humorously pointed out the fact that I have a three-year-old-cousin who could use them proficiently and did I not have the same skills as a little three-year-old girl?!? Needless to say I am Exceptionally Proficient with chopsticks today!!! 🤠👍🇯🇵
I use Robin's method. I stopped by here to see if my way was the best and I think it is, I'd have no problem picking up the beans, I can pick up individual grains of rice. What I have noticed is that with the Robin method my hand can get fatigued.
Seeing this reminded me of the time my wife asked me if I could eat yogurt with chopsticks. I told her, "I don't know. Maybe." I proceeded to eat a cup of yogurt in front of her with chopsticks without dropping a drop 🤣
I have a simple question. It’s is 2024 there have been innovative new developments in the culinary arena. We have made leaps and bounds in the development of spoons forks and knives. Why is this video pertinent. Humanity strives for progress and development. Why are we even discussing this matter Technology has gone in leaps and bounds. We now have spoons knives and forks Thank you
Spoons, knives, and forks are not anymore recent than the chopstick and aren't inherently superior. You only think that because they're what Europeans use.
I'm a white guy in a very white area and had little to no contact with Asian culture growing up. So I'm not sure why I learned the pincer method all on my own in college and quickly. It just feels natural, like holding a pencil. That was 50 years ago. People who don't know how to hold a pen or pencil properly also tend to use the scissor method. For the life of me, I don't know how those people manage ether one comfortably or effectively. I just wish that the Chinese restaurant I've gone to weekly for 20 years would remember that I use chopsticks... I always have to ask. Sigh... I guess we all look alike! 😂
The funny part was it was only when I went to China to see my mother's family's ancestral home that I found out I'm the only person in the family ober in our country who uses chopsticks properly. My uncle realized at breakfast when everyone was having issues with picking up tofu and nuts while I was there using 4 chopsticks at once dual wield stuffing myself. Because nobody taught me and I learnt how on my own. It was the same time I got rid of my peanut allergy. Kill 2 birds with one stone. Learn how to pick up peanuts with chopsticks and overload the allergy reaction until it permanently stops. I funnily enough am also the only one in the family that actually uses metal chopsticks. I have 2 sets of them, flat and round ones. The flat ones come in a set with a spoon and fork all rose gold at the top half.
I learned that to learn how to use chopsticks properly, you hold the top stick like a pencil for control, and the lower one in the crook of your thumb as a base (basically, the pincer method) and try to pick up a single grain of rice. I did it, so, it is possible. Now, actually eating a bowl of rice with chopsticks is a different technique (shoveling the rice into your mouth from the bowl with both sticks)... Of course, when frustration sets in, there is always the stabbing method... ;-P
Wow. Very long time ago I traveled to Malaysia and was taken to a Japanese restaurant. I didn't know anything and had no idea what was I trying to eat with the chopsticks. It was so embarrassing. First time holding chopsticks. I couldn't pick up anything. After painfully long while someone finally brought me a fork. I am much better with them now. All that chopstick etiquette was very interesting and very impressive ❤
I used to hold chopsticks like scissors when I was a kid but eventually learned the pincer way tho a slightly different grip. Having a collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean style chopsticks comes in handy for different cuisines rice to spaghetti an even for snacks like chips and cheetos cause its so easy to pick them out of the bag without getting my hands dirty XD
I jokingly used two sandwich toothpicks to eat French fries one day... Ever since then I've grown to love chopsticks for plenty of non-Asian dishes. They are superior to a fork for salads.
I used to use scissor, but I broke my arm and was in a cast for a month before surgery, so had to learn to use chopsticks with my left hand. Learned pincer in 2 days and when I went back to my right hand, I had already forgotten how to use scissor, and naturally used pincer lol. so if you use scissor, and are finding it hard to learn pincer, maybe try forcing yourself to learn it with your non-dominant hand
I was around 35 and was going to a lot of sushi places and couldn't use chopsticks at all - it was like a slapstick comedy to watch me try to use them. I grabbed a set of disposable ones on the way out and spent a couple weeks just using them to pick stuff up around my home. Next time we went out for sushi it was no longer an issue to use chopsticks. A few months later my wife and I were out with one of her girlfriends, who was from Taiwan, and she commented that I was the only non-Asian she knew that didn't hold them like a peasant with half the chopsticks hanging out over the back of my hand. I could, apparently, pass for upper-class Chinese based on my chopsticks technique. I've since purchased a variety of chopsticks for personal use. My favorites are rather long wood ones with tapered, but not pointed, ends. I've found out that you can score some major respect at dim sum restaurants if you bring your own chopsticks and use them well. Which you almost half to do since the ones they supply are smooth plastic without a textured tip and you can't grip a damned thing with them.
My parents both use the pincer method and I remember the instructions on chopstick wrappers in restaurants showing the pincer method. All this time, I just thought I was holding chopsticks wrong, but now I know it’s the accepted scissor method!
I learned to use chopsticks as a kid from my dad who learned it when his family lived in Vancouver for a while when he was a kid. I didn't know what the method was called, but I use pincer method. There is a modest collection of chopsticks in my cutlery drawer that I use regularly. Mostly I use them for eating, but they are very useful for bringing things out of jars for cooking that I don't want to use my hands for, like kimchi
I have the added pleasantness of being left handed. I have somehow learned the '"proper" way to hold them. I will have to get the beans out and give it a go. I can grab one grain of rice and pick it up. Maybe that is too easy though.
When I first arrived in China I could barely use chopsticks. There were lots of Japanese students also learning Chinese in the school I attended. They taught me the more useful method detailed in the video.
How do you hold your chopsticks🥢? Team pincers or scissors?
OMFG, who taught these girls how to use chopsticks?! Burn their Asian cards! 😆
What if I don't hold chopsticks either way? What about the Beetle Mandibles chopstick grip?
Team pincers. I don't think I have ever see people using the "scissors method". I would definitely pay more attention to how people are using chopsticks after this.
@@TheLeolee89 - I think the Beetle Mandibles grip deserves the label pincers more than Standard Grip does. But it could be just me :)
pincers
It was great
Please show how to wrap noodles around the chopsticks
A few months ago I noticed the way I hold chopsticks was different than everywhere I see in media. I thought I was doing it wrong, but can pick up dry rice grains so I ignored it. I sat in a Chinese restaurant and saw the older Chinese patrons held them the way I do, then it hit me. I was taught how to use them somewhere around 5 years old by the Chinese owner of a local restaurant where I grew up because she was very fond of my family and took interest in the little white kid. I inadvertently learned the traditional Chinese method, because we frequented that place so often.
I have been using chopsticks for 35 years. Chopsticks are difficult to pick up hard and slippery foods, such as taro and irregular potato cubes.
Soup
The trick is to do it with the hand relaxed.
Don't forget that chopsticks also have a huge economic advantage - saving an expensive raw material such as metal or copper - instead they use a cheap and available raw material bamboo
Thus the cost is part of the convenience
PINCER for the win!!
I use a variant of A. I press the bottom stick against the end of my ring finger.
Food halls are one of the only “third spaces” in my area. Too bad it’s a long drive away. I agree with entirely. It think food halls CAN be good for a community. But they need to be OWNED by that community for it to work.
*Unpossibru
Thank You China for Chop Sticks! ❤
I was practicing using metal round chopsticks with grains of rice, then i moved on with wood chopsticks and tried it with grains of rice again.
His way is harder for me to do. When i use just my index and thumb and have it between my index and middle finger it's way easy for me to pick up peas.
My mom hated being taught via the beat-your-hand method. She gave me M&Ms instead. First starting with peanut then graduating to normal ones or Skittles.
Your mom's really loving and creative ❤ Making your pick candies must've made the learning process extra fun 😊
Me and some friends learned how to use them (traditional) while watching a movie and eating popcorn, rule being only eat popcorn you manage to pick up.
By the end of the movie we could steal popcorn someone else had already picked up withtheir own chopsticks.
Good fun way to learn
:3 All four of the Chineseeeee girls had trouble picking up red beans with chopsticks, and I'm not even East Asian, but I can pick up peanuts, small bits of ramen, tofu, broccoli, carrots, chow mein, eggplant, fries, and so forth with them. Lulz. 💀💀💀💀💀
One thing to be said about Korean chopsticks is that, after you're used to them, you can't use anything else. Using blunt Chinese chopsticks feels as if your fingers became twice thicker and using Japanese ones feel too thin when you're eating steamed rice. However, Korean ones are noticeably heavier than any others, so there's that.
Are they not slippery?
@@hewhodoes8073 Unless your hand is covered in oil, no, they are not slippery at all. However, as I mentioned in the original comment, the biggest drawback with metal chopsticks is the weight. I use brass chopsticks and during the first couple weeks of using them, sometimes my hand hurt by the end of meal. By the way, at 6:18 they guy said the reason why Korean chopsticks are flat is to save material, but that is not true. They are made flat and thin because they would be too heavy otherwise.
0:35 WHO DAT ?
He is a paid joker
I always use parallel. It’s great.
I’ve tried the pincer method many times and the lower chopstick always slides along the inside of my right finger when I lift the top stick .
Im American and prefer to use chopsticks. I recently spent a week making a pair of steel chopsticks by hand. I put some decorative file work near the top. Also put a blue and gold oxide layer on them and made a leather case for them.
If you are decent at using chopsticks try using them next time you're eating a bag of chips. It saves your fingers from getting all dirty.
Ive had to alter the way i hold chopsticks because i lost about a half inch of my middle finger on my dominant hand. Took a while to re learn how to use them without the tip of my finger. If i can use them then anyone can. Its really not hard.
Those sound awesome!! ❤ My brother makes Damascus steel knives, guess I have to ask him to make me chopsticks next!!
@@christanice a pair Damascus steel chopsticks would be awesome. If I had the facilities to make some I would.
My favorite utensils are a good spork and chopsticks.
Sporks are the best for foods like fried rice, tuna Mac, basically anything scoopable with chunks. Chopsticks are great for nearly everything else.
I find that if there’s something I can’t properly and comfortably eat with either of those, then it’s probably not prepared properly or something.
People say “what about a steak or something?!” like they got me… you just hold it with the chopsticks and slice it normally.. same as a fork. Pick up your slice of steak and eat it. Or hold it with a spork, cut it… grab a little scoop of mashed potatoes, some veggie and steak.. all in one bite.
A spork and chopsticks work for everything. (Obviously a knife doesn’t count… that’s like saying salt and pepper is an ingredient. You include a knife if you need it, like with a steak or something.)
Chopsticks are not my preferred utensil, I was raised with spoons and forks. I'm stunned that people would even think that the scissor method was workable.
The right way to use them is to not use them at all. A fork or spoon is infinitely better in every situation.
I'm not Chinese and no one taught me how to hold chopsticks, but surprisingly, I hold it like the etiquette teacher! I can pick up a single grain of rice with it...
I was 9 y/o and was living in Hawaii when my father taught me to use chopsticks by picking up peanuts. Later, I graduated to grains of Rice. I am 76 now and will sometimes take a pair with me when I go out to eat. Excellent video!
I was hoping you gonna say that you leveled up and now you can move grains of sand with them :D
@@JoATTech Maybe I can. Will have to try that and then move on to kosher salt crystals.
But there are actually much harder things to grab than small hard stuff. Noodles that are too long and slippery like sweet potato noodles in a hot pot 🍜 or Jiaozi 🥟 when they are a bit overcooked and have a bit of weird shape (like self made but your not good at it)
Fried, greasy peanuts with skin
I was thought the same way with peanuts, I was told 1 hour before dinner by my sisters stepmother (Chinese) I wouldn’t have any dinner if I couldn’t manage to get 1 peanut before dinner.. she did that to us a few times and boom.. ahh childhood memories 😁
I remember finding chopsticks hard trying to do it the way someone told me. I eventually tried chopsticks again many years later and just decided to hold them my own way and it was easy, whoever told me I’m supposed to put a finger in between the chopsticks why are you the way you are.
3:00 As a 🇩🇪 I'd have come 2nd place on the challenge easily 😅
I use a derivative of the parallel method, while the lower stick usually rests on my middle finger not on the ring finger and the pinching looks a bit different 😅
I live in Poland, central Europe. I can easily pick up individual grains or small green peas with chopsticks. But I v no idea the differences between the countries, I developed my own "style" 😂😂😂😂
A question to Europeans: how often do Europeans choke while eating?
Here in Japan recently a first-grader child died from choking when trying to eat a quail boiled egg.
It makes me wonder if the habit of eating with chopsticks has anything to do with it.
Chopsticks don't cut the food, they are simply used to bring the food to the mouth.
You need to cut the food with own your teeth.
But children and old people usually don't have perfect teeth, so it may be difficult for them to cut or chew the food properly, and consequently may end up choking.
But Europeans eat with knife and fork. So theoretically it is possible to eat with knife and fork even without having any teeth.
So theoretically there are less cases of choking in Europe than Japan???
Nice
I have often wondered what the Chinese word for chopsticks is? I can’t imagine it is chopsticks. 🤔
3:48
a friend of mine is able to deshell a shrimp with just one pair of chopsticks on one hand. she wasn't even showing off but i was amazed.
I’m italian and i found chopsticks very useful when cooking. Then i got my citizenship revoked.
Chopstick is superior than a fork. So much utilization unlike a fork.
I literally bought my first pair chopsticks i literally learned watching this video 😂😂
wait.... literally?!
I just love Chinese spoons.
I have about 4 or 5 of them.
The only Way to Go.
i think i my teacher in like 5th grade taught us how to use them by practicing picking up marshmallows one day. i wasn't particularly good at it but loved going to Asian buffets. I would just make a point to try using chopsticks each time i went and kept trying different ways. this was before i really knew how to use the internet and i ended up developing the pincer method on my own and its the one thats stuck with me.
I prefer my chopsticks to taper to a fine point. I've hand sanded sets before lol, oddly enough the set of chop sticks included in the kungfu panda collectors edition game for world of Warcraft is the perfect taper lol.
I just learning to use chopsticks.. but idk if I have for 3 months, 😅
i have never seen the scissors hold before wtf 😭i tot the pen method was a more common mishandling
I just can't stabilize my fingers enough to use chopsticks. With the pincer grip, the bottom stick slides off a lot and the pincer fingers are not strong enough to move smoothly and grip.
See a neurologist, that sounds like a possible medical issue. Otherwise train grip strength.
@@ravecsucks6192It's not a medical issue.
I had never tried eating with chopsticks, but this video encouraged me, I plan to visit China So I decided to learn the pinchers pincing method because I think it was more elegant. I want to impress🙄 the Chinese by eating correctly and politely with chopsticks,I’m so excited about the progress🙃🤣 ❤
I had no idea there was two ways to hold chopsticks. I thought the pincer method was the only way. I taught myself to use chopsticks by eating bowls of frozen peas. I was a strange kid!
I was told I became proficient at age two......picking up a Chinese soup spoon with ease.
I'd so kick his butt in the beans challenge by using them completely unconventionally.
Just hold them parallel and then scoop up a line of beans :P
Yeah it's not proper, but it's definitely the fastest for this particular challenge.
I hold mine wrong but I have broken bones in my hand so my hand can't hold and move them the "correct" way.
I'm a white Canadian who grew up in a rural area with basically no exposure to Asian culture. The first time I ever encountered chopsticks was when I was five and my Kindergarten teacher ordered Chinese food (well, Chinese Canadian food) for the class. I immediately picked them up and used them, in that pincer fashion. No learning curve at all. It just make complete sense from the first moment. I've used them ever since, for eating all kinds of different foods, and even for cooking.
So it's a little baffling to me to see people in this video who were raised to use them because of their cultural background, but still can't.
Well... At least I'm practicing the correct way, still motorically defficient though.
Scissor style is not a technique at all.😂 It is LACK of technique.
Im Swedish and use chopsticks everyday. It's just easier for me than a knife and fork and having both hands occupied. Also I eat with my legs crossed in my couch. And using a knife and fork that way isnt practical.
Instinctively used pincer, never would’ve guessed it was actually right.😂
or you holdl both chopsticks together and use them like a spoon to scoop up stuff.
forks and spoons solved this dilemma years ago
I never heard of the scissor method
my wife crosses the chopsticks like the 3 girls and she manages to pick quite a few beans, did they fail on purpose?
I am European American, not Chinese. I taught myself to use chopsticks when I went to Chinese restaurants in America starting at the age of 12. In China, I was declared a chopstick master when I picked up an ice cube from one glass and put it in my glass using only chopsticks. Yes, ice cubes are available in some restaurants in China.
Hold one chopstick inside of the thumb pivot fold to across the top of the ring finger nail. Hold the other chopstick in the crook of the index finger to the top of the finger nail of the middle finger. Hold both chopsticks down with the thumb. Then line up the tips of the chopsticks by pointing them down onto a flat surface. To open and close the chopsticks, just move the index and middle fingers in unison. This grip provides maximum control and force to pick up almost any size food.
I like to use chopsticks for eating salad, tater tots, and food I don't want to pierce with a fork.
I started out with the scissor method because that was what everyone I knew used, but never quite got the hand of it. Then one day I tried holding my chopsticks a bit different, more like an extension on my fingers, and everything was easy - turns out I switched to the pincer method.
My mother is from Yokohama Japan and I remember as a twelve year old kid here in Texas being taught by my grandmother how to use chopsticks and getting Mad and saying "It's Impossible and I would Never be able to learn!!" My grandmother very humorously pointed out the fact that I have a three-year-old-cousin who could use them proficiently and did I not have the same skills as a little three-year-old girl?!? Needless to say I am Exceptionally Proficient with chopsticks today!!! 🤠👍🇯🇵
I use Robin's method. I stopped by here to see if my way was the best and I think it is, I'd have no problem picking up the beans, I can pick up individual grains of rice. What I have noticed is that with the Robin method my hand can get fatigued.
I tried and hurt my fingers.😭
Seeing this reminded me of the time my wife asked me if I could eat yogurt with chopsticks. I told her, "I don't know. Maybe." I proceeded to eat a cup of yogurt in front of her with chopsticks without dropping a drop 🤣
I have a simple question. It’s is 2024 there have been innovative new developments in the culinary arena. We have made leaps and bounds in the development of spoons forks and knives. Why is this video pertinent. Humanity strives for progress and development. Why are we even discussing this matter
Technology has gone in leaps and bounds. We now have spoons knives and forks
Thank you
Spoons, knives, and forks are not anymore recent than the chopstick and aren't inherently superior. You only think that because they're what Europeans use.
Nice to know there’s a bunch of Asians struggling with this well I’m over here, snatching single grains of rice like Robinhood
I used to hate them until I got older, now I love using them!
I'm a white guy in a very white area and had little to no contact with Asian culture growing up. So I'm not sure why I learned the pincer method all on my own in college and quickly. It just feels natural, like holding a pencil. That was 50 years ago. People who don't know how to hold a pen or pencil properly also tend to use the scissor method. For the life of me, I don't know how those people manage ether one comfortably or effectively.
I just wish that the Chinese restaurant I've gone to weekly for 20 years would remember that I use chopsticks... I always have to ask. Sigh... I guess we all look alike! 😂
The funny part was it was only when I went to China to see my mother's family's ancestral home that I found out I'm the only person in the family ober in our country who uses chopsticks properly. My uncle realized at breakfast when everyone was having issues with picking up tofu and nuts while I was there using 4 chopsticks at once dual wield stuffing myself.
Because nobody taught me and I learnt how on my own.
It was the same time I got rid of my peanut allergy. Kill 2 birds with one stone. Learn how to pick up peanuts with chopsticks and overload the allergy reaction until it permanently stops.
I funnily enough am also the only one in the family that actually uses metal chopsticks. I have 2 sets of them, flat and round ones.
The flat ones come in a set with a spoon and fork all rose gold at the top half.
I'm curious to learn how to use the chopsticks, I'm just starting 🥰 👍 💯 👍 🙏 ... 🎉
I learned that to learn how to use chopsticks properly, you hold the top stick like a pencil for control, and the lower one in the crook of your thumb as a base (basically, the pincer method) and try to pick up a single grain of rice. I did it, so, it is possible. Now, actually eating a bowl of rice with chopsticks is a different technique (shoveling the rice into your mouth from the bowl with both sticks)...
Of course, when frustration sets in, there is always the stabbing method... ;-P
Wow. Very long time ago I traveled to Malaysia and was taken to a Japanese restaurant. I didn't know anything and had no idea what was I trying to eat with the chopsticks. It was so embarrassing. First time holding chopsticks. I couldn't pick up anything. After painfully long while someone finally brought me a fork. I am much better with them now. All that chopstick etiquette was very interesting and very impressive ❤
Team pincer - was trained by my parents by picking up M&ms, always have a pair of Chopsticks with me
I was taught as a kid to practice with grains of rice and crushed pieces ice. This was back in the early 80's
The best way to use chopsticks is to eat with a fork and spoon...
Wouldn't have missed a single bean!
The Chinese take double dipping to another level. George is getting upset!
I used to hold chopsticks like scissors when I was a kid but eventually learned the pincer way tho a slightly different grip. Having a collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean style chopsticks comes in handy for different cuisines rice to spaghetti an even for snacks like chips and cheetos cause its so easy to pick them out of the bag without getting my hands dirty XD
Exactly! I find it very useful for snacks too! Chopsticks are great invention
I jokingly used two sandwich toothpicks to eat French fries one day... Ever since then I've grown to love chopsticks for plenty of non-Asian dishes. They are superior to a fork for salads.
Ooo, gonna have to try eating crisps with them now 😯
Whenever I see people holding chopsticks close to the “eating end” I feel the same way I feel when someone holds a hammer in the middle 🙅🏼♀️
I used to use scissor, but I broke my arm and was in a cast for a month before surgery, so had to learn to use chopsticks with my left hand. Learned pincer in 2 days and when I went back to my right hand, I had already forgotten how to use scissor, and naturally used pincer lol. so if you use scissor, and are finding it hard to learn pincer, maybe try forcing yourself to learn it with your non-dominant hand
If you wish to be a good guest... learn this easy skill! Easy to Practice on your own!
I was around 35 and was going to a lot of sushi places and couldn't use chopsticks at all - it was like a slapstick comedy to watch me try to use them. I grabbed a set of disposable ones on the way out and spent a couple weeks just using them to pick stuff up around my home. Next time we went out for sushi it was no longer an issue to use chopsticks. A few months later my wife and I were out with one of her girlfriends, who was from Taiwan, and she commented that I was the only non-Asian she knew that didn't hold them like a peasant with half the chopsticks hanging out over the back of my hand. I could, apparently, pass for upper-class Chinese based on my chopsticks technique.
I've since purchased a variety of chopsticks for personal use. My favorites are rather long wood ones with tapered, but not pointed, ends. I've found out that you can score some major respect at dim sum restaurants if you bring your own chopsticks and use them well. Which you almost half to do since the ones they supply are smooth plastic without a textured tip and you can't grip a damned thing with them.
Those girls looked like they didn't know how to use chopsticks at all
Why just use chopsticks for everything though? Forks and spoons are superior utensils for a lot of things
ok that means I am using mine correctly lmao. and I am european :)
length of chinese chopsticks? im planning to buy one.
Funny enough i came from seeing how geisha's use chopsticks & they also used the bean game
Pincer method is the correct method.
My parents both use the pincer method and I remember the instructions on chopstick wrappers in restaurants showing the pincer method. All this time, I just thought I was holding chopsticks wrong, but now I know it’s the accepted scissor method!
SCISOR SUX
I learned to use chopsticks as a kid from my dad who learned it when his family lived in Vancouver for a while when he was a kid. I didn't know what the method was called, but I use pincer method. There is a modest collection of chopsticks in my cutlery drawer that I use regularly. Mostly I use them for eating, but they are very useful for bringing things out of jars for cooking that I don't want to use my hands for, like kimchi
I eat everything with chopsticks including potatoes chips 😜
Especially popcorns!
CS with potato chips and popcorn, I can do it blindfolded.
@@henryng9406 🤓👍
i just want to say the competition was not due to superior chopstick anatomy but because he had better quality chopsticks for picking up beans
I have the added pleasantness of being left handed. I have somehow learned the '"proper" way to hold them. I will have to get the beans out and give it a go. I can grab one grain of rice and pick it up. Maybe that is too easy though.
can u create a video in your channel to show the left handed?
@@fannyalbi9040 I am left handed. The way the professional guy does it has always worked best for me.
Same. I'm lefty and use them like the guy does.
I can do rice and I just tried the dry beans, they're slippery!! But I was able to do it... Slowly but surely!!
Until I had a stroke I was vertical good with chopsticks 🎉
Fulcrum come in. Yaaaaah Yodie GANG you feel me
Spork enters the room: Kneel, peasants!
spork cannot pick up food from a boiling cauldron of hotpot. epic fail
@@---iv5gj Sounds like a skill issue. Cope and seethe.
@@leventhumps3861 I agree, it's doable, but chopsticks, like tongs, would definitely be superior for that particular application.
remember kids, pencil technique!
in hindsight, never knew just how much of a god i am, always complimented by granny, so sweet
So interesting
Chopsticks are convenient and have a natural feel, (refer to wood or bamboo).
metal not natural?
When I first arrived in China I could barely use chopsticks. There were lots of Japanese students also learning Chinese in the school I attended. They taught me the more useful method detailed in the video.