Chopsticks: rules for using appliances

It's no secret that Chinese culture is one of the oldest. In addition to the unusual medicine and amazing abilities of the Tibetan monks, the Celestial Empire boasts of unique devices for eating food.

Chopsticks are a special attribute of Chinese life. The first mention of them was recorded in the book of the Western Chou dynasty even before our era. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the Chinese use chopsticks for food for more than two thousand years. At the same time, they successfully migrated to other countries and became the property of Vietnam, Korea and other Eastern peoples. Japanese cutlery also does not exclude Chinese attributes, but residents of Western countries are truly surprised by the dexterity of the East. These people manage in some amazing way to pick up huge pieces of meat and rice, do not experience discomfort, taking food from vegetables, abundantly oiled.

The Chinese pay a lot of attention to the correct food intake, so the production of sticks has become a mass production - and today it is an art. They are made of wood, bamboo or from environmentally friendly plastic. But the most refined analogues are made only from wood by hand. In some cases chopsticks are made from the bones of animals, and their tips are adorned with silver, jade or gold.

Sticks are the same stilts for the feet: the fingers seem to be lengthened, while they have huge advantages over the usual instruments of the table. Due to their shape, Chinese rods act as a kind of lever, with which a larger volume of food is captured. In addition, they protect the fingers from contamination, they do not have sharp edges and cutting edges, so they are much safer than forks and knives. Sticks are not made from metal, so that the true taste of food is preserved.

Chinese cuisine by its nature excludes knives, since the preparation of any food implies a thorough grinding of the ingredients.

The eternal question of Europeans: how to use chopsticks for sushi? This dish is quite popular in the West, and in specialized restaurants, it is most often supposed to eat with Chinese sticks.

Visually it seems that they work on the principle of scissors, but this is a fraud. In fact, only the upper stick moves, the lower keeps absolute calm. To use chopsticks, one of them should be placed two-thirds of the length from the top between the thumb and forefinger. In this case, the middle finger serves as a support. The second stick is placed on top of the first, it is also located between the thumb and forefinger and rests on the ring finger. Thus, when the nameless finger moves , the chopsticks must converge and diverge.

If the Chinese eat rice, they try to arrange the bowl so that it is closer to the chin. Thus, the sticks combined together allow (like a shovel) to throw food into the mouth.

Chopsticks are not the only exotic attribute of the oriental peoples table. There are also odorous sticks or candles. They used to be used for incense in temples, but today they are used everywhere for the perfuming of premises.