General rules:
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
Soup - drink from bowl and use chopsticks if it has bits
Big soupy thing (ramen, pho, that sort) - spoon and chopsticks
Rice with grains that don't stick together much - spoon
Things like ice cream (dish), applesauce, that sort of consistency: spoon
Food from countries/places that don't cut things down to bite size: knife + fork (sometimes replaced by chopsticks when cutting is done)
Most other non-liquids: chopsticks or no utensil depending upon the case.
~ Person in Japan for over a decade
For me, the green part is: Because I used them while cooking and don't want to get anything else dirty.
I'm still adjusting to them for eating (should probably cut/choose my veggies, noodles etc. to rather be long+thin). But for cooking, I do find them quite good.
I can use wooden chopsticks in my non-stick pan. And they're really useful for stirring food, as you can just hold them close together (or use a single stick), when the food is prone to spilling.
I don't yet have the dexterity to always successfully flip foods in my frying pan with chopsticks, but it's not like I have that with other utensils. Whether chopsticks, spatula or fork, it's always a fiddly bugger.
3rd reason: because it's fun.
I live in Hawaiʻi. We use chopsticks all the time. Itʻs just... what you do.
Whenever we get takeout and they give us forks instead of chopsticks, my wife and I refer to it as "getting haloeʻd" (for those who donʻt know, "haole" is a Hawaiian term for foreigner that tends be used exclusively for Caucasian people). Thereʻs a general assumption that most whites donʻt know how to use chopsticks. Related, I was once at a Japanese funeral, eating poke and sashimi with chopsticks, and this sweet lady comes up to me and says "you use those so well!" It felt like the white-person version of "youʻre so well-spoken!"
I feel insulted when I go for pho and get offered a fork.
I stopped for dinner once at a Chinese restaurant in Mississippi run by people actually from China. I (white guy) used chopsticks and our server just stared at me wide-eyed for most of the meal. She said I was the first white person she had ever seen using them, and she'd been working there for years. That is Mississippi for you.
I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd learned to use them eating at Japanese restaurants.
They're not difficult to use. It used to be the primary reason in the chart. Now it's second nature.
Some fun chopstick facts: most chopsticks in the world (including China) are made in Georgia (the US state, not the country) because of the ready availability of cheap pine. One of the major reasons pine is so prevalent in Georgia (and in the US South in general) is slavery: cotton plantations in the pre-artificial fertilizer era tended to exhaust the soil after a few years, leaving pine trees as the only profitable crop that can be grown on much of the land.
Most of the chopsticks I've seen have been hardwood, plastic or metal ... I guess there's more disposable ones by quantity in the world because most people don't have or carry their own?
Joke's on you I look like even more of an amateur when I use chopsticks
Chopsticks are the best utensils for eating chips(crisps in England). I love eating chips but i also love being on my computer. Why get chipdust everywhere when you can be clean?
I use it them when I douse cheetos with valentina. Two of the most finger stainingest foods known at this point in history.
It's like ambrosia for those of us awaiting cardiac release.
The old antifa anal beads trick.
This used to be me, but TBH I'm a convert to chopsticks now ... provided it's not for something like a slab of steak
Honestly for a lot of foods they're really not a bad choice. They're excellent for eating flavored chips when you dont want powder on your fingers, also grabbing things from jars
They are the best choice for salads. Eating salads with a fork sucks
Teaching my Cheetos loving children how to use chopsticks has saved all my gaming controllers.
Chop sticks and Cheetos are a classic combo!
Once you learn to eat rice with chopsticks you become unstoppable.
*for sticky rice (other rice is impractical)
Idk man I can eat fried rice pretty well with chopsticks.
Because they are easier to handwash
But i don't wash anything in a restaurant :(
Not markedly easier though
Who else goes through spoons quicker than any other utensils? In my household
Long spoon. I love long spoon.
We call them Korean fighting spoons. Since it's for reaching side dishes and sauces before others at the table
Little spoons go first for me,. But yes, spoons are the ultimate utensil
Plus it's fun.
If you do your hair up with 2 forks you look like a dumb dumb whereas if you use chopsticks you look like somebody who saw a life hack video or post
There are foods that just don't hit the same if you don't eat them with chopsticks.
Ever tried to eat sushi with a fork? It just feels wrong.
But if it's a rice bowl, screw the chopsticks. Gimme a spoon.
I firmly believe sushi should be eaten with hands.
Can't use chopsticks, eh?
It’s how it’s eaten. Usually.
I highly suggest cooking and eating eggs with them!
cooking an omelette with chopsticks is a superior experience.
Yes, but
I use them for pretty much everything because they’re marginally quicker to clean thoroughly than a fork
