Serves: 5

Types of chopsticks:
Most chopsticks are 10 to 12 inches long, and about the thickness of a pencil. (Those for children can be as short as 5 inches those for the host and hostess-to pass special delicacies to their guests-as long as 20 inches.) The top half is square (to be held in the hand) the bottom half round (to pick up the food). Chopsticks are made of various materials: bamboo, wood, plastic, coral, jade, silver or ivory. Those made of ivory are to the Chinese what sterling silver flatware is to Westerners. (Expensive chopsticks are often linked together at the top by a silver chain to keep them from being separated or lost.)

NOTE: Ivory chopsticks, which develop a slight yellowish cast as they age, must be treated with particular care. They're sensitive to temperature changes: exposure to extreme heat will cause them to warp, or to brown and crack. After each use, they should be dipped briefly in lukewarm suds, then rinsed and dried thoroughly.

How to use chopsticks:
Chopsticks are always used in pairs for eating. (For cooking, they're often used singly.) Although the two are alike, each differs in function. One is stationary the other moves. Together they act like a pair of tongs.

To understand how chopsticks function, begin with the stationary stick. Hold your right hand in a relaxed, half-open position. Place the first chopstick between the tip of your ring finger and the base of your thumb. (The thumb on the square section, the ring finger at the halfway point of the chopstick.) Hold the stick lightly but firmly, bracing it against the ring finger with the middle of your thumb. Keep the stick in this fixed position. (The tips of your thumb, index and middle fingers should be free to hold the second stick.)

The second stick is the one which moves. Place it between the tip of your thumb and the tips of your index and middle fingers. Hold it lightly. Move it up and down against the stationary stick.

To pick up a piece of food, push upward with the middle finger. (This opens the tips of the chopsticks.) To grasp the food, push down with the same middle finger. (This brings the tips of the chopsticks together, pinches the food against the lower chopstick so it is grasped tightly and held.) Then it's just a matter of raising the food to the mouth with a wrist-and-arm action. It's important to keep the tips of the chopsticks level with each other at all times. (You can do this by tapping them lightly together on the plate or on the palm of your hand.) If the tips are not even, the chopsticks will not work.

It's considered poor etiquette to point your elbows outward when using chopsticks. Elbows should always be held close to the body, so as not to crowd or annoy fellow diners either to the left or right. By the same token, some consider it ill-mannered to eat with the left hand. The reason again is a practical one: One left-handed person seated at a round table with a group of right-handers can cause quite a tangle. (Left-handed people, therefore, have to eat with particular care so their chopsticks won't collide with their neighbor's.

NOTE: A few rare people can pick up chopsticks for the first time and use them in a relaxed, natural way. For most, chopsticks seem awkward at first. Beginners tend to hold chopsticks too tightly. This makes for muscle tension and the manual equivalent of "tennis elbow." When chopsticks are held firmly but lightly, there's no strain at all. With practice, their use becomes automatic. As a matter of fact, chopsticks can move with such speed and nimbleness that the Chinese name for them is "quick little boys."

Chopsticks and cut-up ingredients:
Chopsticks can pick up any solid foods when they're cut in bite-size pieces. Rough-textured meats, for example, are gripped squarely between the tips of the sticks. Food that is larger in size but tender can be broken in half by chopsticks: Hold the sticks parallel to eac~ other and perpendicular to the food. Pierce the food in the middle with the sticks, then open the tips and spread them so they pull away from each other. (This will break or tear the food.) Smooth, finely minced foods are often scooped up rather than gripped. The chopsticks, held parallel to each other, are slipped under the food, then lifted with a gentle wrist action.

Chopsticks and uncut ingredients:
Certain naturally tender foods (fish), or those reduced to tenderness by long-simmering (duck), are often not cut up before being served, but left whole. This is because chopsticks make it possible to pick the meat off the bones with ease and grace. Fish, particularly, can be eaten with great delicacy. Chopsticks won't bruise its flesh or disturb its fine bones. Other uncut ingredients call for a different approach. Large whole shrimp, for example, are grasped firmly with chopsticks, then consumed neatly in several bites. In the case of noodles, a dozen or so are picked up at once and bitten off a mouthful at a time the rest eased back into the diner's bowl so the chopsticks can be used for sampling other foods, which are eaten alternately with the noodles.

Chopsticks and rice:
The Chinese eat rice from a bowl held in the left hand, with the thumb resting on the rim, the index and middle fingers grasping the bottom. Chopsticks used with the right hand then transfer rice from bowl to mouth with the same gentle scooping action used for finely minced ingredients. To get the last few grains at the bottom, the bowl is brought to the lips in a drinking position, and the rice scooped into the mouth, quickly and directly. (Beginners should never try to eat rice from a flat plate with chopsticks. Even an experienced chopstick wielder might drop half the grains en route.)

The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook. ©1994 by Gloria Bley Miller.

More Recipes from the Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook Cookbook:
13- Preparing a Complete Meal
14- Serving a Chinese Meal
15- Setting a Chinese Table
16- Chopsticks and How to Use Them
17- Guide to Stir-Frying
18- Chinese Teas
19- Chinese Wines
20- Glossary of Chinese Ingredients: A-K
20- Glossary of Chinese Ingredients: L-S
20- Glossary of Chinese Ingredients: T-Z
21- Substitutions
22- Storing Information
23- Soaking Information
24- Chinese Terminology
25- Mail Order Sources