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These delightful chopstick rests are availble in four different styles, either the Cat, Crane, Fish, and Bamboo style of holders. These chopstick rests create the finishing touch to any Asian meal. They are as attractive as they are convenient, and make it easier for you to enjoy noodle dishes, rice dishes, and sushi at home.

But not only are these Chopstick Rests very attractive. They are also very useful. They help to keep your chopsticks clean by keeping the tips elevated off the surface of the table. Plus they also make it easier to pick your chopsticks up again (if you have ever tried to pick chopsticks up off a flat table, you will know what I am talking about).

A History of Chopsticks:

Chopsticks are an ancient way of eating food, and even though they were developed some 5,000 years ago in China, the tradition is alive and thriving around the modern world. There are many reasons for using chopsticks, but probably they developed because food would be cooked in a large pot, and being metal the pots would stay hot for a long time. Something would be needed to retrieve the food from a safe distance, so using two sticks of wood allows one to get close enough to pluck the food out of the pot without burning themselves.

Although forks, knives and other "piercing" utensils have been introduced to China over the years, there are a few reasons the chopsticks have remained the main way to eat food. Firstly, it is believed that the scholar Confucius (approximately 550 to 480 BCE) taught that since knives were weapons of death, only a "barbarian" would bring one to the table to eat. Likewise, as Buddhism spread through China and the beliefs of nonviolence gained hold, there was little appeal for having utensils that reminded one of weaponry at such an important place as a dinner table.

There are generally two kinds of chopsticks. One is the "personal" style of chopsticks that one uses to eat their food. The other are the longer and thicker chopsticks that a chef would use to turn food in a wok when cooking. These cooking chopsticks are also used to help transport noodles in and out of boiling water.

Chopsticks are most commonly used in Japan, Korea, China and also in Vietnam. They are mostly made from wood (with bamboo being the most widespread), but there are other materials used to make chopsticks, too; Ivory and jade are the most precious of materials, while Asian restaurants in the USA are more likely to have "high-tech" plastic chopsticks. But despite the contemporary nature of these new synthetic chopsticks, the design is still the same that has been used for thousands of years: two pieces of tapered wood held in the right hand.

When it comes to having chopsticks in the home or, for the aristocracy, in the palaces, there are many special made chopsticks. They often feature different kinds of light and dark woods in combination, or they have intricate carvings of animals or lucky symbols. Some may have special silver tips or other sorts of designs mounted on the end of them.

One misconception people have is that chopsticks are used EVERYWHERE in Asia. This is simply not the case. In my home country of Thailand, for instance, we eat with a spoon in our right hand to scoop the food. We also use the back of a fork (in our left hand) to push the food into the spoon. Only when we eat noodle dishes do we use chopsticks. This is because Thai food is normally eaten from a plate filled with rice, and if you try to eat from a flat plate with chopsticks, you will end up pushing the food off your plate and onto the table or your lap. However, noodle dishes are normally eaten from a BOWL, so you just grab a bunch of noodles, lean your head over the bowl, and scoop them into your mouth. In this case the Chopsticks are in the right hand and a soup spoon is in the left hand and you can use the chopsticks to place the food in the spoon and scoop it into your mouth.

Other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Burma, and Indonesia have a similar use for chopsticks.

How to Use Chopsticks:

When learning how to use chopsticks, it is important to keep one thing in mind; Chopsticks are NOT used EVERYWHERE in Asia. In my home country of Thailand, for instance, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia, chopsticks are ONLY used for noodle dishes that come in a bowl. I will explain more about that later though...

If you can hold a pencil, then you can learn how to eat with chopsticks. At then end of the day, it is just kind of like holding two pencils in the same hand.

First, hold one of the sticks (it doesn't matter which one) and hold it in your hand similar to a pen or pencil. You want the narrow end pointed away from you, since this will be the end that grabs the food. The difference between holding a pencil, though, is that you don't want your index finger and thumb to be near the tip. Instead, have them meet together about halfway up the shaft of the chopsticks.

Be sure that your thumb, index and middle fingers are supporting this first chopstick. The middle finger should be supporting the bottom part of the chopstick.

Second, you can grab the other chopstick in your LEFT hand and slide it into place in your right hand. You want it to be pretty much even with the first stick, but slightly below it. The ring finger of your right hand should press on the side of the stick, "pinching" it so that it is between the tip of the ring finger and the middle or the thumb.

Now here's the tricky part; only the first chopstick (the "top" one) should actually move. The second one is held in place by the ring finer, while the tip of the thumb, index and middle fingers work together to move the top chopstick. Just keep practicing like this and after a while you will get the hang of it.

When you put your chopsticks down (so you can pick up your drink or something), it might be difficult at first to pick them back up again if they are laying flat on the table. Resist the temptation to "stick" them upright in a bowl of rice or other food, with the thick ends pointing in the air, so they will be easier to grab again. This is taboo in those countries that normally use chopsticks.

Instead, we recommend that you use our Chopstick Rests (specifically designed for this purpose) or that you lay them down with the tips elevated slightly, resting on the mouth of your rice bowl.

Speaking of rice bowls, this is an essential item for eating with chopsticks. You see, traditionally Chinese people are served rice in a small bowl, which is held in the left hand. Then a couple of plates of food are set on the table, and one plucks the food (or uses a serving spoon) to put it in their bowl of rice, a little at a time. The rice bowl is brought near the mouth, and the chopsticks are used to pick the food and rice and bring it into the mouth.

There is often a flat plate provided for each person at the table, and you might think that it should be used the way a conventional Western plate is used, with the food scooped onto it and eaten directly off that plate. You would be wrong; that plate is actually where people put the bones, chili peppers, and other inedible pieces of food. By doing this their rice bowls won't be cluttered.

As I mentioned before, in most Southeast Asian countries, we don't eat our meals with chopsticks. This is because rice is served on a flat PLATE in these countries instead of a bowl, and you really need to eat from a bowl to effectively use chopsticks. Only when we eat noodle dishes do we use chopsticks, since they are normally eaten from a BOWL. So you just grab a bunch of noodles, lean your head over the bowl, and scoop them into your mouth. In this case the Chopsticks are in the right hand and a soup spoon is in the left hand and you can use the chopsticks to place the food in the spoon and scoop it into your mouth.