The tryst with Chopsticks continues…

Despite the debacle with yum cha, my tete a tete with chopsticks continues. A lazy Saturday afternoon in a Japanese eatery with a bunch of friends…seemed like an ideal time rekindle my pathetic attempts to master this piece of oriental cutlery. Egged on by my chopstick swivelling mate, I decided to risk another shot at it.

A brief elucidation if I may

Step1: Separate the two sticks.
Simple enough, but I’d probably break it with my clumsy fingers. Not wanting to jinx anything, I got someone to do it for me.

Step 2: Scrape the sticks against each other to get rid of any fibre or dirt.
I did this quite well …so well that I think I almost chafed them to the point of breakage.

Step 3: Hold the chopsticks firmly between your fingers and thumb.
Now with all due credit to my companion who probably lost her mind trying to teach me this, it’s a miracle that the food didn’t go stone cold by the time I got the sticks into place.

With the initial ritual done to perfection…well almost… we move on to Step 4…pick up the food and eat it. Yeah sure…if only it were that simple. I cautiously proceeded towards a piece of spring onion (or was it lotus stem...). To everyone’s astonishment and my alarm, I actually managed to pick it up and pop it in. I managed to do a reasonable job with the veggies, but the teppenyaki chicken seemed to be goading me. There it sat smugly in the sauce, mocking my wobbling fingers. Try what I may, it kept slipping out of reach. I finally ended up stabbing it with the chopstick. Turns out that stabbing your food with a chopstick is bad table etiquette.

Anyway, the whole chopstick fiasco lasted no longer that seven minutes, coz my fingers ended up with a bad cramp. Western cutlery to the rescue once again. All in all not bad for a second attempt. Maybe I should try a Korean restaurant next.