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The
history of chopsticks
Chinese has used chopsticks for over 5,000 years. In the past, people cooked their food in large pots that held heat for a long time, and hasty eaters then broke twigs off trees to retrieve the food. On the other hand, some people said that the philosopher Confucius influenced the development of chopsticks with his nonviolent teachings. Thus, knives, with all their associations with war and death, were not brought to the dinner table. Chopsticks have long been used as eating utensil, or for stir-frying and mixing ingredients. They are especially useful for picking out ingredients, either in cooking or in eating. By 400 B.C., due to a large population and dwindling resources, food has to be chopped into small pieces so it could be cooked rapidly to conserve fuel. The pieces of food were small enough that cutlers were not required at the dinner table, and thus, chopsticks became staple utensils. Chinese chopsticks, called kuai-zi, are usually 9 to 10 inches long and rectangular with a blunt end. By A.D. 500, the use of chopstickhad spread from China to present day Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. In Japan, chopsticks were originally considered precious and were used exclusively for religious ceremonies. The earliest chopsticks used for eating looked like tweezers, which were made from one piece of bamboo that was joined at the top. By the 10th Century, chopsticks were being made into two separate pieces. Called hashi (bridge), they differed in design from Chinese chopsticks in that they were rounded, tapered to a point and were also shorter (7 inches long for females and 8 inches long for males) than Chinese chopsticks. Since the 17th Century, they were the first to lacquer these wooden chopsticks, making them slippery but quite durable. The Japanese invented disposable wooden chopsticks (called wari-bashi) in 1878. Traditionally,
chopsticks are made of many materials - ivory, plastic, silver,
and even jade - but the most common ones are of wood or bamboo because
wood and bamboo is inexpensive, readily available, easy to split,
resistant to heat, and has no perceptible odor or taste. For everyday
use, wood, bamboo, or ivory is best. Plastic chopsticks are not
satisfactory, since they tend to warp after repeated immersion in
hot washing water. For the wealthy, however, chopsticks have been
made from jade, gold, bronze, brass, agate, coral, ivory, and silver.
During dynastic times it was thought that silver chopsticks would
turn black if they came into contact with poisoned food. Yet it
is now known that silver had no reaction to arsenic or cyanide,
but the chopsticks will change color if rotten eggs, onions, or
garlic, which release hydrogen sulfide, were used. The Chinese use chopsticks as easily and as naturally as Europeans use forks. All Chinese food is prepared in the way that it may be easily handled with chopsticks. Fingers really have to work in order to use these implements properly. Chopsticks are used for cooking as well as eating. They are good for serving noodles, retrieving deep-fried foods, beating eggs, and stir-frying. One can even buy extra-long "cooking chopsticks", which make these kitchen tasks even easier. Here are steps to use chopsticks:
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