"James Silverton" > wrote in message
...

>
> I'm no expert on Vietnamese food since the commonest thing I eat is Pho.
> Everyone seems to use chopsticks for that but, of course, the soup is
> finished off with a spoon. The best Vietnamese restaurant that I know is
> French influenced and does provide chopsticks but I wonder if that is a
> response to what people expect?

The Vietnamese restaurants I go to usually provide a spoon, fork, and
chopsticks so perhaps some dishes require chopsticks while others require a
spoon and fork?

>Certainly, on a slightly different topic, I
> have been told by Thais that the normal utensils in Thailand are a spoon
and
> a fork but many people ask for chopsticks in restaurants around here.
>

That's because farangs often think any Asian (non-subcontinental) food
should be eaten with chopsticks and doing so makes them more "worldly."
Ignorance is bliss, and all that. Plus many Thai restaurants are not Thai
at all and the owners/managers do not know anything about Thai food. I have
been to more than one Thai restaurant that provided chopsticks as the only
eating utensils (unless asked for something else). However, some Thai
dishes are eaten with chopsticks--primarily noodle dishes including pad
thai.

> As we all know, there is an infinite variety of Asian food and fingers
*are*
> used. Some forms of sushi are impossible to eat with chopsticks being much
> too big for one bite and I certainly can't cut them with chopsticks tho'
> I've seen a Chinese person do just that!
>
>
>
Sushi is traditionally eaten with your hands, anyway (though even in Japan,
many people will use chopsticks) and eaten whole, not bitten into
(nigirizushi, not so much makizushi or temakizushi).

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