On 2012-01-20 07:04:38 +0000, notbob said:

> Do you use them? For what?
> Are you proficient with them?
> How often? For non-Asian foods?

When I was in my early 20's in college I saw a non-asian eating with
chopsticks in a Chinese restaurant. I thought it was really cool and
sophisticated some kinda way.

I figured if everytime I ate Chinese food I used chopsticks
exclusively, I would eventually be expert. I don't know when exactly,
but some time over the next many years, it became comfortable, logical,
easy.

Over the past 20 years the wife and I became heavily involved in
Japanese culture beginning with the food. We've now been there for 2-
or 3-week vacations on six occasions. There's an old Japanese idea that
one must eat every last grain of rice in the bowl. I always do, and at
one time eating one grain at a time was a little challenge. No more.
We always get compliments on our ability to use chopsticks, which is
kind of silly.

We live near Westminster, CA (aka "Little Saigon") and so eat
Vietnamese food at least once a week, and just next to Garden Grove
which has a sizeable Korean enclave. We get lots of opportunities to
continue using chopsticks.

It doesn't seem that difficult, and as you might imagine, I can barely
remember not being able to use them. If I eat steamed rice, as I did
last night at home, I don't feel comfortable eating it with a fork. So
despite having broiled cod, steamed broccoli and a salad, I still used
the chopsticks to eat the rice.

I'll be having left-over rice today for lunch with some furikake
sprinkled on it, as I always do the day after steaming rice. I'll be
using chopsticks.
--
I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.
-- Galileo