Eating Habits

[Timea]

Hi! I absolutely love eating Japanese foods. I also learned eating with chopsticks, but I always seem to have a problem. I was wondering if you also have it. Maybe it is a stupid question, but what do you do when the rest of your rice, at the end of the meal, gets all saucy and you cannot pick it up with a chopstick. I usually eat it with a fork or a spoon, but I guess that is not too correct.

[curt]

i put both chopsticks together and spoon it in my mouth ^-^

[marie]

Does it matter if you finish your rice with a spoon??
In south east asia , you can slurp your soup the best you can , it's actually considered good !!

[Arthur]

Yes that's true! My dad works with Taiwanese people, and they absolutely don't seem to mind the loud slurping sound; which in France is considered really impolite.
As for the chopstick problem, I do sometimes put both chopstics together and just "shovel" the rice, but if you are able to do that, it means that you still have enough rice to pick it up the traditional way^^
I've only seen 2 japanese people eat with chopsticks in my whole life, but I'm afraid you have to pick the rice grains one by one... (It's not as difficult as it sounds as the real japanese rice is quite sticky, and you should do great after a little training)

But anyway, if you take a spoon or a fork, it will just be considered as a Gaijin trick ...nothing to worry about since you're probably one^^

[Timea]

That was a funny one, Arthur! A Gaijin trick. ^.^
Thanks for the other answers, too.

[Arthur]

どいたしまして!