This is my entry to the Pinoy Moms Network Fam(ily) Pic(tures) “Plated” edition. I’m really trying to beat the 11.00 p.m. deadline here so the story will be posted in a bit as an update.
UPDATE @ 11.16 p.m.: The belated story (you know, so the photo of the chopsticks on a plate won’t look so lonely):
In my family, I’m the only one who’s not too good at using chopsticks. Speedy’s great at it. So is Sam who learned without anyone teaching her how. Even Alex is pretty decent with chopsticks. But me? Give me wooden chopsticks and I’ll manage — just about. But give me smooth plastic chopsticks and anything I pick up with them will just fall right back onto the plate.
Silly, really, considering that I grew up with chopsticks in the house. My father was just as adept with them as with a spoon and a fork. My grandfather preferred them over spoons and forks. I just never learned. Or, perhaps, I never really had any reason to learn. Even when Japanese restaurants became all the rage, I was still badgering waiters for a spoon and a fork. I never really thought I missed anything.
When we went to Taiwan in July, I realized I should have paid more attention to chopsticks. The situation was use chopsticks, eat kamayan style (and shock everybody) or go hungry. I don’t mind shocking people and I would have eaten with my bare hands were it not for the fact that my hands had to stay clean because I was taking photos. I was on a writing assignment and I had to take photos. I wasn’t going to get grease all over my dSLR, was I?
Not all restaurants in Taiwan provide spoons and forks — in fact, most don’t. In one restaurant, the one that specialized in dishes with passion fruit, I asked for a spoon and fork and I was given a serving spoon and a serving fork. Gee.
So, I knew I had to learn to use chopsticks — and learn fast — or starve. Oh, I learned. I LEARNED. And I didn’t realize how much of a fast learner I was until then. I managed to pick up rice with my chopsticks, pick bones off the fish and even eat those dainty soup-filled dumplings without piercing the wrapper and splattering the soup all over my shirt.
I LEARNED. But I’m still not that great at it. With a little practice, I’ll get there. Speedy bought chopsticks for all of us and I’ll use them as much as I can at home. Next time we go to a Chinese or Japanese restaurant, I’ll be a pro. 
UPDATE on 11-7-07 @ 11.06 a.m.
The participating mommy-bloggers in this month’s Fam Pics:
- Pinayhekmi: Scrambled eggs
- Ruth: Filipino breakfast
- Lynn: Tukneneng
- Mommy Chi: Fried rice and beef stew
- Ajay: Because pancit is my favorite dish
- Julie: PinoyMomsNetwork Fam Pics 3: Plated (On a Plate)
- Cookie: PMN Fampics Series 3 : Plated
- KK: Eclectic taste
- Feng: Plated on a operating table
- Raqgold: Schlachtplatte
- Vicky: What’s for tea?-Lean Pork N Cabbage on Stripey Plate
- Rach: My plated collage
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ben 11.06.07 at 1:40 am
sass this may be a bit distant off-topic on the chopsticks, but food related-wise maybe you should take a look at this story link alfredo roces from sydney sent me on an unfolding story with olive oil coming from the country who introduced noodles to the chinese (or so we thought) — http://intlxpatr.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/the-olive-oil-scandal/
i tell you, suddenly good old pork fat starts looking more refreshingly honest all of a sudden…
Jon Limjap 11.06.07 at 6:32 am
Nice pic, is that a dimsum platter?
Hope you don’t put rice on that plate! LOL.
Em Dy 11.06.07 at 7:49 am
I have the same problem but I try my best with the wooden ones. I manage to get a clean plate naman but I get embarassed when I feel I’m being watched.
Connie Veneracion 11.06.07 at 8:00 am
ben, oh my gosh. considering the PRICE of extra virgin olive oil… I see some of those brands on supermarket shelves. But a question, that scandal having taken place in 1991, has anything changed? Or is it a matter of bribing more people to hush up the lies?
Jon, what’s a dimsum plate? LOL It’s a rectangular plate that I use for photographing whole fish dishes.
Em, my kids laugh at me when my wonton keeps falling back into the soup. hahaha
Mila 11.06.07 at 10:25 am
When I first moved to china, all my relatives there criticized me for not handling my chopsticks properly. They said I was eating like a foreigner. But I only learned how to eat with chopsticks when I was much older, and like you, can’t use plastic ones as well as the wood/bamboo (although I find the pointed ones are easy enough - probably because you can use the end to poke your food).
Pity about the olive oil, the mafia are into everything so they say, including diluting olive oil.
julie 11.06.07 at 10:27 am
Good for you Connie, to finally learn how to use those chopsticks. I can’t seem to learn how to do that, no matter what. Or maybe its my mind that is not making it easier for me,
kotsengkuba 11.06.07 at 11:08 am
Nice macro
Connie, my wife is secretly reading your posts and I knew she’ll have loads of similar chopsticks adventures in China to share
KK 11.06.07 at 12:46 pm
Ate Connie,
Mag-practice ka with somai tapos yung noodles. Ok lang ako sa chopstick kung hindi ako sobrang gutom, hahaha. Kung hindi hihigupin ko nalang yung noodles ko!
Re: Olive oil: Malapit lang sana ang Pinas, marami sa Costco! Gallon gallon galing sa California! Magkakamot ka ng ulo para gamitin mo bago mag-expire(one year). Mag-import kaya ako ng olive oil tapos mag-benta ng tingi-tingi?
Connie Veneracion 11.06.07 at 2:35 pm
Mila, re: using the chopsticks as a skewer. LOL I used to do that with very slipper wontons. hehehehehe
Julie, when you find yourself staring at starvation, you’ll learn.
kotsengkuba, bakit naman secretly reading?
KK, last time we ate at Jipan, say mo, I ate my ramen with chopsticks.
kotsengkuba 11.06.07 at 3:16 pm
lurker lang kase sya
sa Japanese culture masama daw tusukin ang pagkain using chopsticks. ginagawa lang daw yun to indicate na may namatay. pero sa China deadma lang ang mga tao. kaya mas madaling mag-chopsticks dito e, walang rules
Kongkong622 11.06.07 at 6:41 pm
Like you, I have difficulty with those smooth chopsticks. The bamboo ones are a lot easier to use but you risk having splinters in your lips. My dad was the one who trained us to use chopsticks. He would make us pick up matchboxes hanggang masanay kami
rhodora 11.06.07 at 7:20 pm
I don’t know how to use chopsticks either. Every time we eat out in a Chinese restaurant, my daughter brings home my unused chopsticks so I can practice. But I just don’t have patience. But I know - I should, I should also learn.
Just thought of it - siguro mas madaling i-handle yung mga original na ivory chopsticks. Kasi kung plastic, parang madulas at very light so they slip off.
Rach (Heart of Rachel) 11.06.07 at 9:51 pm
Hi Connie. I think I learned to use Chopsticks late in grade school or early in high school when Tokyo Tokyo became a hit.
I prefer wooden chopsticks and not too good with using smooth ones.
I didn’t make it to the round-up but you may find mine at:
My Plated Collage
Connie Veneracion 11.06.07 at 10:53 pm
Kongkong, your comment reminded me of Pat Morita in The Karate Kid. Catching a fly with chopsticks.
rhodora, I’m suddenly wondering how much ivory chopsticks would cost. Baka same as a gold spoon.
Rach, submit it to pmnfampics(at)gmail.com just the same. Am doing the round up tomorrow morning still because some members sent their submissions to my sassy.lawyer account.
geri 11.06.07 at 11:14 pm
I had to learn how to us chopsticks after my first try of sushi, somehow it didn’t go with the taste of metal fork for me. When I was in China I was served the fishball noodle soup with chopsticks. I wanted to cry.
Jon Limjap 11.07.07 at 6:32 am
Connie,
The small flat plate used to serve lumpia, dumplings, siomai and kuapao.
feng 11.07.07 at 11:20 am
me too, late na rin ako natuto gumamit ng chopsticks and since then, wala akong ginawa kundi mangolekta at mag take home ng chopsticks sa mga restaurants. LOL.
Lynn 11.07.07 at 11:12 pm
I’m not good at using chopsticks too. I always ask for spoon and for whenever we are in a Jap or Chinese resto. Funny that our daughters are more comfortable in using them without anyone teaching them how to. Curiosity I guess.
Connie Veneracion 11.07.07 at 11:32 pm
Jon, next time I’ll try to notice hehehe
O hayan, two more na ka-baro. Feng and Lynn, welcome to the club hehehehe
sha 11.08.07 at 12:50 pm
hmm i cant remember how i learned how to eat with chopsticks
that time yata lagi ako sa london going out sa chinese resto doon….
baka daw punta kami japanese dinner on friday kami crew dito muna ko sa florida for a while… i miss europe though
Connie Veneracion 11.08.07 at 4:31 pm
Hi Sha! Re “i miss europe though”
Corny ba d’yan sa Florida?
At least the weather there isn’t so terrible at this time of the year.
raqgold 11.08.07 at 8:43 pm
i learned how to use the chopsticks by eating sliced green mangoes with bagoong using those sticks, hehehe… it was a fun way to learn, too.. my small kids are learning to eat with chopsticks, kakainis lang kasi i need to clean after them
bayi 11.08.07 at 9:00 pm
Generally if you are served rice on a plate, the restaurant should have forks and spoons. However, if you are served in a bowl…
There are some delicate looking chopsticks that have sharper ends than those normally used. These are the ones that are more difficult to use.
In Taiwan and in many other countries now, disposable chopsticks are provided if you order a Chinese meal. There is an e-mail being circulated that tells the story about how these are manufactured and how unhygenic the finished products are.
ben 11.08.07 at 10:32 pm
like chopsticks, using your hands to eat is also a fast disappearing art. how many parents, i wonder, still show their kids how to eat with their hands? what food is appropriate with the practice and such?
connie i think that the money involved now with diluting or mixing olive oil with other oils is even far greater, since the explosion of the number of restaurants, cooking shows and the superstar chefs lording it over a crowd that just wants to stuff itself, and just the hyped up interest in using olive oil as the base of nearly everything they prepare nowadays. the effect may not be of a toxic or dangerous fallout, but we go back to the basic involvement of greed in marketing, demand and supply.
and you really have to be an expert in knowing your olive oil to determine if it’s exactly what your’re getting, right?
when everything today is a kind of amway selling program of being compelled to buy this and that, it’s time perhaps to have a renewed appreciation of just the basic cooking essentials, of traditional ways in the preparation of food.
bayi 11.09.07 at 11:36 am
hey, ben.
i love using my hands to eat!
especially if i am at a malay or indian restaurant. once i was in indonesia and the people there were surprised that i used my hands to eat, just like the locals. a word of caution thought. wash your hands thoroughly before you eat!
Connie Veneracion 11.09.07 at 12:10 pm
ben and bayi, i love eating with my hands too even in restaurants especially with fried chicken. And I don’t understand people who use a knife and fork to eat their pizza.
Ben, re olive oil. You know, with shitty stories like that, it is tempting to live on grilled food and raw vegetables and an occasional soup a la nilagang baka or sinigang. I can totally dig that.
ben 11.09.07 at 4:16 pm
one of my strongest, fondest memories of youth was when every sunday, dad and mom would haul us off to my grandfather and grandmother’s house for lunch where lolo’s favorite meal was my lola’s special nilagang baka. the house reeked of that great beef aroma broth and that’s where i learned to love basic but simple home-cooked dishes. and when dad would bring us to my aunts and grandma in pampanga, me and my sisters and cousins would gather around in a circle and be HAND-FED adobo and rice by my aunt where we’d take turns getting our ’subo’.
and there was absolutely no worries about getting poisoned by the hand that fed you then.