Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog obam here. When it comes to utensils, chopsticks are one of the oldest kids on the block. Are in the kitchen. They earned their place at the Chinese dinner table around four hundred CE, but we're used for cooking in China well before that, think around twelve hundred b C. A fast forward three thousand years and an exorbitant amount of rice later, and these
thin handheld sticks have only grown in popularity. More than of the world's population uses chopsticks as their main eating utensil. China alone goes through forty five billion disposable pairs per year. So how did two sticks start such a massive meal time revolution? The ancient Chinese were the first to experiment with chopsticks nearly three thousand years ago, but at that time they weren't used as eating utensils. They used them for cooking since they could safely dip them into boiling
pots of water. Then China's population boomed, cooks were forced to conserve resources, which meant chopping food into smaller bites that used less fuel to cook. Through bite sized foods paired with Chinese philosopher and vegetarian Confucius is anti knife beliefs, set up the chopsticks for widespread adoption beyond China. A Confucius saw knives as a reminder of the slaughterhouse for the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Spoke by email with Ray she Who, founder of Lost Plate food Tours, who grew up in Chengdu, China, where she first used chopsticks at the age of two. She now leads food tours throughout Asia, and she's encountered many chopstick varieties in the process. And Chinese chopsticks, for instance, tend to be long and thick because Chinese cuisine often involves plucking pieces of food from shared dishes around the table.
In Japan, where bamboo chopsticks were adopted in five hundred CE for religious ceremonies, the utensils have evolved drastically over time. They're now particularly fine tuned for one of Japan's main foods, fish who explained, Japanese chopsticks are short and sharp. It's easy to remove fishbones with sharp chopsticks. She added, the Japanese cuisine often involves individual portions instead of shared dishes.
So those chopsticks don't need to be as long. While ubiquitous, now disposable wooden chopsticks were first invented in Japan in eighteen seventy eight. The upper class in China and Japan used to use ivory, jade, coral, and silver chopsticks. Who says that the latter they believed would quote corrode and turn black if it came into contact with poisoned food. Now, bamboo is often used for chopsticks since it's so easy and inexpensive to obtain. Head over to South Korea, and
chopsticks look a bit different still. Their chopsticks are flat and typically made of metal. Who points to the popularity of South Korean barbecue. The metal chopsticks won't catch fire when diners are grilling their meat table side. Also, despite the prevalence of chopsticks in Thi American restaurants, the utensils don't often appear on tie tables. Forks and spoons are currently preferred wherever you use them. However, how you handle
your chopsticks matters. Who explains that the way you hold them in your hands is pretty much personal preference. Though there are regional folk tales. She said in my hometown, people say, if you hold chopsticks toward the bottom, closer to your food, you will marry someone nearby. If you hold them at the top, far away from the food, you will marry someone far away. But folklore and hand grip aside, there are definitely rules of etiquette when it
comes to using chopsticks at the table. Of course, niceties may vary, so if you're in a place it's new to you, take a moment to observe how it's done. But generally speaking, don't use chopsticks to eat straight from serving dishes from your plate, and don't use chopsticks to spear food. If you can't grab something with chopsticks, using your fingers is generally okay if the food is already on your plate. If it's in a serving dish, look
for a spoon. Speaking of, only use serving chopsticks to access food in these shared dishes, but don't dig through food in a main serving dish with your chopsticks. Also, don't place chopsticks directly on the table, place them on top of your own dish, parallel to the table, or on a chopstick rest. Also, never point chopsticks at fellow diners, even if they're resting atop your bowl or plate. And A speaking of how you set your chopsticks down, this
last one is important. Who said you should never stick your chopsticks into your food and let them rest there. You should always place them on top of the bowler plate. And this is because sticking them in your food is similar to putting incense in a pot or bowl, which is what we do for ancestors who have passed away. So if you do this, we think it means you've
called some homeless street ghosts. Today's episode is based on the article how chopsticks Became the staple utensil of Asia on how stuff works dot Com, written by Stephanie Vermillion. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.