Post by NZBC on Oct 28, 2007 6:11:22 GMT 12
www.dimsum.co.uk/food/chinese-dining-etiquette.html
Read all of this article on Dining Etiquette
I've had friends ask me some of these questions in the past and so I thought I'd put a few tips together in case they are useful to others. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, however I've learnt from personal experience and of course from my family.
Chopstick Etiquette:
There's plenty of advice online about how to hold chopsticks, so I won't bother with that (I actually don't do this properly and still get told off by my dad, even in my thirties!). Try not to cross them like I do, and hold them about two thirds of the way up, to get a better grip. Practise picking up peas at home! Whatever you do, don't spear things with the chopsticks. And don't stick them upright in your bowl of rice as this resembles incense sticks to remember the dead. When you're not using the chopsticks, place them on the chopstick rest or if there isn't one, side by side neatly on the plate in front of you.
More importantly, your chopsticks are for your personal use, transferring food from your bowl or plate to your mouth. Rice can be eaten by holding the bowl up to your mouth and using a quick shovelling movement with the chopsticks, Chinese style. I make a mess when doing this, so I pick the rice up with my chopsticks. When it's wet and stickier with sauce from food, it's easier to do.
Don't add soya sauce to your rice! No one will say anything, but we just don't do this. Rice is meant to taste fresh but bland, as an accompaniment to the stronger flavours of the dishes. It's also important to leave a clean bowl with no grains of rice remaining. Chinese people do not eat rice off a plate with just chopsticks. It's not possible to do this without making a horrible mess and leaving a lot of rice behind, so use the chopsticks to push the rice and other food onto the Chinese sthingy and then eat from the sthingy. And if you're eating food that someone has cooked for you, please don't ask for soya sauce, chilli sauce or extra seasoning unless your host has mentioned that you might need it and offers it to you.
When transferring food from the shared dishes to your personal bowl, use the sthingy provided for each dish, or a pair of chopsticks for general use. Many Chinese people use sthingys for serving, so it's really common and you make less mess this way. It's really frowned upon to suck or lick your chopsticks, then help yourself to more food from the shared dishes! This is unhygienic and will put fellow diners off their food. Chinese people are really particular about food hygiene.
You should also serve yourself from the area of the dish directly in front of you, rather than sthingying from any other area. It's not good manners to pick out the best bits from any part of the dish apart from the section directly facing you. And don't turn the dish so that the good parts are facing you! However, if someone politely serves you a good piece of food, then that's great!
If you're sitting next to an elderly Chinese person or child, they will get given the best bits as a matter of course. I'd quietly move and sit next to someone else...Don't overdo it by piling so much food onto your bowl that you can't see or eat the rice underneath. It's more polite to serve yourself smaller portions, more frequently. Finally, if there's some food left in a shared dish, but not quite enough for two helpings, then do ask if anyone wants it before finishing it off. Or someone might offer it to you.
A note on shared dipping sauces. Watch what other Chinese people do. Stick to the correct dipping sauce for each dish and don't mix them with other dishes as the flavours will be spoiled. And don't dip, take a bite out of your piece of food, then dip again. In my opinion, this is worse than using your personal chopsticks to serve yourself food. A quick dunk should be more than enough, rather than drowning the piece of food with sauce.
Below are some of the trickier things to eat. I've described my own techniques for eating these, but of course there are many other ways!
The rest is on line
Read all of this article on Dining Etiquette
I've had friends ask me some of these questions in the past and so I thought I'd put a few tips together in case they are useful to others. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, however I've learnt from personal experience and of course from my family.
Chopstick Etiquette:
There's plenty of advice online about how to hold chopsticks, so I won't bother with that (I actually don't do this properly and still get told off by my dad, even in my thirties!). Try not to cross them like I do, and hold them about two thirds of the way up, to get a better grip. Practise picking up peas at home! Whatever you do, don't spear things with the chopsticks. And don't stick them upright in your bowl of rice as this resembles incense sticks to remember the dead. When you're not using the chopsticks, place them on the chopstick rest or if there isn't one, side by side neatly on the plate in front of you.
More importantly, your chopsticks are for your personal use, transferring food from your bowl or plate to your mouth. Rice can be eaten by holding the bowl up to your mouth and using a quick shovelling movement with the chopsticks, Chinese style. I make a mess when doing this, so I pick the rice up with my chopsticks. When it's wet and stickier with sauce from food, it's easier to do.
Don't add soya sauce to your rice! No one will say anything, but we just don't do this. Rice is meant to taste fresh but bland, as an accompaniment to the stronger flavours of the dishes. It's also important to leave a clean bowl with no grains of rice remaining. Chinese people do not eat rice off a plate with just chopsticks. It's not possible to do this without making a horrible mess and leaving a lot of rice behind, so use the chopsticks to push the rice and other food onto the Chinese sthingy and then eat from the sthingy. And if you're eating food that someone has cooked for you, please don't ask for soya sauce, chilli sauce or extra seasoning unless your host has mentioned that you might need it and offers it to you.
When transferring food from the shared dishes to your personal bowl, use the sthingy provided for each dish, or a pair of chopsticks for general use. Many Chinese people use sthingys for serving, so it's really common and you make less mess this way. It's really frowned upon to suck or lick your chopsticks, then help yourself to more food from the shared dishes! This is unhygienic and will put fellow diners off their food. Chinese people are really particular about food hygiene.
You should also serve yourself from the area of the dish directly in front of you, rather than sthingying from any other area. It's not good manners to pick out the best bits from any part of the dish apart from the section directly facing you. And don't turn the dish so that the good parts are facing you! However, if someone politely serves you a good piece of food, then that's great!
If you're sitting next to an elderly Chinese person or child, they will get given the best bits as a matter of course. I'd quietly move and sit next to someone else...Don't overdo it by piling so much food onto your bowl that you can't see or eat the rice underneath. It's more polite to serve yourself smaller portions, more frequently. Finally, if there's some food left in a shared dish, but not quite enough for two helpings, then do ask if anyone wants it before finishing it off. Or someone might offer it to you.
A note on shared dipping sauces. Watch what other Chinese people do. Stick to the correct dipping sauce for each dish and don't mix them with other dishes as the flavours will be spoiled. And don't dip, take a bite out of your piece of food, then dip again. In my opinion, this is worse than using your personal chopsticks to serve yourself food. A quick dunk should be more than enough, rather than drowning the piece of food with sauce.
Below are some of the trickier things to eat. I've described my own techniques for eating these, but of course there are many other ways!
The rest is on line