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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog obam here. When it comes

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Speaker 1: to utensils, chopsticks are one of the oldest kids on

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Speaker 1: the block. Are in the kitchen. They earned their place

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Speaker 1: at the Chinese dinner table around four hundred CE, but

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Speaker 1: we're used for cooking in China well before that, think

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Speaker 1: around twelve hundred b C. A fast forward three thousand

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Speaker 1: years and an exorbitant amount of rice later, and these

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Speaker 1: thin handheld sticks have only grown in popularity. More than

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Speaker 1: of the world's population uses chopsticks as their main eating utensil.

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Speaker 1: China alone goes through forty five billion disposable pairs per year.

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Speaker 1: So how did two sticks start such a massive meal

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Speaker 1: time revolution? The ancient Chinese were the first to experiment

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Speaker 1: with chopsticks nearly three thousand years ago, but at that

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Speaker 1: time they weren't used as eating utensils. They used them

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Speaker 1: for cooking since they could safely dip them into boiling

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Speaker 1: pots of water. Then China's population boomed, cooks were forced

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Speaker 1: to conserve resources, which meant chopping food into smaller bites

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Speaker 1: that used less fuel to cook. Through bite sized foods

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Speaker 1: paired with Chinese philosopher and vegetarian Confucius is anti knife beliefs,

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Speaker 1: set up the chopsticks for widespread adoption beyond China. A

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Speaker 1: Confucius saw knives as a reminder of the slaughterhouse for

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Speaker 1: the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: Spoke by email with Ray she Who, founder of Lost

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Speaker 1: Plate food Tours, who grew up in Chengdu, China, where

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Speaker 1: she first used chopsticks at the age of two. She

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Speaker 1: now leads food tours throughout Asia, and she's encountered many

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Speaker 1: chopstick varieties in the process. And Chinese chopsticks, for instance,

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Speaker 1: tend to be long and thick because Chinese cuisine often

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Speaker 1: involves plucking pieces of food from shared dishes around the table.

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Speaker 1: In Japan, where bamboo chopsticks were adopted in five hundred

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Speaker 1: CE for religious ceremonies, the utensils have evolved drastically over time.

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Speaker 1: They're now particularly fine tuned for one of Japan's main foods,

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Speaker 1: fish who explained, Japanese chopsticks are short and sharp. It's

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Speaker 1: easy to remove fishbones with sharp chopsticks. She added, the

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Speaker 1: Japanese cuisine often involves individual portions instead of shared dishes.

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Speaker 1: So those chopsticks don't need to be as long. While ubiquitous,

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Speaker 1: now disposable wooden chopsticks were first invented in Japan in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight. The upper class in China and Japan

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Speaker 1: used to use ivory, jade, coral, and silver chopsticks. Who

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Speaker 1: says that the latter they believed would quote corrode and

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Speaker 1: turn black if it came into contact with poisoned food. Now,

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Speaker 1: bamboo is often used for chopsticks since it's so easy

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Speaker 1: and inexpensive to obtain. Head over to South Korea, and

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Speaker 1: chopsticks look a bit different still. Their chopsticks are flat

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Speaker 1: and typically made of metal. Who points to the popularity

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Speaker 1: of South Korean barbecue. The metal chopsticks won't catch fire

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Speaker 1: when diners are grilling their meat table side. Also, despite

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Speaker 1: the prevalence of chopsticks in Thi American restaurants, the utensils

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Speaker 1: don't often appear on tie tables. Forks and spoons are

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Speaker 1: currently preferred wherever you use them. However, how you handle

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Speaker 1: your chopsticks matters. Who explains that the way you hold

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Speaker 1: them in your hands is pretty much personal preference. Though

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Speaker 1: there are regional folk tales. She said in my hometown,

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Speaker 1: people say, if you hold chopsticks toward the bottom, closer

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Speaker 1: to your food, you will marry someone nearby. If you

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Speaker 1: hold them at the top, far away from the food,

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Speaker 1: you will marry someone far away. But folklore and hand

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Speaker 1: grip aside, there are definitely rules of etiquette when it

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Speaker 1: comes to using chopsticks at the table. Of course, niceties

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Speaker 1: may vary, so if you're in a place it's new

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Speaker 1: to you, take a moment to observe how it's done.

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Speaker 1: But generally speaking, don't use chopsticks to eat straight from

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Speaker 1: serving dishes from your plate, and don't use chopsticks to

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Speaker 1: spear food. If you can't grab something with chopsticks, using

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Speaker 1: your fingers is generally okay if the food is already

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Speaker 1: on your plate. If it's in a serving dish, look

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Speaker 1: for a spoon. Speaking of, only use serving chopsticks to

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Speaker 1: access food in these shared dishes, but don't dig through

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Speaker 1: food in a main serving dish with your chopsticks. Also,

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Speaker 1: don't place chopsticks directly on the table, place them on

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Speaker 1: top of your own dish, parallel to the table, or

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Speaker 1: on a chopstick rest. Also, never point chopsticks at fellow diners,

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Speaker 1: even if they're resting atop your bowl or plate. And

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Speaker 1: A speaking of how you set your chopsticks down, this

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Speaker 1: last one is important. Who said you should never stick

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Speaker 1: your chopsticks into your food and let them rest there.

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Speaker 1: You should always place them on top of the bowler plate.

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Speaker 1: And this is because sticking them in your food is

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Speaker 1: similar to putting incense in a pot or bowl, which

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Speaker 1: is what we do for ancestors who have passed away.

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Speaker 1: So if you do this, we think it means you've

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Speaker 1: called some homeless street ghosts. Today's episode is based on

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Speaker 1: the article how chopsticks Became the staple utensil of Asia

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Speaker 1: on how stuff works dot Com, written by Stephanie Vermillion.

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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang.

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Speaker 1: Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.