WEBVTT - Selects: Chopsticks > Forks 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:04.160 Hey, everybody, chuck here, we are moving forward through time 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:06.520 in the year twenty twenty, the year of COVID, and 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.119 I think we're at sort of ground zero here, everybody, 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:12.239 because the date for this episode is March seventeenth, and 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:14.480 I know that that was right around the time that 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.680 things shut down because my birthday is March fifteenth, and 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.040 one of my very good friends birthday is March twelfth, 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:22.760 and every year we go out on a birthday dinner 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:27.280 with our wives and family, and I remember being out 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:30.840 might have been like the sixteenth or seventeenth of that year, 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:33.800 to dinner and us being. 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:35.920 Like should we be out? 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.320 You guys like they're starting to say things are getting weird, 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.199 and we're all washing our hands and saying the. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:43.280 ABC's and stuff. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.239 But this feels like maybe the last dinner we're going 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.159 to have for a while, And it was that was 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.880 the last dinner out I had for a very long time. 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.240 But this episode from March seventeen, twenty twenty, right when 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.680 it all shut down, is pretty great. It's all about chopsticks, 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.080 and it's called Chopsticks Greater than Forks. 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.960 Welcome to Stuff you should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.800 Hey and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.800 Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, and this 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:26.679 is stuff you should know. All about the song Chopsticks. 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.200 I wondered if you're going to make a joke about that. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.920 Jerry beat me to it when she was like, what 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:33.880 are we recording today? And I told her she's like 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:39.680 the song d D D D. No, it's d D D. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.280 Didn't Oh is that chopsticks? Aren't there two chopsticks? No, 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.200 I'm just teasing. That's heart and soul. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:49.040 Oh okay, so what I said from big that was chopsticks? 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:54.200 Right? Totally? Yekay, Robert uh, Robert Losia. Yeah, man, I 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.800 should have continued rolling and said James Kahn. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.840 Oh wow, that is a very James conn like roll, 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:00.560 wasn't it. 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:05.920 Totally? I think he played that role in locket in. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:06.520 Uh. 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:08.359 Well, he's a crime boss in Bottle Rocket Way. 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:09.040 Yeah, sort of. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.360 Well, I'm not a good movie truly. We watched Misery 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:14.600 the other day. It still holds up. 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.880 Oh man, I remember seeing that for the first time 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:19.840 in Athens when I was in college. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:24.240 M hm, so great. Kathy Bates can do no wrong. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.280 She did great. But if you watch James Kahn, he 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.520 did really well too, Like sure, his whole kind of 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.600 trepidacious manner toward her was really well done and not 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.880 overdone at all, And like he did a great job 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:38.239 as well. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:39.480 And he had to lay there in a bed for 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.160 weeks and weeks and act. Yeah, sounds like a dream. 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.160 Yeah. And if he balked at it, they would attach 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:48.800 a catheter to him and make him pee in his 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.440 own mouth as punishment, like a little known fact about 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:53.160 that movie. 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:58.040 Oh so chopsticks, Right, we should point out here that 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:04.360 in researching this chopsticks and customs and etiquette, if we 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.480 covered all the countries and all that stuff that use chopsticks, 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.200 we'd be here all day. Yeah, so there's kind of 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:11.880 a focus here on Japan. 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.359 Well, they seem to be a little uh, the most 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.400 sensitive to transgressions with chopsticks out of all of the 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.720 Asian cultures. I think perhaps they have the most rules 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:26.040 against them at the very least. 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.359 Yeah, but when you read them, it's they could all 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.079 be summed up as just don't be a dumb American. 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.240 Yeah, or don't have any fun whatsoever with your chopsticks. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:36.320 Is another way to buy. 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.840 You're like, what's wrong with making them antenna's in a 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.400 restaurant and going mart meat? 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.440 Right, I'm a Walrus, now, why can't I be a Walrus? 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:44.840 Right? 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.160 But we are talking chopsticks, not the song. Sorry to 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.840 disappoint you everybody, but I saw that that song is 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.480 actually called chopsticks because it was originally called the Celebrated 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.400 chop Waltz. Okay, written by a sixteen year old schoolgirl 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:03.040 from England. It seems about right, sure, so, but we're 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.480 talking about the utensils, and like, when you think chopsticks, 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.760 obviously you think like Asia, sure, and you don't think 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.600 that there was ever anything but chopsticks in the history 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.599 of Asia. And while chopsticks are actually surprisingly old, I 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.120 think they go back about seven thousand years. I also 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.080 saw five thousand years. I'm going with seven. I think 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.560 they're actually about as ancient as that. They weren't like 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:32.440 the go to utensil for Asia until this millennium. 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.599 Yeah, the spoon was kind of the go to. Yeah, 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:40.920 who knew the word chopstick? They think maybe pigeon English 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:46.479 Chinese pigeon English meaning chop chop or quickly right, But 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.000 you know this is one of these etymologies. 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:50.200 It's sort of tough to pin down. 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.520 It looks like, but that's the English word for it. 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.600 In all of the chopstick using cultures, they have their 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.520 own word, like in Japan it's hashi, it's kuwa easy, 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.400 in China nice. I'm not sure if I said that 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:08.960 right at all. Geo garok in Korean, all. 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:10.560 Right, not not as nice? 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.800 And deui dei dua in Vietnamese. All right, I'm sorry 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:18.159 half of the world's population. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.520 I love that you started strong in Japan though, because 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.960 you feel pretty confident in your Japanese pronunciations. 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:23.720 That's a good way to go. 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.640 Yes, I have a great tutor, that's right. 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:33.400 So five to seven thousand years ago they were used 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.599 initially for cooking, and we'll get more into the ins 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.560 and outs of the history, but they were made from 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:43.400 twigs probably, and it was much much later, Like you 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.560 said that, they were table utensils, right, and it was 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.560 all very much like practicality based. 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.560 Yeah, because initially they figured out pretty early on these, 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.760 the Chinese from five thousand to seven thousand years ago, 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:02.720 that's a really bad idea to stick your hand into 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:06.040 a pot of boiling water to get something out of it, 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:08.159 say like a bone or a piece of meat or 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.840 something like that. It's way better to use a twig, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.560 and it's even better to use two twigs, as if 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.000 they were kind of a pair of detached tweezers. That's 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.760 apparently where they initially started to come into use was 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.760 during cooking and food preparation, not the actual eating process. 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:25.680 That's right. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.760 There was a big population boom in China at one point, 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.839 some might say, there continues to be said, and the 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.400 resources became a little more scarce. They started cutting their 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.280 food up into little tiny pieces for reasons of like it. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.200 Helps it to cook faster. I wonder I didn't. 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:48.760 See anything about this, but I wonder if that also 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.920 just made it. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.360 More shareable among a larger family. 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:54.960 I could see that. That's a great point too. And 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.159 isn't it fascinating though, the idea that a population boom 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.720 led to widespread use of the chopstick. 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.880 Yeah, it's interesting. And then Confucius also was a vegetarian 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:11.640 and noted knife hater. He has a quote about knives. 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.040 The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.960 the slaughterhouse and the kitchen, and he allows no knives 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.440 on his table. And I think that was a little 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.720 more because a knive was equated with eating meat, right, 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:24.520 less than like it's a garbage tool. 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.440 You don't You don't need a knife to eat a plant. Basically. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:30.480 Yeah, some might argue you might want to cut a 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:31.760 piece of broccoli. 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.840 Maybe, but you don't have to. I just summed up Confucius. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.440 That's the level of arrogance that I'm operating at now. 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:41.680 And I think some of the early and you know, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:46.680 it started in China, and then you know, pretty soon Korea, Vietnam, Japan, 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:52.680 we're all using them. But I think that Chinese chopsticks 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.680 were joined at what they are now? 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:57.520 What are they called now? 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.840 If they're joined and you got to split them apart? 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.360 Oh warabashi that's Japanese. This is the term for disposable chopsticks. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.960 Okay, But I thought the Chinese chopsticks were originally joined 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:09.240 like that. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.400 Yes, No, it was Japanese. Okay. There was a single 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:14.960 piece of bamboo that was like split, kind of like 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:16.120 giant tweezers. 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.080 Okay, yeah, I'm reading this now. I had a sometimes 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.760 I just now reading this, Well, no, I get sometimes 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.200 and it's the dumbest thing. But I get confused between 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.280 former and ladder. Oh yeah, it's not that I get confused. 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:32.400 I just have to go back and sort of picture 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:33.040 it in my brain. 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:35.640 It just takes an extra second, I think for everybody 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.520 that's right. It's definitely not intuitive, so I don't feel bad. 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.160 I also thought this thing about food poisoning was interesting 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:47.360 was that in dynastic times in China, they would use 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.160 and I guess people that are a little more well 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:54.839 healed would use silver chopsticks because they thought that if 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.679 it came into contact with something that was poisonous, then 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.679 the chopsticks would turn black and they would know not 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:01.120 to eat it. 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.600 I mean, it just makes sense. When you're rich and wealthy, 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.240 more people want to kill you, so it's better to 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.440 have something that shows if somebody's trying to poison you, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.040 like your chopstick's turning a color if you're being poisonous 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.439 cyanide or something like that. The problem is that doesn't 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.120 actually work, and I don't know why they didn't just 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:22.080 think that through from the get go, like, oh well, 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.720 let's get ourselves some cyanide and stick a silver chopstick 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.080 in it and see what happens and see that it 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.360 doesn't work. But apparently it does work in the presence 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.920 of garlic or rotten eggs because they put out hydrogen 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.160 sulfide so it will turn silver a different color. So 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.000 I don't know how garlic ever made itself into a 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.640 staple of Chinese cooking, but there we have it. 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:47.679 Yeah, And the other thing I thought was interesting and 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.440 we should mention too. This came from a variety of places. 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.800 Teagan Jones at Gizmoto, Lisa Brahman from Smithsonian mag Q. 0:09:56.080 --> 0:10:00.600 Edward Wang from Cambridge blog huff Po Believe it or Not, 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.840 got in the works, yeah, and some other places. But 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.960 I thought that Q. Edward Wang's history was really interesting 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:14.640 because he mentions that wheat is kind of the first 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.800 reason before rice, which really surprised me. 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.120 It was very surprising. I think he knew all along 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.440 that that was a big reveal, you know. Yeah, but 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.719 that's what gave chopsticks a shot in the arm. So 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:34.080 first we have cutting food into smaller pieces to have 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.280 it cook faster, so you use less firewood because there's 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.400 a population boom. And then as wheat becomes kind of 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:46.319 fashionable and widespread, you start to use chopsticks because you're 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.720 making things like noodles and dumplings. And prior to this, 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:54.240 millet was the go to grain. And millet's really small, 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.800 it's much smaller than rice, and you certainly aren't going 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.240 to turn it into like a noodle or a dumpling 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.720 make a gruel out of it. And so for thousands 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.800 of years, the go to utensil that people use to 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.719 eat with in China was a spoon because they were 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.160 eating gruel or porridge or whatever by hated life. But 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.720 when wheat came along and they started turning into noodles 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.280 and dumplings, they said, oh, yeah, I remember those things 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.480 that we use those twigs to cook with. What if 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.840 we made a smaller version of those to eat with too, 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:27.800 And that's where the chopstick got its first like real 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.720 boost in usage around Asia. 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.160 Yeah. I mean, try to eat a big spoonful of 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:38.200 noodles and just watch as they flop off and sling 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:40.880 delicious sauce all over you, all over the place. 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:46.200 There is literally nothing more frustrating than trying to eat 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.760 noodles with a spoon in the entire world. 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.640 Yeah, and I mean, sure you could chop them up 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.280 into tiny little pieces, so they rest in your spoon. 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.360 With some broth. Sure, but who wants to do. 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:04.320 That that cuts up their buskehetti at the table into 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:05.040 tiny bits? 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.840 Is a six year old? Yeah? 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.800 Or just thoroughly un American? True? One of the two, 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:17.320 maybe both, depending on how sophisticated the six year old is. 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:17.520 You know. 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.560 The other thing I thought was interesting too from mister 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.680 Wang's article was he talked about stew, which is gang 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.480 and Chinese. They ate a lot of stew back then, 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.880 and chopsticks would be very useful for picking up things 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.160 like the more solid objects in the stew, like the vegetables. 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:38.160 Right, so you've got wheat coming into vogue, you've got 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:42.840 smaller pieces vegetables stew being eaten. Chopsticks are like, come on, 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:44.760 we're gonna do what we gotta do this. We just 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:46.760 need one more thing to get us over the hump, 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.640 and people are gonna know us everywhere around the world. 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.280 And that one thing was a particular kind of Vietnamese 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:58.080 rice that ripens early apparently, and it's a shorter grain 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:02.000 or a medium grain, which means that it's easier to 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.720 it clumps more easily. It also has a lot of 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:06.960 like starches to it, so it's just kind of clumpy, 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.480 sticky rice. And here in the West, we're not really 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.400 used to that kind of rice, so we're like, how 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:14.600 are you going to use chopsticks to eat this stuff? 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.960 Like, try eating some uncle bens with chopsticks. 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.040 You can't do it. It's like trying to eat noodles 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:20.559 with a spoon. 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:22.960 Yeah, or you would just do that move. 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:24.679 And this is what I didn't understand when I was 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.240 growing up, because I was a little naive when I 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.680 saw chopsticks, I would just think about scooping up the 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.040 rice on top of them very awkwardly. And it wasn't 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:35.720 until I was a little bit older and had good 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:39.040 clumpy Chinese rice right and Japanese rice, I was like, oh, 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.320 it's very easy to eat with chopsticks. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:45.880 Yeah. And you're just like, oh, okay, I've got it 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.600 because it sticks together. It's like a nice little morsel 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.360 of food and it sticks together just about the right size, 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:57.160 and it's totally different. So when you eat Chinese rice 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.880 or Japanese rice, or even Vietnamese rice, the stickier, then 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.080 you understand, Okay, you can use this as a as 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.920 you can use chopsticks for this, and the Chinese figured 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.000 this out as well, when rice became much more of 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.840 a staple of the Asian diet, and all of a sudden, 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.360 now you didn't need a spoon anymore because everybody's like 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.800 to heck with millet. Who wants gruel? Nobody? Yeah, So 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.360 they threw their spoons out the window, and then they 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.560 started just eating chopsticks for everything that you could use 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.720 it for everything. Now it's all you needed for your meal. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.440 Yeah, And that all in one solution, I think was 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.760 that happened in China and Japan and Vietnam for sure, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.640 and Korea I think was the one standout because I 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.480 believe in Korea the spoon and the chopstick still go 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:43.400 hand in hand. 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.800 Yeah. And this I believe it was Key Edward Wang 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.120 who maybe wrote this, but he basically said it. It 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:55.880 seems to be a conscious decision right in Korea, almost 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:59.240 as if they were being contrary or something like that. 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:00.600 Maybe they just wanted to their own thing. 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.400 Well, they eat a lot of very very hot stews 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:06.560 and soups. Have you ever had boot at Jigga? 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:08.400 I don't think so. 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.080 I'm not even sure I'm saying it correctly. Have you 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.200 ever been to eat like an h mart or like 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.280 an Asian food cord or something like that. Sure, if 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.080 you go to a cream place, they usually have I 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.400 think it's called bout a jig a. It's like hot 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.320 dog soup basically, Oh my lord, and it's like this 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.800 kind of I'm not even sure. I guess it's it's 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:33.280 like a chili paste broth with lots of great processed 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.960 meat in it, and like ramen and like holapanos. It's 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.800 just so good. But that thing comes to you boiling, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.000 and you're supposed to like eat the chunky parts out 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.800 with a chopstick. But I guess it always comes with 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.000 a spoon too, so I think you're supposed to actually 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.080 eat the broth with the spoon rather than sip. 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:53.960 I tell you, one thing I do love is the 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:58.280 design of the and I'm calling it the Chinese spoon. 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:00.600 I don't know if it originated in China, but you 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:02.119 know the soup spoon I'm talking. 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.280 About, Yeah, like the one you use for miso souper man. 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:05.320 They're just the best. 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.240 Yeah, they do. They because you can get a really 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.800 big spoonful on there. 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:11.920 You know, it's ergonomic. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:13.640 It just it's the it's the way to do it 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:15.040 unless you're just going to pick up the bowl and 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:16.160 drink it, which is great too. 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:18.600 Yeah, up with the miso soup spoon. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.240 All right, let's take a break because I'm so hungry 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:26.040 after you said hot dog stew, wh stomachs growling, And 0:16:26.080 --> 0:17:12.359 we'll come back and we'll talk more about chopsticks. 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.240 Copine shot. 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:55.600 Shot. 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:03.640 I don't remember what episode it was, Chuck, but do 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.639 you remember when our stomachs growled in sync with one another? 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:07.680 That was very recently? 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.160 It was? Yeah, you can still reminisce about recent Okay, 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:14.040 I say. 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.679 I'm nostalgic for that thing that happened last week. 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:22.199 Pretty much so apparently, and this I'm not sure how 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:27.040 accurate this is, but the four main kinds of chopsticks. 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:32.560 Apparently in China the chopsticks are a little bit longer 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:35.960 and a little more blunt on the ends. 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.240 Yeah, and they think that might be a nod to Confucius, 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.040 basically saying like, don't have knives at your table, don't 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.680 even have vaguely sharpened chopsticks. 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.640 Even like nothing stabby nothing. 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:49.359 Don't you don't want to be stabbed at your table? 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.240 I think in Japan they're a little sharper and a 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.480 little shorter, but you're still not supposed to be stabbing stuff. 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.159 No, don't stab that piece of tuna. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.120 No, it's you can just tell if you've ever done 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.120 that while you're doing it, that you're violating some unnatural 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:06.320 law or something like that. 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:07.320 Feels wrong, doesn't it. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:07.640 Yeah? 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.800 Yeah, let me see here in Korea, apparently they're are 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.439 shorter as well, and they are also blunt, but they 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:15.680 can be metallic. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.280 Yeah, that's one thing that we'll see because we're going 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.880 to talk about. As with everything in existence, there's some 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:28.200 horrid environmental impact with chopsticks as well. But the Japanese 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.880 are like, give us cheap, disposable wooden or bamboo chopsticks 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.240 and basically nothing else. Yeah, they're just crazy for it, 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.320 where some of the other Asian cultures are like, no, 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.520 we can use reusable ones, but the Japanese are like, no, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.399 we want nothing but disposable, cheap chopsticks. That warebashi. 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.359 I assume that you and U Mei have your own 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.520 chopsticks at home. Oh yeah, and do you bring those 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:55.280 to restaurants? 0:18:56.000 --> 0:19:01.360 Oh no, no, no never do we should? I everybody should, but. 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.320 I usually think when I'm there, I'm like, oh, man, 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:04.719 I should have brought my chopsticks. 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:06.320 Well, you know, I mean like, if you go to 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.560 any Asian store, they have like cute little it looks 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.480 almost like a pencil case, but it's you know, chopsticks inside, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.040 and it's meant for you to carry them around with you. 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.720 But no one does that. You just don't. Even though 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.560 hopefully in ten years when we're all like, Okay, this 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.200 is out of control and this is really bad, everyone 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.560 will be doing that. You just don't do it. And yeah, 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:28.600 we have some that like I could just put in 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.159 my jeans pocket and walk around with if I wanted to, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:32.240 but I don't do it. 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:33.359 Yeah, one does. 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.320 I take my straw now and I use it because 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:41.040 I now keep it in my purse. Your merse, my merse, 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:43.560 which goes everywhere with me. Yeah, so I need to 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.120 throw some chopsticks in there. Sure, And it's a good 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:49.320 feeling when you say no straw. I've got my own, 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:50.959 And I would love to be able to say no, no, 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:52.560 you keep those wooden chopsticks. 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.800 Yeah, take that straw and shove it where the sun 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:57.639 don't shine. 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:00.920 Wow. Yeah, I'm not that aggressive about. 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.199 It's so funny depending on where you are in the 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.919 country though, Like if they bring you a straw and 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.280 you say no straw please, they look at you like 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.359 you're just a straight up democratic socialist hippie, you know, 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.199 like you're trying to undermine the government or something like that. 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:17.320 It's kind of hilarious. 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:19.400 Yeah. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.600 Sure, But other places now are there's a couple of 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.800 places in my neighborhood who have postings on the wall 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.760 when you walk in talking about an impact of straws, 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.440 and that straws are upon request only. 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:35.480 Right, And if you've got a problem with that, you 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:37.600 can take a straw and shove it where the sun 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:38.520 notes shines. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.840 Right, or you take that problem to the voting booth. 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:46.399 This fall right exactly. So are you prepared? Because I 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:47.879 have a feeling you do a better job than me 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.920 at this because you so often have great, convoluted ways 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:53.560 of describing visual things. 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:55.919 I'm going to do a great job describing it to 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.160 you because you can watch my hands. But I think 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.120 for everybody listening it's going to be very problematic. 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.440 All right, how do you use chopsticks? 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.040