The first chopsticks are believed to have come into use over 5000 years ago in China. Early Asian man retrieved his food from the fire by means of a stick or branch. As populations grew and resources became scarcer, people started cutting food into smaller pieces, which meant faster cooking times (using less fuel) and no more need for knives. Thus chopsticks – known locally as kuai-zi or ‘quick little fellows’ – became all that was needed.

With the spread of Confucianism the use of chopsticks then became confirmed as the right way to eat. According to Confucius: ‘The honourable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on the table.’

By 500 AD chopsticks had spread from China to Korea, Vietnam, Japan and beyond. Most were made of bamboo, others of wood and bone, and sometimes fancy ones were made of metal. For a while it was believed that silver chopsticks turned black when they came into contact with poisoned food.

It is said that the use of chopsticks improves memory, increases dexterity and enhances such skills as the writing of Asian characters and brush painting. There are also many superstitions to do with chopsticks. If you find an uneven pair at your table setting, for example, you are expected to miss the next train, plane or boat you will want to catch. Dropping your chopsticks is said to be a portent of bad luck to come.

In Korea:

• Don’t pick up food with your hands. Fruit is normally speared with a toothpick.
• Do place bones and shells on the table or on a separate plate.
• Do finish everything on your plate.

Do appreciate the kimchi – the Korean dish which accompanies all meals and is given free in restaurants. It usually contains fermented cabbage and red chili peppers, but it varies depending on the season and the cook!

And wherever chopsticks are used:

• Do return your chopsticks to the table after every few bites and when you stop to drink or speak.
• Don’t cross your chopsticks when you place them on your chopstick rest.
• Don’t use mismatched chopsticks.
• Never place your chopsticks across your rice bowl.
• Don’t plant your chopsticks in your food – it reminds people of the incense sticks typically standing up in sand at Buddhist funerals. Passing food from one pair of chopsticks to another resembles the way bones are handled by families after the cremation of a relation. If you want to pass some food from your plate to someone else’s, pick it up, place it on a separate plate, and allow the other person to pick it up with their own chopsticks.

In Korea, unlike in most other East Asian cultures, it is considered bad manners to eat rice with chopsticks. Instead, you eat your rice with a spoon.

In Europe, chopsticks are normally only used in Asian restaurants and homes. People customarily eat with knives, forks and spoons – or some specific dishes with the hands (some tapas in Spain, fresh herring in Holland, and so on). But the way you hold your cutlery and the way it is placed on the table or on your plate after eating varies from country to country and from culture to culture. The careful observer can deduce a lot of things from the way a person holds his knife and fork!