Irish Born Chinese

Chinese dinner etiquette is not just nice to know, it’s a must-know. It’s like someone not knowing how to use a knife and fork in a restaurant properly and making a fool of oneself.

It’s very hard to explain to people how important it is, you are eating with chopsticks, and to most non-Asians, it seems just as an annoyance if they don’t know how to use them. It use to be Asians were thought to be barbarians for not knowing how to use the knife and forks by their western counterparts, and vice-verse. It’s cool that it’s the norm to know how to hold and use the chopsticks nowadays.

I invited a rake of my friends to a Chinese dinner at my local Chinese restaurant. Most were Irish and also included a HK friend and my cousin. Three of us decided to use chopsticks and bowls, and the rest using knifes and forks with plates. When the food arrived, I was speaking for a few minutes to my cousin and turned around and I noticed that everyone grabbed as much food as possible to their plates. It was meant to be communal for all to share, but there was hardly anything left for my cousin, friend and I! So we looked like an ass that night. Heehee. Oh well, I should probably learn to explain how communal sharing of food works at a Chinese dinner.