How to use roll sticks step by step instructions. How to eat sushi according to etiquette

18.07.202327.05.2017

Themed celebration in Japanese style it's about to start. The tables are bursting with exquisite oriental dishes. But instead of traditional forks, the table is set with wonderful chopsticks. This is an integral oriental utensil for eating, which the Japanese call hashi, and the Chinese call kuaizi.

Its centuries-old history, delicate etiquette and amazing design require certain skills to use. To feel comfortable in restaurants serving Japanese cuisine or visiting friends who are fond of sushi, you should learn how to use this cutlery correctly.

Khasi: history and traditions

Historical chronicles and archaeological research have established that China is considered the birthplace of chopsticks. According to legend, such cutlery appeared during the Shang period about 3 thousand years ago. This method of eating food was invented by the historical ancestor Yu, who showed considerable ingenuity and pulled out a piece of meat from a boiling cauldron with two broken branches. Since this prevented him from scalding his fingers with boiling water, his experience was quickly passed on to other people.

The Hashi entered Japanese culture during the Bronze Age. At first they were used only at the imperial court, but after centuries the Khasis became available to the lower strata of society.

They are so ingrained in the Japanese mentality that over time they turned from cutlery into a sacred symbol.

What types of sushi chopsticks are there?

Sushi sticks in their original form were made of wood and looked like a split bamboo trunk, which on one side had two points, and on the other remained solid. The cross section of the hashi could be round or square, and the sharp end could be conical or pyramidal. In the field Catering

Mostly disposable chopsticks (waribashi) are used. They resemble a half-sawn cylindrical piece of wood or plastic that needs to be broken before eating. This is considered a sign that no one has ever eaten with chopsticks. They are served in restaurants and packaged in sterile bags with the establishment's logo. The modern variety of reusable chopsticks (nuribashi) allows you to choose chopsticks for every taste and color. They are manufactured different forms and sizes, with colorful designs or hieroglyphs, and sometimes they are even inlaid. This device is served on a hasioki stand.

Chopsticks are made from the following materials:

Wood species (bamboo, maple, sandalwood, cypress, plum).
Precious metals (silver, gold, steel).
Exotic raw materials (ivory, deer antlers, crystal).
Plastic.

How should you hold sushi chopsticks?

To learn how to deftly manipulate sushi chopsticks, you need to hold them correctly between your fingers:

It is necessary to make a basis for fixing the sticks. To do this, you need to press your little finger and ring finger and bend them towards the middle of your palm. The middle finger paired with the index finger should lean forward a little.

The thick end of the lower hashi should be placed in the hole between the thumb and index finger. The tip of the hashi should rest on the nail phalanx of the middle finger.

Now the thick end of the upper hisi needs to be placed on the index finger, and its position should be fixed with the bun of the thumb.

A pencil holds about the same way.

During the meal, the lower stick should remain fixed, and all manipulations should be carried out with the upper stick. To grab food, you need to straighten your little finger and ring finger, spread your chopsticks, grab a piece of food, and then bend your fingers again and bring the food to your mouth. Advice!

If you use special sticks with a holder (baby sticks or clothespin sticks), you need to manipulate them like tweezers, adjusting the clamping process with your middle finger.

It will take some time to achieve positive results, so you can practice a little at home by catching small objects with chopsticks, such as beans or corn. Over time, your fingers will become dexterous and the hashi control process will become automatic.

A few etiquette rules

Over the course of a couple of thousand years, the ritual of eating with chopsticks has acquired many traditions, rules and prohibitions.

Of course, different nationalities have their own ethnic customs, but in general they have many similarities.

The main principle of using hashi is unquestioning respect for this sacred instrument.
Chopsticks are only allowed to pick up, place or stir food, and all other manipulations are considered notes of bad taste. Therefore, if you are planning to visit eastern countries or often visit elite Japanese restaurants, you need to know some features of the culture of using hashi chopsticks:
To attract the attention of service personnel, it is prohibited to knock on the dishes with chopsticks.
If you take a portioned piece with chopsticks, it must definitely get into your mouth. It is indecent to put food back on the plate.
Don't wave your hashi, lick it, or point it in anyone's direction.
Do not place chopsticks in a vertical position. This is reminiscent of the ritual of placing scented candles for the deceased.
The strictest taboo is considered to be transferring food from one plate to another with chopsticks. In Japan, there is a ritual of placing the bones of a cremated body with chopsticks into a funeral urn.
Hashi clenched in a fist is considered a threat signal.

One third of the population uses sushi chopsticks as their main cutlery, another third prefers forks and spoons, and the rest eat with their hands.
In Japan, hashi is considered the best gift for any celebration. They are given to newlyweds as a symbol of longevity, health and good luck.
On the hundredth day after birth, babies are presented with their first chopsticks, which they begin to eat with one year old.
Chopsticks are considered a purely personal item, so no Japanese person who respects tradition will allow himself to eat with someone else’s chopsticks.
The unique mental abilities of the Japanese and Chinese are attributed to highly developed hand motor skills, which are improved through the use of hashi from an early age.
For eating food, only sushi chopsticks are used in four countries of the world: China, Japan, as well as Korea and Vietnam.
The Chinese use about 40 billion pairs of Waribashi every year.
In the 17th century, silver sticks were made to detect poison in food. At that time, arsenic was used as a poison, upon contact with which the silver changed color.
In Korea, they use metal chopsticks for sushi.

Even if you are not a fan of sushi, learning to eat with sushi chopsticks will still be a good idea. This is quite easy to do, you just need to get the hang of it a little. After all, you can be invited to a Japanese-style lunch at any time. In addition, in the process of learning a new culture, you will learn a lot of interesting things and have fun.

In our time exotic dish called “sushi” has become familiar. Traditionally, sushi, rolls, and other dishes oriental cuisine eaten with chopsticks, also called hasi. An ordinary Russian person is faced with a problem - how to hold a khasi correctly. It looks easy, but in practice, as it turned out, it is not so simple. First, let's get acquainted with the history of oriental cutlery.

Historical facts

It's hard to believe, but the Khasi are over 2000 years old. The exact time of their creation is not known. Many researchers of Chinese culture associate the appearance of the Khasi with the Shan-Yin dynasty. And this is 1764 - 1027 BC. e. In those days, only rich and respected people could eat with chopsticks. All other layers of society were able to use them already in the 800s. e.There is a legend that these sticks were originally used for cooking, not eating food. They were used to turn over hot food and the stones on which it was fried.

After some time, chopsticks gained popularity in many countries such as Korea, Vietnam, Japan, etc. For residents of these regions, Hashi is not only a cutlery, but also a part of a millennia-old culture.

The first sticks were made from bamboo. Now you can see khasi made of wood, metal, animal bones and even glass and porcelain. Very often they are decorated with ornaments.

How to use sushi chopsticks?

Having familiarized ourselves with the history of the creation of chopsticks, we will learn how to use them. Even the most dexterous Chinese once did not know how to eat using hashi. But the training did its job. And now residents of eastern countries know how to use chopsticks better than we use forks or spoons.

In just 3 steps you will learn how to hold and use a hasi.

How to hold chopsticks?

And now in more detail:

Table manners

Even the fact that you know how to use chopsticks will not save you if you behave incorrectly at the table. Residents of eastern countries have strictly adhered to their traditions for more than three thousand years and do not intend to break them. But as they say, they don’t interfere with someone else’s family with their own rules. So we write down:

You can't put food on sticks.
You can't stick hashi into rice, for example. This is what they do at funerals.
Under no circumstances should you create patterns at the table using these cutlery items.
Khasi are individual chopsticks. There is no need to put food on someone else's plate with them. This is unhygienic and uncivilized.
Do not move sushi around on a shared plate.
Don't wrap food around hashi. Especially noodles or spaghetti.
You can't lick chopsticks. This is not a spoon.
Do not place chopsticks across the plate after eating.
You cannot point to something or someone using hashi.
Holding chopsticks in a fist is a sign of aggression for Easterners.
If you want more, first put the chopsticks on the table and only then contact the hostess.

It's no secret that the Japanese eat food using wooden chopsticks.

Japanese cuisine is very popular; almost everyone has ordered sushi and rolls at least once in their life. Therefore, in order not to lose face when visiting a Japanese restaurant, or while eating a roll in a company, you need to learn how to use this cutlery.

How to hold Japanese chopsticks

Today we will try to explain to you how to use Japanese hashi chopsticks. There is nothing complicated about this; even a child can learn this.

First, dry your hands so that they are dry and remove the towel.

We take the package of hashi and open it. The set always contains two sticks - one is non-working, the other is working.

We fix the lower, non-working hashi with the thumb at the end of the ring finger. The top stick is the working one - we hold it the way we are used to holding a writing pen.

By moving the upper, working hashi, you can safely squeeze food between it and the non-working stick.

Photo of how to hold chopsticks

Features of etiquette for using chopsticks

During a meal, there are a number of basic etiquette rules regarding the use of hashi that are not advisable to violate.

Do not forget that while eating, it is not customary to wave chopsticks in the air and point them at people.
You can't put food on sticks. In addition, it is considered uncivil to drive them around the table and move plates of food with them.
Choose the piece you want to eat in advance, because in Japan it is not customary to sort food on your plate.
There is no need to place hashi on the table or across the bowl - there is a special hashi stand for this.
You cannot stick chopsticks into rice and hold them in your fist.

How to hold chopsticks video

Well, that's all, now you have learned how to use Japanese chopsticks for sushi, rolls, sashimi and other Japanese food. If anything remains unclear, we recommend watching a video tutorial that explains everything in detail. Bon appetit!

Article genre - Japanese cuisine

Japanese cuisine is not only gourmet dishes, but also a whole series of traditions that are unusual for us related to behavior at the table. In the country Rising Sun Since ancient times, it has been customary to use special chopsticks – hasi – when eating, not with spoons and forks. Eating food with chopsticks requires some skill and experience. Therefore, you need to learn how to hold sushi chopsticks, and then also practice at home. After that, you can safely go to the restaurant. Japanese cuisine, without fear of being considered ignorant among others.

In China, the first chopsticks appeared before our era and quickly became popular in Japan and other East Asian countries. Legend has it that they were invented by a man trying to remove a hot piece of meat from a cauldron without being scalded by boiling water.

At first, these cutlery was made only from ivory, and only emperors and members of their families could use them. Ordinary people took up sticks only in the 8th century AD.

Some interesting facts about Khasi

For many years, sticks were made exclusively from bamboo, and they resembled tweezers or forceps. The bamboo trunk was simply divided into two halves, which were folded as unnecessary. Now hashi is made from wood, metal, porcelain and even plastic.

In most restaurants, it is customary to provide visitors with disposable cutlery, although reusable ones look more presentable and elegant. They are decorated with stones, covered with patterns and different colors.

Often chopsticks are served in special cases with a beautiful design or logo of the establishment. Such cases have already become collector's items for many.

In Japan, children are taught to use chopsticks from almost one year of age. The first time a baby is given hashi is on the hundredth day after birth. Children who can eat with the help of such a device are often ahead in development of their peers who do not. The fact is that when using sticks, fine motor skills develop, which directly affects mental abilities.

A variety of sushi chopsticks

There are five main types of hashi:

universal, made from cryptomeria, pointed at one end;
made of cedar, pointed on both sides;
Gong Fai - used to transfer food from a common plate to separate ones;
Waribashi – disposable chopsticks made of plastic or bamboo;
for cooking, longer than 30 cm.

Disposable chopsticks should ideally be joined at the ends. This means that no one has used them yet.

In addition to the main types, there are others: New Year's, gift, for the tea ceremony, for sweet dishes. Expensive types of wood are used to make gift hashi, and they are also decorated with skillfully carved hieroglyphs and intricate patterns. Ivory sticks can be decorated with expensive stones.

How to hold sushi chopsticks correctly?

At first Chinese chopsticks seem very inconvenient to use. But after several trainings, it turns out that learning to eat with their help is quite easy.

The base of the lower stick is placed in the recess between the hand and the ring finger, while pressing the thin tip with the thumb. The top one is held roughly like a pen.

To set the tips of the sticks in motion, you need to bend or straighten your middle and index fingers. In this case, only the upper stick should move, the lower one should remain motionless. The sticks are easy to control if you hold them towards the middle or bottom.

Instructions on how to learn for beginners

One of the main conditions is lightness, smoothness and freedom of hand movements. Brushes should not be clamped under any circumstances.

Detailed instructions:

Bend slightly and connect the ring finger of your right hand with the little finger.
Take the first hashi and place it between your thumb and forefinger on your ring finger. The point of contact with the fingers should be at 1/3 of the top side.
Hold the second stick as you would hold a pen while writing. Correctly positioned sticks should touch only the lower tips, while the upper ones should be 1.5 cm apart from each other.

Knowing how to learn how to hold sushi chopsticks, you can start training. To do this, you can try to pick up small objects with chopsticks - peas, corn, matches. If there are no problems with this, then with large pieces of food everything will be even easier.

For beginners, it is best to eat with wooden chopsticks - food does not slip out of them as often as happens when using hashi made of plastic or ivory.

How to eat sushi and rolls?

Traditionally, when eating sushi and rolls, always use a warm towel for your hands and face. The sauce is served in special bowls, which are held in the left hand for convenience. Sushi or rolls are carefully picked up with chopsticks and dipped edgewise into the sauce. However, you cannot completely immerse the piece. Portioned pieces You can’t even bite them: you can only put them in your mouth whole or divide them into parts using chopsticks and only then eat them.

The food culture of the Japanese and Chinese is very different from that of Europe.

Therefore, you need to take note of the following rules:

It is forbidden to prick pieces of food onto chopsticks or pierce the dish with them. Khasi is stuck into rice only at funerals.
You should not draw with chopsticks on a plate or table.
Licking chopsticks and wrapping noodles around them is also considered a sign of bad manners.
After finishing the meal, you should not place chopsticks across the dish. They can be placed on a stand, on a table or on the edge of a plate.
If a person wants to ask for more, he needs to put hashi on the table.

Also, do not use sticks as a pointer or hold them in your fist.

This cutlery is unusual for us, but it helps us fully enjoy the taste of Japanese and Chinese dishes and touch the culture of these peoples.

Employees of the retro club “Pionerskaya Pravda” shared with us about some of the nuances associated with ordering sushi. They are sure that in the companies that come to them, some visitors refuse Japanese cuisine because they do not know how to use sushi chopsticks. We hasten to correct this gap, and use examples in pictures to explain how to hold sushi chopsticks. Now you will understand that there is nothing complicated here!

Step-by-step instructions on how to properly hold sushi chopsticks

1. If you are right-handed, first take one stick with your right hand, and with your thumb, about 1/3 from the top edge, press the stick to your ring finger. This wand will be controlled by the ring finger and thumb. The middle and index fingers are not used yet - they will be needed in step 2. Are you ready? 2. Give yourself the second stick with your left hand from above, parallel to the first stick. Grab the second stick with the middle and index fingers, supporting it with the phalanx of the thumb about 1.5-2 cm above the first stick.

3. Use your middle finger as a lever - if you straighten your middle finger, the sticks will move apart. Bend it and the sticks will repeat the movement. As you can see, it's quite simple (in theory). And for practice, you can order sushi delivered to your home and try it without anyone bothering you. After a couple of these lessons at home, you will be ready to use sushi chopsticks in any company.

How to eat sushi?

Many Japanese dishes are eaten with chopsticks. But learning to use them is not so bad; you also need to know how to handle dishes. Here are some sketches to help you comply:

Chopsticks should not be stuck into rice, rolls or other dishes;
Rolls, sushi, sushi are not cut off or bitten in parts, they are placed in the mouth whole;
It is not customary to pass sushi to each other;
You cannot put rolls on someone else’s plate - let your friend take the food himself;
You don’t need to take anything in your hands except chopsticks;
Do not use sushi chopsticks as a pen or pointer;

Do not move any objects on the table with chopsticks, even if you cannot reach another dish;
Do not clench the chopsticks into your fist;
Do not place chopsticks across the cup-glass-sauce;
When speaking to the waiter, you should put down your chopsticks.