Friday, May 19, 2006

Eating with the Sticks


Last weekend, Alvis and I were running some errands while Lavie spent some time with her parents and grandmother.

For lunch we stopped by our local Japanese restaurant. We shared some sushi (shrimp and salmon). I had a nice beef appetizer for my main dish and Alvis stuck with her regular salad, rice cup and miso soup. It was a really nice dad and daughter moment. We laughed and talked and had a relaxing good time.

I frequently eat out at Asian places. One of the fun things I like to do is eat with the chopsticks. We almost always end up using the disposable wooden ones (waribashi) you snap in half. I don't really care for these for several reasons. One, they are a little small and are not quite as comfortable to use. Second, it seems kinda wasteful.

Apparently, the waste issue is touching a nerve in China and Japan as well where taxes imposed by the Chinese result in a higher cost now for waribashi in Japan. No word on how this may impact American fans of waribashi, but I'm guessing it won't hit most American's nerve like, say, gasoline costs are.

Anyway, around the Valca home, we have quite a few non-disposable sets of chopsticks we use. Lavie has an elegant set of highly polished lacquered wood ones. We also have a few larger, heavy-duty wood ones as well. I'm frequently found in the kitchen using these to stir pots instead of silverware. These sets are much more comfortable to use.

I've seriously considered keeping a pair of our own with me so when we dine out on Asian foods, I can have my own set with me...but that seemed kinda, well, nerdy. However, I now have a renewed sense of enthusiasm.

Blue Lotus recently posted her consideration on this issue and introduced me to the term "myhashi." Myhashi are basically your own personal pair of chopsticks carried with you. She shows off her beautiful myhashi case. I really like this idea, but need to develop something of a more "tech-y" look. Something in a thin aluminum brushed capsule look. Maybe with rounded caps with a cool rubber o-ring gasket...hmmm.

More chopstick linkage:

The Waribashi Project Blog
Beautiful Myhashi products (translated link via Altavista)
Chopstick products , more, and more.
Osaka breaking the chops (Azumanga Daioh manga strip)

See you in the skies,
--Claus

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