We’re still trying to figure out why Thai restaurants in America offer chopstix.
Now a lot of Westerners don’t try to eat with chopstix even in a Chinese restaurant. We have to persuade the servers in our favorite Szechwan restaurant that we really do want chopstix like the Chinese diners there. But we have also become accustomed to eating without knife, fork and spoon when we go for Thai cuisine. And the staff is pleased to accommodate us.
Turns out we are not eating like Thais themselves eat. Their custom appears to be eating with a fork and spoon, the fork in the left hand as a scoop or pusher and the spoon in the right hand for cutting and anything else you care to do with your food. This is not as easy as it sounds, since we righties aren’t used to manipulating a fork that way.
But, from now on, it’s utensils all the way.
(On further review…the one exception to eating with utensils turns out to be noodles in soup or bowls. For that, the proper equipment is chopstix!)