Are you a sushi fact whiz? Test your food trivia smarts with this fun sushi trivia and facts quiz.

Asian cuisine has been pretty popular here in the U.S. for sometime. It seems to me that many Americans have become fairly agile with a pair of chopsticks. However, I know that not everyone is comfortable using two sticks to transport food from plate to mouth.

If you're one of the number who still struggle with the sticks, there's a new tool that can help you eat your Asian food without all the fuss. The Tukaani chopsticks were created by Finnish designer, Lincoln Kayiwa, and were modeled after the beak of a Toucan. The stainless steel utensil has the two 'sticks' connected by a ring twisted at one end.

The Tukaani chopsticks may be great for beginners, but I still think they're no substitute for learning how to use chopsticks properly. It may take some practice, but using chopsticks isn't so difficult to master that you'd need to use the Tukaani forever. What's your take on the Tukaani chopsticks?

[via Josh Spear]

Metro.co.uk reports that eighteen year old Kathryn Ratcliffe from Newcastle, UK broke the record for eating grains of rice during the Chopsticks Championship. How does someone win this honor? She ate 96 grains in two minutes - breaking the existing record of 64 grains in three minutes.

Kathryn broke her first world record at the age of 12 and she now holds four records! Her other records are for eating Smarties with chopsticks, eating jelly with chopsticks, and separating jelly beans by color into separate pots with a straw.

I wonder what Kathryn has planned next. More with chopsticks? More with straws? Perhaps she'll retire after her fourth win. I doubt she'll quit now. I see many records in her future.

I just came across a new blog (for me) called What Japan Thinks. As I am a lover of all things Japanese, this could be an invaluable resource. Of particular interest to me, on this visit to the blog, was an article on chop stick etiquette.

The blog post is really a vehicle to share the opinions offered in two surveys about using chop sticks. One deals with bad habits that you can't break, and the other is about bad habits that you can't help but notice other people doing.

I thought I was sure to have bad chop stick etiquette, as I have never had any pointers from anyone beyond the very basics of how to use them, but I actually did pretty well based on the habits mentioned in the two surveys. I am really bad about laying the utensils across the top of the plate, but I definitely don't stick them straight up in a bowl of rice. Check it out, and see how your chop stick manners compare.

A lot of sources out there are saying that re-usable dishes and eating utensils, and everything else, are better for the environment. Things like plastic forks and paper plates only use valuable resources and clog up landfills. The same goes for the disposable chopsticks that you get at all the Asian restaurants.

If you're into that kind of thing, here is something you can do. Introducing: re usable chopsticks! I know, I know, re-usable chopsticks are already readily available, but these are even more environmentally friendly. They are made from at least 35% recycled rice, by which I mean rice that would otherwise have been thrown out. The "rice-based biomass plastic" used to make these utensils produces 30% less carbon emissions than regular plastic, at least according to its maker, Index.

I have never really considered carrying around my own eating utensils, but it probably would be a good idea to start. I really don't eat out that often, and I tend to go to places that don't use plastic cutlery, anyway. If I could get a hold of these chopsticks, at least I could take them to Asian eateries. It would be a start, and they do say that every little bit helps.

[Via Trends in Japan]

Chinese environmental activists continue to protest the country's use of disposable chopsticks, an industry that churns out about 63 billion pairs a year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Just yesterday, activists stormed a Microsoft Corporation cafeteria to alert patrons to the damage the utensils were doing to forests.

China is already mobilizing to decrease its reliance on disposable chopsticks. Since November, about 300 restaurants have promised to replace them with reusable chopsticks, and in 2006, the government levied a 5% tax on these and other products they deemed environmentally unfriendly.

And to go along with their attempts to green the Beijing Olympics this summer, many events will not offer disposable chopsticks to visitors.

But the industry that activists are protesting is one that employs over 100,000 people in China, and provides well-needed jobs for people in poorer areas (some younger activists are experiencing conflicting feelings, as their parents make a living producing the very product that they are condemning). And Lian Guang, president of the Wooden Chopsticks Trade Association, told the WSJ that the company uses leftover wood or wood from trees that are not endangered, like birch, poplar, and bamboo.

But though activists are encouraging Chinese citizens to tote their own pair of reusable chopsticks (much like the U.S. is encouraging people to use their own water bottles), it doesn't look like the disposable chopstick industry is going anywhere anytime soon.

Disposable chopsticks have never been thought of glamorous. And there's almost always a problem getting the wooden utensils to break cleanly at the seam. Despite their decidedly downscale image, one Japanese company has given the sticks a luxe makeover. No, they haven't been iced out by Jacob the Jeweler. Kinbashi Gold Chopsticks have a small amount of edible gold leaf between their tips. Crack them apart and even the lamest takeout sushi becomes a grand affair. Well, not really, but at least you'll have gold leaf falling on top of your lame sushi. At ¥4,515, or $40 for two five-packs, they're not terribly expensive. Nevertheless, I fail to see the point. Then again I've never quite understood Goldschläger either.

[via Trends in Japan]

Earlier this year, I put together a list of chopsticks in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Some of them were just beautifully luxurious, others were made for trvael, and still others were made for kids. Well, some of them were also made like they were for kids, but are for those of us who are still imprpving our dexterity on chopsticks. Training chopsticks.

Now we have the "chork," something like training chopsticks, but instead of making us feel like we don't know how to use chopsticks, these are intended to be used as both chopsticks and a fork, and as Daily Olive put it, "just right for your next Asian fusion meal." Available from lrfurniturestdios.

[via: Daily Olive]

If you're planning a fantastic Chinese feast this weekend for Chinese New Year, don't fret one bit if you're a little (or a lot) rusty with chopsticks. You could, of course, go the way of stabbing your dumplings and winding your noodles of long life with a fork, but we have a better idea. How about some chopsticks are a little easier to use?

Now, if you're a already a professional, then you might just need your own personal set of portable chopsticks. These aluminum chopsticks slide out of a fabric pouch and snap together. Not only are they pretty, but this keeps away the problem of disposable chopsticks creating waste! ThinkGeek also has a pair that screw together.

For an even more "green" Far East feast, the Bird's Eye Maple chopsticks are perfect, which are also fastened together with their very own chopstick rest. They are available from Porterhouse Crafts for $23 for two pairs.

Have you ever seen someone using a fork, knife or another eating utensil in a way that seems incredibly awkward? Because the ability to use a knife and fork is a mark of a well-socialized individual and is a skill that is typically picked up from observing others, it is hard not to wonder they picked up such unusual habits. In Japan, some schools are wondering the same thing and want to make sure that such sloppy, untraditional habits of chopstick use are stopped before they spread any further. The Hisatagakuen Sasebo Girls' High School will be testing students on their skill with chopsticks as part of their entrance examinations. The 10-minute test will require that students "transfer beads, marbles, dice and beans from one plate to another."

Administrators say that the purpose of this test is to show respect for "the Japanese spirit" but, in light of the decline of chopstick use among Japanese children, it also seems like a rather unusual way to make sure everyone has good table manners.

You can buy a pair of chopsticks to help your kids master the fine art of eating without a fork, but why buy when you can make use of the wooden chopsticks you get for free when you order take-out? By using only the paper sleeve that they come in and a small rubberband, you can secure the chopsticks so that they are easy for a child to use - even if they are young enough that their motor stills are less than perfect. One benefit to teaching your kids to use chopsticks early is that they'll think they are a lot of fun and, since they'll be looking for chances to practice their newly honed skills, you can get them to eat a lot more veggies with your Chinese take-out food (since they're easy to pick up) than they ordinarily would!

To watch a video of the construction process, click here.

[Thanks, Jake]

Apparently this is a very good time to be a maker of plastic chopsticks. What you don't want to be is a maker of waribashi, the disposable version.

It is a serious state of affairs as China, supplier of more than nine tenths of the 25 billion wooden chopsticks thrown away each year in Japan, is worried over the decimation of its birch forests. They need to slow the logging and thus doubled the price of waribashi sold to Japan and threatened to stop exports altogether by 2008.

I am not that clear on the attitude toward chopstick use. Do the Japanese view reusable ones as just cheap or is there a hygiene issue as well? This Times article says there is a premium of one yen per person per meal to pay on fresh chop sticks. Research is underway on producing chopsticks from recycled paper but to me, 25 billion chopsticks just discarded after one use seems more than excessively wasteful.

In most Japanese restaurants and sushi bars, the chopsticks are those ridiculous splinters of disposable wood that don't deserve a proper chopstick rest. However, I always end up folding the wrapper into a nice little "bench" to rest the tips of my chopsticks do that they don't touch the table.

In nice restaurants, you might get a ceramic chopstick rest shaped like a fish or perhaps a leaf, or sometimes it's just a flat, polished stone. I can't remember what they are officially called in Japanese, but these simple shapes in light, pastel colors from Muji in the UK are beautiful for home. 

They're £0.50 per piece.

Could you dive into your dim sum with...a fork?

In China, that just may be the case, as the government has just laid down a new 5% tax on disposable wooden chopsticks. The government says it is doing it to save 25 million poplar and birch trees in China per year. The tax would be applied to manufacturers, which means restaurants and anyone else who purchases the wooden chopsticks would end up paying a higher price. The government doesn't expect the Chinese people to eat with their hands - just to start using re-usable plastic or metal chopsticks.

[photo: Los Angeles Times]