Top Story: 14. July 2008
Why I Don't Pierce the Food With My Chopsticks?
By Editor in Chief, Jaakko Saari
There is Japanese custom about eating with ohashi, chopsticks. You should not pierce the food (for example tofu), but try to gently capture the food between the chopsticks.
As a foreigner in Japan, I can imagine the reason for this. Rather than choosing the practical, fast and crude method, you are supposed to appreciate the spirit of the food, and deliver it to your mouth without violating it's beauty.
Still, often especially young people don't care for this rule, and I think it is matter of personal choice. It is not considered so rude nowadays, although some old person might give a critical look if they notice it.
But for myself, piercing feels like taking untrue shortcut. It feels like a cheap trick. Same goes in life and business. I think we should avoid choosing the easiest, obvious way but do our best to dedicate ourselves honestly to this world. It might be a small thing, but usually it is the small things that cut into our moral.
Confucious teaches us that you shouldn't do immoral things because "sun will see everything". We shouldn't steal from another person not because law forbids it, but because it is simply wrong.
Same goes to appreciating the table manners. Not because of consideration towards the person we are eating with, but because of consideration to the food itself.
Of course I admit that sometimes I do pierce that stubborn piece of sashimi that keep slipping away. And maybe sometimes I'm just lazy. I am as guilty as everyone else is. Also, I am just a foreigner. I don't know Japanese culture so well, and I'm hardly any expert. We are bound to make countless of mistakes before we learn.
But even should I risk dropping that piece of delicious tofu to my lap, I want to try at least to try to do it in proper way. I don't see why I shouldn't. And then for last, Nihon ryori, Japanese dishes are simply just so beautiful. It's like an entire universe laid out on plates, spread out in front of you.
Let it be a chilled tofu, or tsukemono, Japanese pickles, or perhaps omochi, there is a fragile beauty to it.
I want to respect this fragileness.
