Global Wandering

Monday I was eating alone (as I usually do on business trips) at Asia Nora, a wonderful organic restaurant in Washington D.C. My first course was a beet, avocado, grapefruit and arugula salad.

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never bothered to learn to eat with chopsticks. I know this is culturally insensitive of me but up until now every Asian restaurant I’ve eaten at has had forks on the table, even the places I ate at in Korea a few years ago. So with a choice between a fork or chopsticks, I’ve always taken the easy way out and chosen a fork.

Except at Asia Nora there was no choice. The table was set with only my delightful salad, a pair of chopsticks and a black stone ⎯which I believe is to rest the chopsticks on when taking a break, but again I’m ignorant on the matter. I slowly picked up the chopsticks and realized I’d never even paid attention to how others eat with them. Fortunately, the first floor of the restaurant was full of diners so I’d been seated alone on the balcony. This allowed me to freely experiment with different chopstick techniques⎯none of which was particularly successful⎯without being embarrassed. I was as graceful as a knitting walrus, but I managed to finish the salad without using my fingers nor gripping each chopstick in a different hand.

When my wild salmon entrée arrived, the waiter was kind enough to ease my misery and offered me some silverware. This weekend I promise I will learn to use chopsticks properly.