My girlfriend made Japanese curry last night…and about halfway through the meal she looked over at me and started laughing hysterically.
Now this is a common occurrence during meals, so much so, that the only reason I was curious was because, as far as I could tell, I hadn’t done anything funny. Usually it’s due to a mispronunciation of something in Japanese, or just the girls teasing me about something, but this time I was clueless…
She was laughing very hard, and I asked what was so funny, and it took a minute for her to calm down enough to tell me, “You’re using chopsticks!!!”
“Yeah… so?” I replied.
“I’ve never seen anyone, even in Japan, use chopsticks to eat curry!” she giggled, and now her daughters were laughing too.
“Never?” I said, “Not even once? It works just fine, I find that hard to believe.”
“Seriously, always with a spoon.”
And here I thought she gave me a spoon because she thought I couldn’t handle eating curry with chopsticks.
5 comments
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August 11, 2009 at 11:08 am
tokyo5
Curry with chopsticks??
I’ve never heard of anyone trying that before
September 2, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Paul
I used to eat curry with chopsticks until someone corrected me about a year ago. I mean, people use chopsticks for eating white rice…I don’t think it’s a natural connection to make that adding curry means you need to use a spoon.
September 3, 2009 at 12:37 am
becomingjapanese
Thank You!!! It’s good to know that someone else thought it was logical as well
September 12, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Phil
Interesting to read this because I was also once corrected by the Japanese girl with whom I was eating curry. I always used chopsticks to eat the food she prepared. The first time she made curry for me I started to use chopsticks – she corrected me indirectly (typical Japanese), “It’s kind of irritating to use chopsticks to eat curry.” ‘Nuff said. I switched to a spoon. So many rules!
September 12, 2009 at 8:10 pm
becomingjapanese
Wow, yet another one! Thank you for posting! There must be a lot more people who have made this faux pas too.
Perhaps a support group is needed