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Hello, everyone!
How are you getting along ?
I haven't written a letter for a long time (for about 22 months), but I restart the letter from this month. I don't know if I can write a letter every month, but I'll try to write as often as posible.
Well, we eat food every day and if we don't eat food, we can't live. We must eat to live and when we eat, we use some utensils. Some use knife and fork, some may not use any utensils, but hand. We Japanese (and Chinese and Korean) use chopsticks or hashi.
So today let's read about "chopsticks (hashi)" from "Japan - an illustrated Encyclopedia"(Kodansha).
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chopsticks (hashi)
All Japanese dishes are eaten with hashi; in the case of soups, the solid ingredients are eaten with hashi and the stock sipped directly from the soup bowl. Hashi are commonly made of light but strong wood, such as cypress or willow, and then lacquered; they are also made of bamboo or, increasingly, of plastic. It is customary in the Japanese household for each person to have a pair of hashi reserved for his or her exclusive use. Disposable plain-wood chopsticks (waribashi), which the diner splits apart before using, are common in restaurants. Long chopsticks made of bamboo and used for cooking are called saibashi. Long metal shopsticks with wooden handles are used for deep-frying. When not in use during a meal, hashi are rested upon small ceramic, wooden, or glass stands called hashioki.
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Because we use hashi every time we eat and we are accustomed to using them, it is not difficult for us to use them, but for the people who have never used them it is very difficult, I think. Recently Japanese food and dishes became to be eaten all over the world and the foreigners who can use hashi well might be increasing. It is said that Japanese food and dishes are very good for the health, so let's eat them, everyone!!
Then see you next time!
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