How To Eat Chinese Food – Etiquette Tips
Oct 16th, 2008 by admin
This is one of the first topics I started writing about a year ago. Chinese food etiquette wasn’t so well covered online at the time, so I thought I’d post what I knew about it, in case other people needed some tips. Rather than writing about how to hold a pair of chopsticks, I concentrated on outlining what not to do with chopsticks in the company of others and how to eat certain types of food.
This is just advice based on what I’ve been taught by my parents and discovered through experience. You’ll learn a lot by simply observing your dining companions and copying what they do. However, there are a few customs that you might not be able to work out from observance alone, such as appropriate seating arrangements and who gets served the best from each dish (granny, granddad and the little ones). If you’re about to dine out with Chinese clients or meeting your future in-laws, you might want to read on!
These are all popular posts, so I’ve collected them together for you to find more easily. Happy reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments. I’ll be back from my China eating trip in a week, and will add to this post if I learn anything new!
Check out the Useful Info page for more informational posts on Chinese food.
Good Thursday morning Helen, and thank you ! Those articles are helpful. It is always good to know how to do the right thing
Brave Adventurer – there’s no right and wrong really, these are just tips! I was thinking about what I’d written the other day when I had to sit between my grandmother and mother at a table of 20 relatives, and thinking I really have the worst seat. But then they kept giving me all the best bits of food and I was so embarrassed! So there really are no hard and fast rules (not in my family anyway!)
Helen Yuet Ling
I often eat at a small cafe near my university where they serve, typically, a single dish, white rice, half a tea marinated egg, and vegetables. I have eaten the meal, typically, by eating from the main dish and then some rice, or vegetables. Am I supposed to mix the rice and main dish, or are they supposed to be eat as they are?
Thanks for this entry on etiquette. Except now I am having flash backs to all the grains of rice that have been left behind. ^_^ What are you to do if all they give you are chopsticks and a fork? Do I use the fork with the chop sticks, like the spoon? Or just tough it out and admit my lack of skill and use the fork to clean up at the end of the meal?
Thanks for any response you give.
Andy – if you’re served the rice in a bowl, and the other things on a plate or separate dishes, then you should add the other things to your bowl, but leave them sitting on top of the rice and not mix everything together. Don’t pile it all on top of the rice, otherwise it will be hard to eat. If you’re served everything on one plate, then take a bit from each section and eat like that, rather than mixing it all together on the plate. If you’re given a fork, ask for a spoon and use it along with the chopsticks to help guide the food. If I have both a spoon and chopsticks, I’ll push the food onto the spoon and eat from the spoon. Does that make sense? Feel free to write with more questions!
PS if you’re being served on a plate, don’t worry so much about the grains of rice. It’s not possible to eat every grain up, unless you use your tongue!
Helen Yuet Ling
Hi there
I would like to know what it is and how do I order a meal that looks like a bowl of stock and fresh raw food is added?
Thanks Sue
Sue – I struggled for a few seconds to understand this, before it dawned on me. You’re referring to Chinese hot pot. You get a large pot of soup stock (if it’s spicy, it’s Sichuan), and you add sliced meat, seafood, fish, vegetables etc to it. Have a look at my two posts on Chinese hot pot for more information, which you can find under Recipes and then Chinese Recipes. It’s fun to prepare yourself at home too! Let me know if you need more help…