Used by nearly 1/3rd of the world’s population, chopsticks have been around for roughly 4000 years. So we should probably know a bit more about them:
- Using chopsticks involves over 30 joints and 50 muscles in the fingers, wrist, arm, shoulder, as well as thousands of nerves;
- 80 percent of the chopsticks made in Japan are made in the city of Obama (‘Barack n roll!’);
- The fear of chopsticks is called consecotaleophobia;
- Chopstick length varies from country to country and is usually an indication of whether food is traditionally shared or not. In Japan, chopsticks are short and for eating individually allocated portions of food, and in China they’re longer due to more communal plates of food;
- Chopsticks aren’t commonly used in the Philippines or Thailand (except with noodle dishes): they use a fork and spoon;
