How To Eat With Chinese Spoon

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Since I started blogging, I’ve been writing regularly about Chinese food etiquette, as it’s an interesting subject that hasn’t had much on-line coverage. All the posts I’ve written on the subject can be found in the Useful Info section. They’ve attracted some interesting questions, which I’ve tried to answer in as much detail as possible. I recently wrote How To Eat With Chinese Stick, so here’s the sequel, on how to use the ceramic Chinese spoon and other implements - based on a question generated from that post.

QUESTION from Cressy:

‘I am one of those people who Googled how to eat with a Chinese spoon. It’s not as mad as it may sound - do you eat from the side or from the front (opposite the handle) and do you stick the whole thing in your mouth or do you sort of sip from it - like a Western soup spoon. I have also Googled how to use the plate and bowl setting. Is the food eaten from the bowl only or from the bowl and plate depending on the food? What is the plate for? I love real Chinese food but I find it slightly ridiculous that I should be so bamboozled by the table settings. So far I have found a million articles on how to use chopsticks but no answers to these other questions.

Any tips?

Cressy’

ANSWER:

‘I’m glad you’ve left a comment, as it’s good to have a chance to explain things in more detail. I know there are so many articles online on how to use chopsticks, which is why I didn’t bother writing one myself! I find the etiquette side of things much more interesting…

So, how to eat with a Chinese spoon - it’s usually quite a chunky thing, so eat from the side of the spoon, not from the front. As you are eating from the side of it, you will be sort of sipping, but it depends on what is in or on the spoon. If it’s liquid, then you’ll sip, if it’s a piece of food, then you’ll eat from it, with the help of your chopsticks in your other hand. Also, it’s a personal spoon, so don’t use it to serve yourself from the shared dishes.

With the bowl and plate, I’d eat from the bowl (rice, noodles, things from the shared dishes) and use the plate for bones and discarded bits. You can also add some sauce from the little shared condiment dishes onto the side of your plate, so that you can dip into it as much as you like. If you put everything around the edge of the plate, then you can still put the bowl back on the plate. Otherwise the outside base of the bowl gets really sticky.

It’s really hard to eat food off a plate without making a mess, especially rice. If you are ever served rice on a plate (eg a one dish meal of say roast duck with rice), then use the chopsticks and Chinese spoon together, one in each hand, chopsticks to push the food into the spoon, then eating from the spoon.

With a bowl, you can pick it up and bring it closer to your mouth (rather than bending over it while it’s on the table). This minimises splashes and drops of food (it will simply fall a few inches back into the bowl, rather than down onto your plate!) You can also use a gentle shovelling motion with your chopsticks to eat rice.

If you don’t overload the bowl with too much food, then everything will be easier to eat. Rice/noodles usually go into the bowl first, followed by things from the shared dishes on top.

You might also get a heavy (often brassy-coloured) metal spoon with each setting. This is for serving yourself from the shared dishes, not for eating with’

Feel free to ask if you have any burning Chinese food etiquette questions! I’ll try to help as much I can…

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide