angmohs and rice
09-5-07as i was buying chicken rice today, i saw an angmoh in the canteen struggling to eat his plate of chicken rice with a pair of chopsticks and a metal spoon. the spoon hung to one side of the plate and he was using only a pair of chopsticks to eat the rice.
i felt so sorry for him! cos no.1 he was not holding the chopsticks correctly and he couldn't pick up like… the cucumber bit with his chopstick, what more mention the rice, of which he tediously picked up small amounts to put in his mouth. bit by bit.
i guess to these angmohs, it would be pretty foreign to actually eat rice with a spoon! after all, a chinese restaurant is always associated with chopsticks. hmm… but the rice in singapore VS the rice in japan/china/korea is really very very different!
theirs is short grain, and sticky rice, which is definitely easier to pick up with using a pair of chopsticks… our rice just falls apart if you attempt to pick it up with chopsticks. hence we use a spoon and a fork to eat the rice (even then, just a spoon will usually suffice…). furthermore, our rice (especially chicken rice) comes on a plate, whereas Chinese eat rice out of a bowl.
well…fair enough… the angmoh might be just using the chicken rice meal as a learning opportunity to familiarise himself with chopstick usage. i can't say that i myself have been or am now an expert in chopstick-holding. i refused to learn/didn't hold them the correct way until i was about 17, and it's all thanks to N who encouraged me to use it the correct way, saying it would be beneficial in the future…
even then, i can't really say that the rice in certain japanese/chinese restaurants in singapore are of that good quality. certainly not the sushi from sakae… hence perhaps one might need even more chopstick skill to eat sushi in singapore? that's a thought..
in any case, if angmohs do prefer to eat bread and not rice, i guess… one might say we have to examine the way they eat their rice! =p
as for myself, i prefer rice over bread, cos i don't have to chew as much on rice than on bread… potatoes are mighty fine! especially for a carbo lover like me. noodles are not that nice/easy to eat either. pasta in smaller bits is preferable. like fusilli and penne… =)
