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WHAT YOU NEED FOR AN EASTERN TABLE...

What do you need to know to create an eastern-style table?

Obviously, first you have to get hold of some chopsticks. A Chinese evening with knife and fork is unthinkable. You also need chopstick holders, and finger-bowls for the water diners will use to wash their hands once they are sitting at the table. You also need several bowls for each diner, used for the various sauces with which they will season the various dishes. When eating Chinese-style, all the dishes are placed on the table at once, and the table itself is traditionally round in shape.

Chopsticks, traditionally made from bamboo, are the most fascinating item for us westerners, but have we ever wondered how they originated?
In China they have been in use since the remote Shang period (1766 - 1123 B.C.) when fingers wew still the main tool used for conveying food to the mouth. Initially, the etymological history of the word tells us that they were known simply as "zhu", expressing the concept of help. However, the phoneme zhu sounded very much like a word meaning ending, a concept considered to bring bad luck. This similarity in sound meant that "zhu" was changed to become more like "Kuaizi", referring to things which are fast. The knife, already in use in the west, was viewed in China and Japan as a deadly weapon, meaning that it could not be placed on a table: for this reason, food was served already cut into small pieces, and carried to the mouth using chopsticks.

But what are the rules governing the use of chopsticks?
The classical method is to hold the first chopstick between the hollow of the thumb and the index finger, resting on the ring fing????? ????er. This chopstick must not move during use. The second chopstick is gripped between the tips of the index and middle fingers on one side and the thumb on the other. This is the bottom chopstick, moved to pick up food.

Chopsticks and chopstick holders are easily available from a vast number of household stores, but if you are particularly fond of eastern style and are in search of exclusive products of fine design, look out for the "Gaijin" table set by Gottinghen, really interesting.

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RELATED LINKS:

• GAIJIN TABLE SET BY GOTTINGHEN