FYI: Why are chopsticks used in Asia while the knife and fork feed the west?

Chopsticks first appeared in China about 5,000 years ago, when families cooked in large pots and those that couldn't wait for the lunch gong would break twigs off trees to retrieve their food straight from the source. As the population grew and resources shrank, people would conserve fuel by chopping food into bite-sized chunks so it would cook faster. Knives were unnecessary, so chopsticks became the requisite eating utensil.

Some Asian countries have distinct chopstick designs. Chinese chopsticks are called kuai-zi (quick little fellows) and are usually 25cm long, rectangular, with a blunt end. Japanese chopsticks, which were developed around AD500, are about 17cm long, rounded and come to a point. Early Japanese chopsticks were made from one piece of wood that joined at the top like tweezers. Traditionally, they are made from bamboo, an inexpensive readily available material that's easy to split, resistant to heat and has no odour or taste. Wealthy households had their chopsticks made from precious materials such as gold, jade, bronze or coral.

It was widely (and incorrectly) believed silver chopsticks would turn black if they came into contact with poisoned food, so they became the preserve of royal food tasters and the paranoid. However, although arsenic and cyanide don't react with silver, the hydrogen sulphide emitted by onions, garlic or rotten eggs does.

While the Chinese were plucking dainty morsels of food from cooking pots with small sticks, Europeans were still unsheathing their side-arms to stab, slash and spear their food. Knives were long, pointed and sharp because their primary function was for sticking in an enemy, not lunch. What was really needed was the fork, a utensil the Greeks had been using for centuries. In their original design, forks had two large tines that stopped meat from moving during carving. At first they were ridiculed as unnecessary by the nobility, who continued to use their hands. But by the mid-1600s, their regular use at European dining tables was established (after strong resistance from the French, who thought them pretentious, and the English, who thought them effeminate). This development meant a reduced need for pointed knives and in 1669, King Louis XIV of France, in a bid to reduce violence, decreed all pointed knives on the street or at the dinner table illegal and had all the points ground down.

Forks quickly became prized possessions among the wealthy, who had them made from expensive materials to impress guests. In the late 17th century, additional tines were added to prevent food from falling between the prongs. Tines were also curved so people wouldn't have to keep switching to a spoon throughout a meal.