Chop sticks and forks

       Over the Holidays I had a shrimp lo mein brunch, and it was pretty good. And I got all the ingredients in one package in the frozen foods section of WalMart. What a country!

            I served the meal in a Japanese rice bowl (made in China) and started eating it with chop sticks (also from China though I got them through Amazon.com). Now I am pretty good eating with chop sticks and enjoy the process and the foods.  I first learned to use chop sticks when I lived in Hawaii around a half century ago. Since then I have lived in Japan twice, and used chop sticks routinely.  I've even just broken twigs off of trees and used them to eat Ramen when I was wet and cold on the slopes of Mt. Fuji in Japan.

            So then the clash of cultures began right where I now live in east Tennessee.  And all by myself.

            I haven't been in Japan for decades, and my chop stick skills were reduced, some would say poor. Plus I was sheepish about raising the rice bowl to my mouth to drain it, as well as pushing the remaining noodles into my mouth. I was hungry, and it did taste good. Many in the West would call what I was doing "slurping" the rice bowl. In the East, I still think this is normal. After all, billions of people eat this way, routinely.

            But I succumbed to my present western culture, and switched to a fork to finish my meal. And that was pretty good, too!