A couple weeks or so ago, I saw a video online that purports to show that "only Japanese people do this", that this being how Japanese people make chopstick rests out of the chopstick covers while waiting for their food to arrive in resturants. I just went back and found the video, and took a couple of screenshots to show what the thing is supposed to look like.
Now, after my intial watch of the video I was of half a mind to post a comment in rebuttal of the claim that this is exclusively a Japanese practice -- because I am Korean-American, not Japanese, and yet I started doing this very thing many years ago without ever having heard of the practice. Most Koreans, indeed most people I think -- those that even cared, that is -- would simply place their chopsticks flat on napkins. I'd even wager there are a lot of people who simply would not care enough to put anything under their chopsticks, at least before the food arrived; once the meal started, even these slobs probably would use their plates as chopstick rests.
Since no one had ever taught me to do this, my design of the chopstick rest unsurprisingly went through trial-and-error stages as I improved on the initial concept, which was identical to the "base model" shown in the photos above. I went and dug up my old posts about it, and here I reproduce the different models developed over a number of restaurant meals.
No. 1 I decided was inadequate because it was too easy for the chopsticks to slide off the sides, as there were no guards. No. 2, I rejected as being too clumsy and ungainly, even though it was safer due to the dip in the middle. No. 3 was the elegant compromise I finally arrived at -- slim, yet secure.
Interesting, in view of the fact that DNA analysis shows that I am genetically more or less equal parts Korean and Japanese. A bit of a surprise -- a revelation(?) -- there; was it my Japanese side unconsciously directing me to make origami chopstick rests because it's something that's imprinted in the Japanese psyche? Why else would I spontaneously start folding them without ever having heard of them? Is it racial memory? [but how long would the Japanese have been doing this for -- after all, waribashi in mass-produced paper envelopes cannot have been around all that long...] Or is it some kind of "Morphic resonance" in human brains?
O.K., it's quite possibly nothing more than an accident, especially in view of the fact that I'm a recovering OCD sufferer who is very particular about contact hygiene (I figure anonymous chopstick covers straight from the factory should be marginally cleaner, at least where germs are concerned, than a restaurant tabletop), but it's fun to speculate...
Related posts: A Little Design Project
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