Wonderful Yehudi Menuhin Quote
3Bs
local thrift store (new, mind you) for our daughter. While all the
packaging is in english, the grammar deployed is a delightfully
inadequate.
"..chopsticks culture static and peaceful and can pick up things
without any damages has created a great big change to my music"
- Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist of the cnetury
Dontait...@aol.com
Chopsticks remind me of a marvellous story Henry Fogel told some
yewars ago during a CSO "Radiothon" on WFMT.
Karl Boehm and the Vienna Philharmonic were on tour on Japan. A gala
dinner was given for them there. At the dinner, only chopsticks were
put beside the plates. Boehm, who'd never dealt with chopsticks, was
tutored; he tried. But he just couldn't get the knack of it. So
finally he stood up with one chopstick held in his upraised right hand
and said loudly
"With one of these, I am rich and famous. With two, *I starve to
death!*"
Don Tait
Bob Lombard
I have to ask, did Boehm have a beard?, If not (well, even if he did) he
could have stated in other than sotto voce, 'Fingers were made before
chopsticks", and proceeded from there. I have watched Korean workmen, in
a hurry to finish the mid-day meal, use chopsticks and an elevated plate
in a shoveling motion that would not be essentially changed if fingers
were substituted.
bl
Charles Milton Ling
> Dontait...@aol.com wrote:
>> On Nov 6, 8:53�pm, 3Bs <threebs...@aol.com> wrote:
>>> My wife bought some "training chopsticks" by Edison Chopsticks at a
>>> local thrift store (new, mind you) for our daughter.
<snipped>
What are "training chopsticks"? I am honestly interested!
>
> I have to ask, did Boehm have a beard?,
<snipped>
He didn't.
Greetings to all,
Charley
--
Charles Milton Ling
Vienna, Austria
M forever
Böhm didn't have a beard, but Germans or Austrians of his generation
(and probably still today) would *never* eat with their fingers at a
formal banquet, or shovel food from a raised plate. Even drinking from
a soup cup or slurping noodles, like the Japanese do, instead of using
a spoon would probably have been something they would have been
extremely reluctant to do.
I wonder if that story, as nice as it is, is true anyway. I remember
my old bass teacher who was in the BP told me that when they went on
tour to Japan, they were treated almost like deities by their hosts
who would go completely out of their way to make them feel
comfortable. That included not putting them in potentially
embarrassing situations like the above, so while a lot of the
musicians were eager to try Japanese food and eating customs (which
for them were completely unknown), the Japanese would always make sure
traditional German food and eating equipment were always available, to
a point which he found amusing because apparently the Japanese thought
they would eat Bratwurst and Sauerkraut *all the time*.
Even when I went to Japan in the 90s, they usually offered me a knife
and a fork. They are also normally reluctant to instruct guests on how
chopsticks are used because they don't want to imply that the guest
can't do it, and when you eat with chopsticks anyway, they always
compliment and sometimes even applaud you.
Kip Williams
> What are "training chopsticks"? I am honestly interested!
They're like a pair of chopsticks that are flexibly joined at one end,
making them somewhat like tongs.
For a long time, I made something like this for my daughter Sarah when
we'd go have Chinese or Japanese food, using the rolled-up wrapper from
the sticks as a fulcrum and held together with a rubber band. I learned
it from the waiters. (If my description isn't enough to go by, just ask
one. I expect most or all of them know this trick.)
She seems to be mastering regular chopsticks now, along with shoelaces
and spelling and Chinese words.
Kip W
Bob Lombard
>
> I wonder if that story, as nice as it is, is true anyway. I remember
> my old bass teacher who was in the BP told me that when they went on
> tour to Japan, they were treated almost like deities by their hosts
> who would go completely out of their way to make them feel
> comfortable. That included not putting them in potentially
> embarrassing situations like the above, so while a lot of the
> musicians were eager to try Japanese food and eating customs (which
> for them were completely unknown), the Japanese would always make sure
> traditional German food and eating equipment were always available, to
> a point which he found amusing because apparently the Japanese thought
> they would eat Bratwurst and Sauerkraut *all the time*.
> Even when I went to Japan in the 90s, they usually offered me a knife
> and a fork. They are also normally reluctant to instruct guests on how
> chopsticks are used because they don't want to imply that the guest
> can't do it, and when you eat with chopsticks anyway, they always
> compliment and sometimes even applaud you.
I can easily see that scenario occurring in Korea. My social status as a
machine service technician was hardly exalted, but in the company
cafeterias I was provided not only Western utensils but their notion of
Western food. Near as I could tell, it was never their intention to
embarrass me, in any social connection.In fact, I was treated somewhat
more respectfully at all times (except by taxi drivers) than I was used
to. Courtesy can get complicated.
bl
Charles Milton Ling
Thanks! I had to learn the hard way.
Greetings,
Kip Williams
> Kip Williams wrote:
>> Charles Milton Ling wrote:
>>
>>> What are "training chopsticks"? I am honestly interested!
>>
>> They're like a pair of chopsticks that are flexibly joined at one end,
>> making them somewhat like tongs.
>
Me too, but it wasn't hard. There was a concise explanation in one of
the "Junior Editors' Quiz" installments on the comics page that made it
all pretty clear. (Good old Coulton Waugh! When he was gone, the feature
promptly turned to pap and shriveled up and blew away.)
Kip W
Norman Schwartz
"Kip Williams" <k...@rochester.rr.com> wrote in message
news:gCnJm.10552$6c2....@newsfe03.iad...
restaurants I frequented a long time ago with Oriental friends provided
different menus (written in Chinese and/or Japanese) which offered
additional dishes and at different prices as well. (Racism?)
>
> Kip W
Kip Williams
> "Kip Williams"<k...@rochester.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:gCnJm.10552$6c2....@newsfe03.iad...
>> She seems to be mastering regular chopsticks now, along with shoelaces and
>> spelling and Chinese words.
>>
> Perhaps soon you will be able to order from their 'Chinese' menu. :-) Some
> restaurants I frequented a long time ago with Oriental friends provided
> different menus (written in Chinese and/or Japanese) which offered
> additional dishes and at different prices as well. (Racism?)
Maybe they make the dishes differently. Most of the staple items at
Chinese restaurants are either not found in China (like Chop Suey, the
San Francisco treat) or are very different (like eggrolls). It could be
that if you order from the Chinese menu, you get the kind of rolls I had
in China, which are more like something battered and steamed than
something rolled in a wrapper and fried.
I don't know which menu we were ordering off of when I had frog at a
restaurant in Silver Spring. Somebody else was making the choices, and
everybody was helping him- or herself with chopsticks from the turntable
we all sat around.
At the end of our stay at Southern Yangtze University in Wuxi, they
actually gave a banquet for us with some university and library
officials, and we ate from a turntable there as well. It's been long
enough that I don't remember much detail. Some of it was good, but I
couldn't bring myself to try the duck tongues, which seem to have
extended all the way back in the duck -- very long.
Kip W
Bob Lombard
> At the end of our stay at Southern Yangtze University in Wuxi, they
> actually gave a banquet for us with some university and library
> officials, and we ate from a turntable there as well. It's been long
> enough that I don't remember much detail. Some of it was good, but I
> couldn't bring myself to try the duck tongues, which seem to have
> extended all the way back in the duck -- very long.
>
>
> Kip W
Interesting. I probably would have tried them. Dismayingly, this brings
up the notion of MBT French-kissing a duck. Sorry, Matthew, don't know
where that came from.
bl
Kip Williams
> Kip Williams wrote:
>
>> At the end of our stay at Southern Yangtze University in Wuxi, they
>> actually gave a banquet for us with some university and library
>> officials, and we ate from a turntable there as well. It's been long
>> enough that I don't remember much detail. Some of it was good, but I
>> couldn't bring myself to try the duck tongues, which seem to have
>> extended all the way back in the duck -- very long.
>
> up the notion of MBT French-kissing a duck. Sorry, Matthew, don't know
> where that came from.
I tried a lot of what they had, with varying degrees of success. There
were some things I enjoyed. I should have taken notes. I don't think I
tried the duck tongue, but who knows, maybe I did and am suppressing it
now. There was at least one thing I tried but just couldn't hack, and
I'm not recalling what.
But it was a wonderful occasion. Very special.
Kip W