Chopsticks

Finally, no set of Chinese cooking and eating utensils would be complete without chopsticks. Chopsticks of various sizes, shapes, and materials abound. Decoratively, they can be made of ivory, jade, silver, and ebony, teak, and palisander woods. An old story told over many centuries provides me with a personal bias toward ivory chopsticks: An emperor, told that contact with poisoned foods would cause ivory chopsticks to blacken, always had his official taster use ivory chopsticks when testing. Now, I do not expect to be poisoned, but I like the story, and I always eat with ivory chopsticks. Long bamboo chopsticks with flat ends are more practical and are most like traditional Chinese chopsticks. The shorter types, with pointed bottoms, are better suited to sticking into food than to grasping it properly, and white plastic chopsticks make eating work, rather than enjoyment. Think bamboo or ivory.