3 ms·

Just as with chopsticks, this only works if the food contains the cultural knowledge that it will be manipulating with two points of contact, or food will be to

• idbehold 4y ago
  >Forks allow scooping! Forks are awful at scooping! They're about as effective at scooping as a butter knife. Everything just falls off the sides. I admit the pincers also stink at scooping, but I just hate forks.
  • codesnik 4y ago
    well, you can scoop green peas with fork with no trouble, for example. I'm sure there're asian people who can do it efficiently with chopsticks, of course, but I just can't imagine, how.
    • mbg721 4y ago
      "I eat my peas with honey. I've done it all my life. It makes them taste quite funny, but it keeps them on my knife."
    • WastingMyTime89 4y ago
      Peas are easy to eat with chopsticks. They are large and squishy. You can pick them a couple at a time. It actually goes quite fast if you are used to it. It’s easier than picking up the last few grains of rice from a bowl something people do all the time.
• pwinnski 4y ago
  Forks aren't great at scooping. My Asian family members require only chopsticks and a spoon (large) to eat anything, and spoons are much better for scooping.
  • frosted-flakes 4y ago
    Forks are great at scooping. Think Kraft Dinner, or mashed potatoes.
    • britch 4y ago
      Forks can scoop but there's nothing a fork can scoop that a spoon cannot. There's plenty that spoons can scoop that forks cannot.
      • ajot 4y ago
        Well, but a spoon cannot stab/hold a steak while I cut it, so forks still have their merit.
        • adrian_b 4y ago
          Actually you can stab, hold or even cut a steak with a good spoon (by good spoon I mean one made of stainless steel or titanium with good mechanical strength; there are some cheap spoons that would bend at any significant pressure applied on them), so a good spoon can also be used instead of a fork or instead of a knife, while those cannot be used instead of a spoon, for taking small particles or liquids, but it is obvious that a spoon is less convenient than the tools made specially for those tasks. There are people, like myself, who believe that any food cutting should be done when cooking the food, not when eating it. Because of this, I no longer use any table knives, which are anyway much worse for cutting food than the high quality super-sharp Japanese knives that I use for cooking. I also no longer use any forks, because when the food is already cut in pieces of the right size, it is much easier to take them in a spoon than to stab them with a fork. When I was young, I ate the food in the manner considered polite traditionally, with knife and fork, but after I grew older, using the most efficient and comfortable methods for doing anything has become much more important than caring about how something was traditionally done or caring about what others believe to be the right way. After I have started to eat everything with a spoon, for a long time that was a subject of jokes and amusement for other family members. Nevertheless, eventually they all began to imitate me, after recognizing that it is indeed much more convenient than the traditional European manner of eating.
• ynniv 4y ago
  You can shovel with chopsticks a little by pushing the pad of your thumb between them. The tension keeps the points a little apart and works like a two pronged fork.
  • nomel 4y ago
    This seems 25% as effective as an eight pronged fork.
    • ynniv 4y ago
      It isn't more than 33% as efficient as a fork, but honestly you don't need to shovel that often. There's usually a spoon as well, which is the undisputed champion of scooping.
    • mkl 4y ago
      An eight pronged fork? Those don't seem to exist as cutlery in general use (just pitchfork sized).