westerner here, i once read a story (that could very well be apocryphal, but the moral is true nonetheless) that the ancient east asians had invented metal spoo

westerner here, i once read a story (that could very well be apocryphal, but the moral is true nonetheless) that the ancient east asians had invented metal spoons and such, but with ancient metallurgy the metals would impart a taste in your mouth. So, chopsticks were invented to allow the food to be placed in the mouth without any "foreign object" contact. That tremendously increased my enjoyment of eating with chopsticks, and made me not care about the inconvenience. I have a speaks-chinese assistant, and when we have asian lunches I always use use chopsticks and she uses spoons, and also thinks I'm crazy. By coincidence I just told her this story last week (because I didn't want her to think I'm an effete weebo or something) and afterward she mockingly bowed to me and said "thank you round eye for teaching me the old ways"