People baffled after being told wooden chopsticks have secret use

Mastering chopsticks is an ability that frequently requires considerable practice, particularly if you’re based in the Western world where these utensils aren’t as common as knives and forks.

If you weren’t taught how to use chopsticks as a child, you might find the cutlery challenging initially, as they demand a unique method. It can feel intimidating to use them for the first time, particularly when eating out, but once you’ve mastered the technique, you’ll discover that enjoying dishes like ramen and sushi becomes far simpler.

Nevertheless, it appears that even those accustomed to dining with chopsticks still have lessons to learn about them, as people were left astonished by a straightforward trick that prevents mess at the dining table.

Taking to TikTok, one user called ‘doctor. leesa’ posted footage from an evening meal with a group of friends, when they were all left bewildered by the ‘proper’ method of separating a pair of wooden chopsticks.

“Was today years old when I learned how to actually use chopsticks,” she captioned the video, which showed a group seated around a restaurant table.

The man standing beside the table was then filmed demonstrating to the diners how he removed the upper section of the chopsticks that connected them together.

He then placed this piece on the table before one of the guests, using it as a rest for the chopsticks.

This prevents you from having to place them directly onto the table surface, avoiding the risk of food residue from the chopsticks marking the table, or having the clean utensils rest on the shared dining surface.

The restaurant diners weren’t the only ones amazed by the chopstick trick, as more than a thousand viewers flocked to the comments section to express their reactions.

“I thought you just rip the sticks apart from each other…” one person remarked, whilst another viewer observed: “Asian here… legit, had no idea.

“At this point am I even living correctly,” a third person pondered, whilst another user wrote: “Who else ran to the kitchen to rummage thru the junk drawer to find some takeout chopsticks.”

Nevertheless, someone else contended: “Can’t say an Asian like myself has EVER done this.”

But it seems there’s a reason why so many people were unaware of this technique, as one person explained: “So that one specific brand that makes theirs like that but select few restaurant uses because it’s not the cheapest. you haven’t been doing it wrong. You just haven’t had the right chopsticks.”

Another user posted a photograph of ‘standard’ chopsticks, which were designed to be separated when using, and featured nothing to break off for the stand.

In response, one person commented: “See this is what most of them look like, if I find some with a nice cradle like the one in the video I’ll totally do that tho.”