Eating a meal in my host country can always be interesting to say the least. I always think that using chopsticks is no big deal...until today. Meals here usually include each person having their own bowl of rice. You usually order one dish per person, which you put in the middle of the table. Then, you each have your own chopsticks and just kind of take food out of the dishes in front of you and put a little at a time into your bowl of rice. Then, you eat out of your rice bowl. One of the cultural norms here between close friends is that during a meal you may take your chopsticks and take something out of one of the dishes in the middle and put it into your friend's rice bowl. It's like you're giving your friend an extra helping.
This evening, I was having dinner with my good friend, Victoria. We ordered a meat dish and then this small kettle of soup. The soup my friend ordered had a green leafy vegetable, mushrooms, quail eggs, and noodles in it. I was trying to be culturally appropriate and give my friend a quail egg. Let me just say that those suckers are quite slippery. I grabbed the quail egg with my chopsticks and reached over to put it in her bowl. Suddenly, the egg went flying out of my chopsticks and landed in her lap. Victoria is such a good sport. She just picked it up and threw it back into her bowl...no harm, no foul. She then picked up the quail egg with her chopsticks out of her bowl and ate it. We laughed so hard over that and she just kept saying, "It doesn't matter."
I'm thankful for a gracious friend and this funny story we can talk about for years to come. Note to self: practice using your chopsticks or stay away from the quail eggs!
