Question

Do the Vietnamese use chopsticks more often than forks for eating at home in Vietnam?

Answer 1

Do we ask such question to Europeans/Westerners: Do the Europeans use chopsticks more often than forks for eating at home in Europe?

Answer 2

Yes, Vietnamese use chopsticks, but not because it is at home, but because the food cooked at home is Vietnamese food, which is easier to eat with chopsticks. At restaurants, Vietnamese may use forks not because it is at the restaurants, but because certain restaurants offers non-Vietnamese food.

Answer 3

Yes - and there is a good reason for that. Manipulating my food is much more precise with chopsticks. Aside from the inconvenience that some measure of dexterity is involved, chopsticks are my implement of choice. Vietnamese eat from bowls. But there is a measure of inconvenience, The Vietnamese tend to hack their food into unmanageable bits. I seriously disagree with having to butcher the meat at my table.

I suppose it is a matter of preference…

However, I do prefer chopsticks. I incurred a hand injury some years back. Even so, I still prefer chopsticks. It took some time to regain proficiency, but I’d still prefer to eat with chopsticks. Manipulating my food is much more precise with chopsticks.

When camping, I do not carry a spoon or a fork. I carry a bowl and chopsticks.

Answer 4

Yes. No one uses forks at home during meals.

In fact forks are only used in the South where rice is served on a plate. At home you never eat in a plate but use a bowl instead, and you don’t use a fork with a bowl. But if you go to the Central or North of Vietnam then people even use chopsticks to eat from a plate.

Answer 5

Vietnamese use chopsticks almost exclusively while eating at home. Even spoons are used sparingly. Forks? What use are these western things? Well, at least they're better than knives. Who put f**king knives on the dining table? We're eating, not having a stabbing fest.

In all seriousness, forks and knives are not part of Vietnamese dining set. The way food are cooked and served just don't call for them.

Answer 6

I believe so. Since what forks can do can also be done with a pair of chopsticks.

Need to grab a piece of baby carrot: chopsticks

A piece of grilled meat (most of the time the food are pre-cut prior to serving): chopsticks

I don't see anything besides steaks that needs to be eaten with forks, and they're not very common in everyday meals in VN.

However in “quán ăn bình dân” small eateries, or the Vietnamese equivalent to dinners. People usually eats with spoon and forks, since foods are often served together with rice on a single plate, meaning it's harder to eat the rice (and not the entrées) using chopsticks this way.

Btw rice at home are serve in hand-held bowls, which assisted greatly in using just chopsticks.

Note that the bowl is usually held by hand while eating