Pewter Chopstick Rest

If you've been to a Chinese or Japanese restaurant, chances are you'd have tried to pick up some oily piece of food with a pair of chopsticks.

And failed miserably.

But, hey, at least you tried. I know of people who wouldn't even pick them up for fear of embarrassment. I can't imagine why. I mean, at least have some fun trying. You can always ask for a pair of fork and spoon if you can't get to grips with a pair of thin little sticks.

It could be worse if you go to a Korean restaurant. That's because they use even thinner, heavier, and more slippery metal chopsticks! By the end of your meal you'd probably have cramps on your fingers.

Now if you've been to a nicer restaurant, you would have noticed that the chopsticks are placed on rests. That's to keep the smaller gripping ends from touching the table.

During a meal, sometimes you have to put the chopsticks down in order to use a spoon, for example to drink soup or to scoop some gravy onto your plate. It is neater to put the chopsticks on a rest instead of directly on the table. The ends of the chopsticks would have a lot of stains too, so doing this keeps the tablecloth a little cleaner. It is also more hygienic since this minimises the risk of contaminating the chopsticks from dirty tables.

Nowadays chopstick rests come in various shapes and sizes. They used to be just little blocks of porcelain but the designs have become much more interesting and they can be made of all sorts of materials such as wood, bamboo, and of course pewter.

I have a pewter chopstick rest in the shape of a Chinese dragon. Actually, I have a pair of them. Here's a picture:

They are a little long for chopstick rests, and a little unusual because you can't put the chopsticks on the middle due to the curve of the dragon's back. On most rests, the chopsticks would lie naturally in the middle.

So how do you rest your chopsticks on these dragons then? Well, put them near the tail as shown in the picture below.

It looks a little awkward if the chopsticks are of the thicker type like the ones shown. It is definitely more suitable to be used with pewter or stainless steel chopsticks which are thinner.

There are many pewter chopstick rests in other shapes. I happen to like dragons, so I grabbed this pair first!

You can read about other pewter tableware on this website:

Pewter Plate and Charger Plate

Pewter Egg Cups

Pewter Salt and Pepper Shakers


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