It is such a sort of instrumental part of our cooking vocabulary, in terms of the utensils. And it was like, that's interesting, there are people who live without chopsticks.
To je u neku ruku najvažniji deo našeg kulinarskog rečnika, kada je reč o priboru. To je kao: hm, interesantno, postoje ljudi koji žive bez štapića.
[Small Thing.]
[Male stvari.]
[Big Idea.]
[Velike ideje.]
Chopsticks are a pair of two long sticks used to eat things with one hand. Holding chopsticks is a little bit like holding a pencil, except that you have two of them and you move them together in a pincer movement. Most of them are made out of wood. They're also made out of plastic, bamboo, jade, gold, silver and even ivory, though I think that's not so cool anymore.
Štapići za jelo su par dugačkih štapića koji se koriste za jelo jednom rukom. Držanje štapića je nešto slično držanju olovke, osim što ih imate dva i pomerate ih zajedno praveći potez klešta. Većina ih je napravljena od drveta. Ali se prave i od plastike, bambusa, žada, zlata, srebra, čak i slonovače, mada smatram da to više nije moderno.
Chopsticks are really well designed for eating small bits of food. They're good for picking up noodles. If you're skilled, you can eat rice, pick up dumplings, pieces of meat.
Štapići su stvarno dobro dizajnirani za uzimanje malih komadića hrane. Dobri su i za hvatanje nudli. Ako ste vešti, možete jesti čak i pirinač, uzimati knedle, komadiće mesa.
There are some no-nos with chopsticks. You should not use the chopsticks like drumsticks, which I know is tempting. You don't want to stick chopsticks into a bowl of rice face-up. And the reason for that is it actually looks like a bowl of incense, so it sort of echoes death.
Postoje stvari koje se ne rade sa štapićima. Ne treba koristiti štapiće kao palice za bubnjeve, iako znam da je primamljivo. Ne treba da zabadate uspravno štapiće u činiju sa rižom. Zbog toga što tako izgleda kao činija sa tamjanom, što asocira na smrt.
Chopsticks are used in a huge portion of the world, across much of Asia, about 1.5 billion people are covered in the chopsticks sphere. Different cultures have slightly different variations of chopsticks. Chinese chopsticks will tend to be long and round, Korean chopsticks are flatter and often made of metal and Japanese chopsticks tend to be round and very, very pointy.
Štapiće koristi veliki procenat sveta, veći deo Azije, oko 1,5 milijardi ljudi se nalaze u sferi štapića. Različite kulture imaju blage razlike u štapićima. Kineski štapići su dugački i okrugli, koreanski štapići su pljosnatiji i često napravljeni od metala, a japanski su uglavnom okrugli i veoma zašiljeni.
While chopsticks are actually really commonplace in American society today, there was definitely a time in the late 1800s where this idea that Asian men, because they ate rice with sticks, were of a different quality than American men, who ate proper meat with a knife and fork. But when China and the United States began their diplomatic engagement in the 1970s, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, had to practice eating with chopsticks. What's been really interesting to see is that as Asian cuisine has moved from the East into the West, chopsticks have become part of the experience.
Dok su štapići prilično rasprostranjeni u današnjem američkom društvu, postojalo je vreme, u kasnim 1800-tim, gde je ideja da su Azijati, zbog jedenja pirinča štapićima, drugačijeg kvaliteta od Amerikanaca, koji su jeli pravo meso nožem i viljuškom. Ali kada su Kina i Sjedinjene Američke Države započeli diplomatske odnose 1970-ih, Ričard Nikson i Henri Kisindžer morali su da vežbaju jedenje štapićima. Interesantno je videti da, kako se azijska kuhinja preselila sa istoka na zapad, tako su i štapići postajali deo iskustva.
There's evidence of chopsticks as long ago as the Shang dynasty, which is about 3000 years ago, and they loved tripods during the Shang dynasty. So when you cook with these big tripods, chopsticks were actually really useful, because it was a way for you to stir and to reach without getting burned as the water was boiling in these really big pots. Chinese culture has knives and has forks. It uses them in many cases for cooking. But in terms of like what moved into the dining room, it was the chopsticks.
Postoji dokaz o postojanju štapića koji seže do vremena dinastije Šang, što je otprilike pre 3 000 godina, a oni su voleli kotlove, u vreme dinastije Šang. Tako da su, kada su kuvali u tim velikim kotlovima, štapići su bili veoma korisni, zato što ste na taj način mogli da mešate i dohvatite a da se ne opečete kipućom vodom u tim stvarno velikim loncima. Kineska kultura ima noževe i viljuške. Koristi ih u mnogim situacijama prilikom kuvanja. Ali u momentu kada se hrana preseli u trpezariju, tu su štapići.
One of the things about Asian cooking is that it often comes in very small pieces. And I think part of that has to do with the fact that it's actually a lot more energy-efficient to cook little pieces quickly. But also, then you don't have to cut them. So you have a circular influence, where the type of food that is cooked allows people to use chopsticks, and then the fact that you have chopsticks influences the food that you can cook. But at the same time, chopsticks reflect the communal nature of eating food. You'll have these dishes that you put in the middle, it's very family style. You go in with your chopsticks, and you put it on your rice, and then you eat individually.
Još jedna stvar vezana za azijsku kuhinju je da se hrana obično služi u malim komadima. Mislim da je to većinom zbog toga što je mnogo energetski efikasnije skuvati brzo male komade. Ali onda ih takođe ne morate seći. Tako da imate kružni uticaj, gde vrsta hrane koja se skuva omogućava ljudima da koriste štapiće, i činjenicu da štapići utiču na hranu koju možete pripremati. Istovremeno, štapići oslikavaju komunalnu prirodu jedenja hrane. Imate ona jela koja stavite na sredinu, to je porodični stil. Štapićima uzimate jelo, stavljate ih u pirinač, i jedete zasebno.
There's actually a famous sort of legend where everyone has these really, really long chopsticks, like way too long for them to feed themselves. And so in hell, everyone starves, because they can't pick up food and put it in their mouths. But in heaven, people take the same chopsticks and then feed each other.
U stvari, postoji poznata, takoreći legenda gde svi imaju izuzetno dugačke štapiće, koji su predugački da bi se hranili njima. Zato u paklu, svi gladuju, jer ne mogu uzeti hranu i staviti je u usta. Ali u raju, ljudi uzimaju te iste štapiće i hrane jedni druge.