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A long time ago, in Ohio, mind you, I started making a chopstick perch whenever we went to Chinese restaurants (back then, Cincinnati didn’t have much else in the way of Asian). It’s become now my own personal ritual before I eat any food with chopsticks. A little bit of origami while I wait for my food.

I’m not even sure what its technical name is. Now, many Asian restaurants put chopstick rests out there - sometimes it’s a scuplted fish, sometimes it’s a very Zen stone, sometimes it’s just a miniature glazed “bench” with royal blue brush strokes. But these are the fancier schmancier Japanese restaurants that have real chopsticks. Like silverware. Like the kind you have to wash. A lot of the restaurants I go to, though, wouldn’t waste that expense for resting cheap disposable chopsticks. Nonetheless, I like a place to hold the tips of my five cent chopsticks so I don’t make a complete mess on the table, even though somehow soy sauce drip stains and grease spot colonies have erupted all over my paper placemat by dinner’s end.

I’ll admit, I have a strange sense of artistic pride when it comes to my perches. Folding the paper into a simple tent is so, novice. See, I have skills; I have chopstick perch building talent. I have graduated into what I believe is an original - I call it the double fishtail (TM). Sometimes, I get crazy and will do the matrix twist (TM), but only on very special occasions. Like on a date.

Yeah, a date that takes me to a cheap Japanese restaurant! :)

By sarah (see more of her posts). You can find more of sarah's writing at her own website The Delicious Life