Chapter 168 Cutlery
Dar es Salaam.
A public canteen.
New immigrants are being taught a grueling lesson.
“Stretch out your middle finger and bend it slightly, just like I did. Do you see the section above?” Layton pointed to the first knuckle of his middle finger with his left hand and pointed at the European immigrants. said.
"This part is a key and determines your use of this tableware. Now we will also extend the index finger and thumb.
Pay attention to my movements, first put the first wooden strip on the ring finger, and then Place the second one on the first joint of your middle finger, pinching the top with your thumb and index finger.
Pay attention to the thumb. The pads of your fingers should also be pressed on the first wooden bar. At this time, the first wooden bar remains motionless.
The thumb, index finger, and middle finger work together to manipulate the first wooden bar, just like this. Once you master this skill, you can basically cook all the food in East Africa," Layton said to the German immigrants with chopsticks in his hand.
As he spoke, Leiden began to show these immigrants the whole process of using chopsticks and a clay bowl to hold rice and vegetables.
Leiden held the bowl skillfully, picked up the rice and vegetables with chopsticks, and brought them to his mouth.
“Of course, these can also be done with a spoon, but in order to save costs, the East African government only provides chopsticks. It will be very inconvenient if you can’t learn to use chopsticks.” Layton said.
Among all the tableware in the world, nothing is better produced than chopsticks. Even two branches can temporarily replace the function of chopsticks.
As a canteen, it is naturally not small, so it requires a lot of tableware. However, the poor East African colonies did not have the energy to provide knives, forks and spoons to these European immigrants.
In this era, Europeans, especially civilians in Germany, actually used spoons as tableware.
In German rural families, the whole family gathers around the dining table to cook a pot of mushy wheat rice in a common rice bowl, and everyone eats it directly from the rice bowl or pot with a spoon.
If it is food that needs to be divided, such as bread, use a public knife to divide it.
Knives and forks were not very popular in Germany at this time.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, people were still eating with their hands. The first person to use a fork (double-tine) was Eastern Rome (Byzantium). Empire, around the tenth century. It was soon introduced to Italy and became an important tableware for eating pasta.
Previously, people used their fingers to grab and eat the juicy and watery pasta. After eating, they would always lick the fingers soaked in the soup clean with a feeling of intoxication. The sucking sound.
In order to improve this inelegant eating appearance, they chose the Byzantine Empire's dinner fork - rolled the noodles on the fork tines, and then put them into the mouth in lumps.
But the "fork" was opposed by the medieval church. For example, a German missionary in the Middle Ages directly denounced the fork as "the devil's luxury product" and said, "If God wants us to use this tool, He won’t give us fingers.” He warned everyone to continue the tradition of eating “pilaf”.
With the decline of the church, the fork began to spread from Italy to other regions.
It was not until the 17th and 18th centuries that the middle and upper classes in Europe completely accepted the mode of eating with a fork. The French court of Louis XIV, the "Sun King", first started the dining mode of using a knife with one hand and a fork with the other. They also produced a large number of exquisite silver tableware. At the same time, the French also improved the dinner fork from two tines to four tines, and the fork was basically finalized.
At this time, the fork was still popular among the upper classes in France, and most ordinary people in Europe continued to eat "grain". It was Napoleon who really vigorously promoted the use of knives and forks. France during the Napoleonic era was keen on exporting French culture to the entire Europe, and table forks also followed Napoleon's army and took root throughout Europe.
Knives and forks are already very common in German cities, but they have not yet become popular in the countryside. Many rural people still maintain traditional eating habits.
But German civilians are not backward in eating, at least they use spoons.
Compared with making a spoon and a fork, it is not difficult to make, but chopsticks are easier to make and easy to clean, so the tableware prepared in East African canteens is chopsticks.
The use of chopsticks in East African canteens was not decided by Ernst, but a spontaneous choice by the people in charge of the East African canteens.
After all, the person in charge of the East African Canteen can make up his own mind about such trivial matters as what tableware to use, as long as he does not embezzle funds, records every transaction in the account, and reports the reasons.
The choice of chopsticks in East African canteens was mainly inspired by Chinese immigrants, coupled with Ernst’s hygienic campaign in East Africa and the low cost of making chopsticks.
If it weren’t for Ernst’s health policy, immigrants would probably not have a problem eating with their hands now, and they would even be able to save on chopsticks.
In fact, immigrants who eat in the canteen can bring their own tableware. They are not allowed to eat directly with their hands in the canteen. This is a strict rule, but you can choose what tableware to use, but the East African canteen only provides chopsticks.
However, not every European immigrant brings something to eat with him when he comes to East Africa. There are always some who are careless and careless. On the way to East Africa, they are basically provided with dry food. So they didn't need tableware, and they were blinded when they arrived in East Africa.
The East African canteen adopts a meal-sharing system, which stipulates that eating in the canteen cannot be done directly to prevent food waste. Immigrants can choose to bring their own tableware or choose tableware provided by the canteen.
The people in charge of the canteen are very satisfied with the use of chopsticks. Not only does it reduce costs, but it also meets the hygienic conditions. As for some European immigrants who are not used to it, there is nothing that can be done. Anyway, the people in charge use all the tableware. , cutlery, forks, spoons, etc. are all available.
And the vast majority of immigrants who come to East Africa must bring food with them, but it does not rule out the existence of some poor immigrants who don’t even have a bowl, or who still retain the medieval habit of "grabbing rice" migrant.
Of course, canteens that use chopsticks are mainly located in major rice-producing areas such as the eastern coast of East Africa and the Great Lakes region.
The staple food in canteens in wheat-producing areas is mainly scones, bread, etc., and wheat-producing areas are mainly inland. On the way to the inland, immigrants can make their own tableware, whichever is more necessary for chopsticks. It's relatively small.
Chopsticks were just a transitional product for most European immigrants who first arrived in East Africa and did not bring a meal with them.
When they have time to create their own set of tableware, or when they leave the canteen, they can choose whether to continue using it.
Of course, it is not ruled out that some people will like chopsticks as tableware, and the large Chinese community in East Africa will also affect some European immigrants.
However, it is difficult for European immigrants to influence Chinese immigrants to use European tableware. After all, most European immigrants, especially German immigrants, come from rural areas. Their tableware is a spoon, and a spoon is not Unique to Germany or Europe.
This can also be regarded as the advantage of Chinese immigrants in the integration of two civilizations. After all, East African policies are biased towards Europe.
(End of this chapter)