Definitely not. You hold your bowl up to your chin level, and pick up your food with your chopsticks and place the food in your mouth. No scooping unless you’re a bratty anime character.
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This is proper etiquette. You’re not supposed to eat miso soup or rice by leaving the bowl on the table, but by the same measure, you’re not supposed to cross your legs on the train. Presumably because it’s more difficult for salaryman creeps to force themselves on people, or indulging in panchira, so fuck that noise.
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While there is a mandated reduction in disposable utensils, you’ll still find them in many places. So many people carry their own because they may wish to cut down on their use of disposables or because certain small vendors don’t have utensils now.
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I’ve seen those in supermarkets here too (I guess Carrefour and RT-Mart and so on - any store large enough to have a dedicated chopstick section). I’d feel a bit embarrassed as an adult using them in a restaurant though, and I don’t think using normal chopsticks is too difficult to learn for anyone with average coordination.
I don’t think I’d used chopsticks more than once or twice before moving to China. I had a couple of slightly frustrating meals with my former supervisor (frustrating because I couldn’t pick things up very well, especially relatively difficult stuff like noodles and while holding a conversation at the same time, so I left the restaurant still hungry as he’d eaten most of the shared food), then after that it was totally fine.
I probably practiced a bit at home as well, picking up grains of rice or other small items. My dad and brother went through the same process when they visited - a couple of meals of dropping things and getting visibly frustrated then it was fine (and to their credit they insisted on sticking with it - I was pleasantly surprised).
At the same time, I don’t think it’s that weird for foreigners who’ve never visited Asia (or parts of Asia I guess) to have a hard time with chopsticks initially. Some of my students in China weren’t that comfortable using a knife and fork either. I took them for pizza once, and I remember one of them adopting the strategy of stabbing a slice with the fork then moving her mouth down to table level to slide the pizza in and take a bite.
I found Thailand’s fork and spoon weirder, tbh.
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Only one is taboo in Taiwan “to stand chopsticks up in rice”. All the others are expected
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I often ask for a spoon because I hate using chopsticks. I’m a local. Nobody cares. Get over yourself.
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I do that all the time. No one says boo to me.
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I was visiting the States years ago and we ordered some Chinese food. My bro in law was having the hardest time with his chopsticks. We were all trying not to comment and even looking away. I was feeling sorry for my sister for having married such a fool. My mom is Korean so chopstick use is mandatory in our house. It turned out that one chopstick was warped outwardly, making it very difficult to pick up food. We all breathed a sigh of relief after finding out that he wasn’t an idiot, and had a good laugh.
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For a person from Asia that is funny
Oh hey but not Thailand! Maybe that explains the mix up
I would think that it would be a simple matter of rotating the warped chopstick then to warp inwards, such that the two chopsticks then operate like a pincer – but I suppose a beginner might not realize that.
Same here, I grew up using chopsticks, and nobody ever told me that it was anything unusual, so it was only much later that I realized that chopstick literacy was not universal.
When living in Europe, I went into some hole-in-the-wall Chinese food place that only Asians frequented. Some non-Asian local guy came in by himself and clearly had neither been in an Asian restaurant, nor eaten with chopsticks before (for which I respect him – he was clearly out of his comfort zone, but nonetheless decided to give the restaurant a try). Despite the staff’s instructions to the contrary, he didn’t realize that you were supposed to break the disposable chopsticks into two separate chopsticks, valiantly trying to use the still-connected chopsticks as a single stabbing utensil. I give him an A for effort anyway!
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Oh! I get it. OP thought they were traveling to Thailand, not Taiwan! Hence they thought they’d be using a fork and spoon.
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Or maybe Indonesia or Malaysia or Brunei, maybe even Philippines?
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Who’s ever confused Taiwan with Indonesia? It’s usually Thailand.
Not a very good one. Really, comes to Taiwan and thinks using chopsticks is not normal? Joke is on the ignorant tourist. The OP is asking that tourists be “warned” that in Taiwan using chopsticks is the norm? Really? A warning? lol
Well darn, one would expect it to summon ghosts! 
I ghost, but am not ghosted!
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ramen is the exception. we were appalled living in japan. all their rules and actual abuse towards you for being different, then they slurp noodles like friggen pigs in a ditch. the irony never landed. the best excuse was “its yummier” lol. thanks japan, try again 
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Two forks and no knife? The fuck is this?
flips table
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