Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Day 6


Another day, another plate of yummy veggies! Day 6 swept in with some leftovers, which I happen to be a huge fan of. Some things just taste better the second time around. On another from, I was contacted by a local news station here in Maine, and I have an interview about the project scheduled for tomorrow. Also, there is a CNN story about Chopsticks 365, as well as a Unity College bit. I can hardly believe how quickly this has taken off. My Virtual Food Drive with Feeding America is up to $155, after only a day! I cannot thank the donors enough, for both their monetary donations and general support. Here are the links to the CNN and Unity College stories, enjoy!

CNN
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-710048

Unity College
http://www.unity.edu/NewsEvents/News/CNN1111.aspx

Also, I have reached out to prospective sponsors for the project in hopes of attaining a video camera to help improve my posts and provide a richer reader experience. If anyone wishes to contribute to the "Get Chopsticks365 A Camera Fund", please contact me directly. Thank you!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Day 5


Lunch, day 5. Cold noodle salad that proved easy to skewer with my sticks. I realize that most of my pictures have been of noodles, and I promise I'm not doing that on purpose...I just really happen to like noodly things.


Dinner was not noodles! I made brown rice veggie stir fry and it was amazing. Also, you might note that I seem to use the same bowl for each meal, that's only because it has the prefect sides for scooping. I'm heavily considering buying these stainless steel and rosewood travel chopsticks, they are dreamy as well as practical:
http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Trunk-CC-Portable-Chopsticks/dp/B002WZJ8UO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322530356&sr=8-1

Final note for the evening, I just won 2 tickets to the sold out Banff Film Festival in Seattle, Washington....for this Friday. Can I make a cross-country trip happen??

Day 4



Vegan hot dogs! Day 4 continued... Now doesn't that sounds yummy? Actually, they're pretty good. And while I clearly was not going to use chopsticks to eat them, I did use the sticks to scoop the relish from the jar, so that counts. Now, with these posts we are up to speed on the photo posting. I should be able to get each day's photo up with some commentary by the end of the day, barring any terribly exciting distractions.

Day 4


The beans, oh the beans. This was day 4, and might I say that it proved to be quite the challenge. I hadn't really thought of how difficult this might be, so toward the end of my plate I tipped it to my mouth and slurped the last little buggers from their stronghold. If I could predict the future (and as far as this challenge is concerned, I think I can) I would bet that I might lose a bit of weight doing this. Only being able to eat with chopsticks is forcing me to slow down, savor my food, and really work for every morsel. Only time will tell...

Day 3


Day 3 consisted of leftover noodles. While not very exciting, they made me feel as though I had already mastered the skill of using sticks. Clearly my facial expression translates into "Ha! Take that you slippery heathens...I will dominate you!" Or I may have just been highly unenthusiastic about consuming noodles for a second day. For those of you that care, you might notice my creepy little cat hanging out in the bottom left of the photo. His name is Scout, he enjoys long walks on the beach, salmon from a can, and photo-bombing me as often as possible.

Day 2


Mmmm, nothing says sorting benthic samples under a dissection scope like noodles. This is day 2 in the 365-day chopstick challenge. The noodles were super easy to mow, and I kinda liked how the lab looked in the background. Note the intense crazy eyes...that's what happens when you spend too much time going cross-eyed for science. You've been warned.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Day 1

And so it begins. This is the first photo in the 365-day series of eating only with chopsticks. My partner took this as we sat down with my family for our Thanksgiving meal. Eating a vegetarian's turkey-free dinner was relatively easy, minus the cranberry sauce. I prefer the canned variety, not the homemade, easy-to-chop-with-sticks kind that most mothers insist upon serving. I'm glad my mother sees eye to eye with me on the whole cranberry sauce issue. Things could have gone down hill quickly if I hadn't heard the can opener grinding into full gear...

How To Use Chopsticks---An Introduction To The Project



My name is Ari and I have decided to challenge myself to eat only using chopsticks for the next year. This idea began when I caught a news story about the chopstick capital of Japan, Obama. Oddly enough, though the capital shares its name with our current United States President, I don't think Mr. Obama uses chopsticks frequently. Back to the sticks then...I was impressed by the craftsmanship and respect surrounding the creation of a pair of chopsticks and consumption of food, and given that I have used them off and on since childhood, I thought it would be nice to challenge myself to share the same appreciation for my eating tools and food as my Asian counterparts.

Consequently, this challenge had manifested itself in my brain the day before our national food holiday, Thanksgiving. What better time to start my new routine than when millions of Americans would be shoveling turkey and stuffing mouthful after mouthful? So, after a brief stop to pick up a starter pack of chopsticks, I mentally prepared myself for a long, interesting year, "culinarily" speaking of course.

I will be uploading a photo of a meal I eat with my sticks each day, starting with one from Thanksgiving last Thursday. While I am working the kinks out of setting up the blog, I am a few days behind in uploading, so please bear with me...I promise that the photos will be worth the wait.