Dar.

A public cafeteria.

Newcomers are undergoing a torturous lesson.

"Stretch out your middle finger and bend him a little bit, like I did, and see the section above!" Layton pointed to the first joint of his middle finger with his left hand and said to the European immigrants.

"This part is the key to your use of this cutlery, and now we will extend the index finger and thumb as well.

Watch my movements, first place the first stick on your ring finger, then place the second stick on the first joint of your middle finger, and pinch the top of your thumb and forefinger.

Note that the tip of the thumb should also be pressed against the first stick, and at this time, the first stick remains still.

The thumb and index finger and middle finger work together to manipulate the first stick, and just like that, if you master this skill, you can basically handle all the food in the whole of East Africa. Leiden said to the German immigrants with chopsticks in his hand.

As he spoke, Leiden began to show the immigrants the whole process of using chopsticks, a clay bowl, for rice and vegetables.

Leiden skillfully holds the bowl and uses chopsticks to pick up the rice and vegetables and bring them to his mouth.

"Of course, these can also be done with spoons, but in order to save costs, the East African government only provides chopsticks, which is very inconvenient if you can't learn how to use chopsticks." Layton said.

Of all the tableware in the world, there is no better production than chopsticks, and even finding two branches can temporarily replace the role of chopsticks.

As a canteen, the scale is naturally not small, so the amount of tableware needed is also quite large, and the poor East African colonies do not have the energy to provide knives, forks and spoons for these European immigrants.

In this era, Europeans, especially civilians in Germany, actually mainly used spoons.

In rural German families, the family basically gathers around the dining table, a common rice bowl, boils a pot of pasty wheat rice, and everyone eats directly from the rice bowl or pot with a spoon.

If it is bread or other food that needs to be divided, use a common knife to divide it.

Knives and forks were not very common in Germany at this time.

Pilaf was still eaten in the Middle Ages in Europe, and the earliest use of forks (double teeth) was in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, around the tenth century. Soon it was introduced to Italy and became an important tableware for eating pasta.

In the past, people used to grab and eat pasta with their fingers, and after eating, they would always lick their fingers soaked in the soup and make an intoxicating sucking sound.

In order to improve this indecent appearance, they chose the Byzantine dinner fork - noodles were rolled around the fork teeth and then put into their mouths one by one.

But the "fork" was opposed by the medieval church, for example, a German missionary in the Middle Ages directly denounced the fork as a "devil's luxury" and said, "If God wanted us to use such a tool, he would not give us a finger." He warned everyone to continue to maintain the tradition of eating "pilaf".

With the decline of the church, the fork began to spread from Italy to other regions.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the European middle and upper classes completely accepted the mode of eating with forks, and the French court of Louis XIV, the "Sun King", first opened the dining mode of one hand and one hand fork, and made a large number of silver exquisite tableware, and at the same time, the French also improved the fork from two teeth to four teeth, and the fork was basically fixed.

At this time, the dinner fork was still popular in the French upper class, and most ordinary Europeans continued to eat "pilaf".

It was Napoleon who really promoted the use of knives and forks, and Napoleon's France was keen to export French culture to the whole of Europe, and the forks also took root in Europe with Napoleon's army.

Knives and forks were already common in German cities, but they were not yet popular in the countryside, and many rural people still maintained their traditional eating habits.

But German civilians were not far behind in dining, at least they used spoons.

Spoons and forks are 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 by the spontaneous choice of the people in charge of East African canteens.

After all, the person in charge of the East African canteen can make his own ideas about what kind of tableware to use, as long as he does not embezzle funds, record every amount in the account, and report it with a reason.

The choice of chopsticks in the East African canteen was mainly inspired by Chinese immigrants, coupled with Ernst's hygiene campaign in East Africa and the low cost of chopsticks.

If it weren't for Ernst's health policy, immigrants would probably not be able to eat pilaf now, and even chopsticks would be saved.

In fact, immigrants who eat in the canteen can bring their own utensils, and they are not allowed to eat directly with their hands in the canteen, which is a dead rule, but they can choose what utensils to use, but the East African canteen only provides chopsticks.

However, not every European immigrant came to East Africa with a guy to eat, there were always unsophisticated and careless guys, and on the way to East Africa, they were basically supplied with dry food, so they didn't need utensils, and as a result, they were blinded when they arrived in East Africa.

East African canteens use a separate meal system, stipulating that eating in the canteen cannot be started directly, to eliminate food waste, immigrants can choose to bring their own tableware or choose the tableware provided by the canteen.

For the use of chopsticks, the people in charge of the canteen are very satisfied, not to mention the cost reduction, and at the same time meet the sanitary conditions, as for some European immigrants are not used to it, there is no way, anyway, the people in charge of their own use is a complete set of tableware, knives, forks and spoons.

Moreover, the vast majority of immigrants come to East Africa with them, and they must bring food with them, but it is not excluded that some poor immigrants who do not even have a bowl exist, or immigrants who still retain the habit of "pilaf" in the Middle Ages.

Of course, the canteens that use chopsticks are mainly located in the main rice-producing areas such as the eastern coast of East Africa and the Great Lakes region.

In the wheat-producing areas, the staple food of canteens is mainly scones, bread, etc., and the wheat producing areas are mainly inland, and immigrants can make their own customary tableware on the way to the interior, and the need for chopsticks is relatively small.

Chopsticks are just a transitional product for most European immigrants who are new to East Africa and don't have a meal with them.

When they have time to make their own cutlery or leave the cafeteria, they can choose whether to continue using it.

Of course, it is not excluded that some people will like chopsticks, and the large number of Chinese groups in East Africa will also affect some European immigrants.

However, European immigrants, on the other hand, can hardly influence the use of European tableware by Chinese immigrants, after all, most European immigrants, especially German immigrants, come from rural areas, and their tableware is a spoon, and the spoon is not unique to Germany or Europe.

This can be regarded as the advantage of Chinese immigrants in the integration of the two civilizations, after all, East Africa is biased towards Europe in policy.

(End of chapter)