The claim

On Monday night, a Reddit user posted a revelatory claim on the site. His suggestion: that the solid block on the end of a pair of bamboo chopsticks is designed to be broken laterally, not vertically, with the resulting rectangle of bamboo to be used as a chopstick rest. (Like those pretty porcelain ones you get at nicer restaurants, which prevent the used chopsticks from dirtying the table).

Like so.

View post on imgur.com

The internet immediately lost all grip on reality, and began questioning everything.

Here at Eat Out, we were thrilled at this great news and hastened to try it for ourselves. Would it work? Had we been living in ignorance all these years, snapping chop sticks wantonly and incorrectly?

No. No we had not.

Eat Out breaking the chopsticks. Photo courtesy of Amy Ebedes

The truth

There are three problems with this supposed hack – although we’re certain a smart manufacturer will shortly solve them.

1. The wood’s grain is positioned at 90 degrees to the new snap line, so it’s prone to splintering. It won’t make a clean rectangle and may actually damage the structural integrity of the whole stick. (Quelle horreur!)
2. There is no guiding line scored through the wood to assist with snapping – so it takes a fair amount of force to get through it.
3. It is actually less fun and satisfying than snapping them the regular way.

Take that, internet.