A variety of eating utensils have been used by people to aid eating when dining. Most societies traditionally use bowls or dishes to contain food to be eaten, but while some use their hands to DELIVER this food to their mouths, OTHERS have developed specific TOOLS for the purpose. In Western cultures, cutlery items such as knives and forks are the traditional norm, while in much of the East chopsticks are more COMMON.

Spoons are ubiquitous.In some cultures, such as Ethiopian and Indian, hands alone are used or bread TAKES the place of non-edible utensils. In others, such as Japanese and Chinese, where bowls of food are more often raised to the mouth, little modification from the basic pair of chopsticks and a spoon has taken place. Western culture has taken the development and specialisation of eating utensils further, with the result that multiple utensils may appear in a dining setting, each with a different name and purpose. With the evolution of people's eating habits, further modification continues to take place, mostly in the West.List of utensil types

Spoon – List of types of spoons

Fork – Western/sometimes Asian utensils

Knife

Chopsticks – east/southeast Asian utensil

Skewer

Tongs

Toothpick

Cocktail stick

Drinking straw

Cutlery – A set of Western utensils: usually knife, fork and spoon

Sujeo – A paired set of Korean utensils: a spoon and chopsticks

Utensils for specific foods

A fondue fork

Some utensils are designed for eating specific foods.

Butter knife

Crab cracker

Crab fork

Fish knife

Fondue fork

Grapefruit knife

Grapefruit spoon

Lobster pick

Snail tongs and forks

Nutcracker

Tongs for:

Sugar

Asparagus[1]

Honey dipper

Meat claws (used to shred bar-b-cue meats such as brisket)