If you’re one of the many Americans who has trouble using chopsticks, there’s some good news: The “chork” might be the answer to all your Chinese food dilemmas.
According to a tweet from Lisa Jennings, the West Coast bureau chief for Nation’s Restaurant News, the popular Chinese food chain Panda Express may introduce the “chork,”—a chopsticks-fork hybrid—to its restaurants.
And BREAKING: @PandaExpress is considering a move toward the “chork,” or the chopsticks/fork pic.twitter.com/s1hOQhxWKT
— Lisa Jennings (@livetodineout) August 10, 2016
The plastic tool has fork-like prongs on one end, and other other, it serves as a pair of chopsticks. Eater reports that there is also a small spring that holds the chork together, so users can’t drop one half of it.
Panda Express hasn’t said when the chork will be introduced to the chain. The company was first started in 1973 when Andrew and Peggy Cherng opened their first Chinese restaurant with $60,000 from savings and a Small Business Administration loan. Today, the company has grown to one of nation’s leader in Asian fast-casual eateries. As of 2013, the Panda Express Group managed a total of 1,500 Panda Express, Panda Inn, and Hibachi-San restaurants in 42 states and Mexico City.
“In the late ’80s, Chinese food meant mom-and-pop restaurants. There were no chains. Before 1973, Chinese restaurants offered chop suey. As more Chinese immigrants came, they brought their cooking skills and cuisines. Panda Express moved the cuisine into more sophisticated, authentic food,” Peggy Cherng told Coins2Day back in 2013.
Coins2Day has reached out to Panda Express and will update the story if it responds.
