Coated in corn starch, I'm assuming so that the batter would stick. It didn't stick much the first batch, so I left a few in there for the second batch, and it worked slightly better. The batter really should be thicker, so the 1 1/2 cups of soy (I used rice) milk might be cut by 1/2 cup. Also, I would have added some kind of leavening agent and let the batter sit for 30 minutes. Finally, I pulled out the chopsticks because I'm having all this dental work done and wouldn't be eating anything off a stick anyway.