Anyone else a fan of dinner bowls?

[Jenise]

And by that I mean, instead of dinner plates, dinner bowls: not the kind we use for soups or cereals. But wide flat surfaces with low sides maybe an inch high, that are useful/neccessary for containment of liquids and sauces that are runnier (and lighter and probably healthier) than your momma's gravy and which display garniture especially well. They're all the rage in restaurants and you'll see them on cooking shows like Top Chef.

I started out with a set of black pottery ones some time ago. They're a very relaxed V shape and great for pastas. Then not long ago I bought some white ones, which I would also consider a pasta size, 7-8 inches in diameter and which have the wide shallow base, not V shaped at all. To my surprise I find myself eating out of them more often than anything else. They suit the food I prepare for myself and I have to admit, since I'm alone now, I eat 95% of my meals in front of the TV and these flat bowls prevent the kinds of messes lap feeders like me are prone to. So much so that yesterday, killing time while my car was being serviced, I found myself in a Home Goods and now I have eight of a larger size (9.25 ") plus shallower salad plates. I don't know where in the H I'll put them--something else has to leave so I have room for them!

But I sure love the look and find the utility quite suited to my way of life. There are foods I can serve, both to myself and company, in these that just wouldn't work on standard plates.

Has anyone else indulged?

I enjoy a game of bowls while eating a hamburger and fries.

Actually, I'm not terribly sure what you mean. I have seen -- and even own a few! -- dinner plates with a rim. But I dare say most of those rims are simply not the kind of seawall needed to keep me from spilling things on myself and the furniture, anyway. I have some of these: https://3fa-media.com/seletti/seletti-palace-palazzo-della-signoria-plates-6-pcs__88352_129d1ab-imgm.jpg

And, as I am kinda in the mood to do away with the stoneware that I've been using for the past 40 years, I just recently bought myself a few high-rimmed blue bowls. Let's see if I can rustle up a website with some pix, ah: https://conwaykitchen.com/products/danica-porto-stamped-bowl . So far, two 8" and two 6", to see how I like living with them.

Now that we are empty nesters, we eat many more of our dinners out of bowls. Ours are Japanese, maybe 6" in diameter and 2-3" high at the rim. Since Jean is gluten-free, many of our meals are rice based, so bowls make sense.

Among our everyday ware is a set of plain white bowls that are a couple of inches deep and about 8" across. They're really more soup-type bowls but I like them for saucy stuff served with rice or potatoes as well. Containment is good for stuff like that.

I have bowls I make all types of meals. Yesterday, I lined the bowl with red leaf lettuce, then a pile of marinated cukes, another of salt and peppered tomatoes, albacore chunks, artichoke hearts, avocado, and green onions. I have been making a quick salad dressing I am loving. I put about a tablespoon of mayo in a small bowl, then add low fat sourcream, a good red wine vinegar, and Point Reyes Blue cheese. I smash the cheese up and mix it all. A little salt and pepper. It is very good and goes on easily on top of the mounds of food. I used to do the same thing for Gene and me when I did not want to cook. I used our square, white dinner plates, which worked great.

I typically eat the chopstick-friendly meals that I make out of a bowl rather than a plate. If I have to cut something up it of course goes on a plate. But the bowls I use are not the dinner bowls you describe. I don't own any of those.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I enjoy a game of bowls while eating a hamburger and fries.

Actually, I'm not terribly sure what you mean. I have seen -- and even own a few! -- dinner plates with a rim. But I dare say most of those rims are simply not the kind of seawall needed to keep me from spilling things on myself and the furniture, anyway. I have some of these: https://3fa-media.com/seletti/seletti-palace-palazzo-della-signoria-plates-6-pcs__88352_129d1ab-imgm.jpg

OMG. I take it these come out for D&D gatherings? So perfect! But yes, method-wise, that's close to what I'm talking about although I think the round shapes would be a lot easier to juggle in a lap (especially if you sit Indian-style, like I do).

[Jenise]

So I went online to look for examples of what I'm calling a dinner bowl--like I said, too shallow for soup or cereal, but perfect for things that need to sit in puddles, like a piece of seared halibut with a little lemongrass broth, for instance. And anyway, I found these. I am currently re-thinking my home with blue accents and I almost wish I hadn't seen these (the ones I just bought are ivory, which shows food best, but wow are these pretty!!!!!)

https://www.stonelain.com/products/hana ... wMQAvD_BwE

Simple tonight: chicken breasts with mole sauce and sesame seeds, pinto beans, and homemade chicken noodle soup from neighbor.

Speaking of sesame seeds, I recently found out why "Open, sesame" was used as a magic password. Sesame, which grows in the Mideast, has seed pods that suddenly open and spill their seeds onto the ground. Farmers have to keep a close eye on their plants.

I have some of these: https://3fa-media.com/seletti/seletti-palace-palazzo-della-signoria-plates-6-pcs__88352_129d1ab-imgm.jpg

OMG. I take it these come out for D&D gatherings? So perfect! But yes, method-wise, that's close to what I'm talking about although I think the round shapes would be a lot easier to juggle in a lap (especially if you sit Indian-style, like I do).

No, food at the Game is much more casual. Unless we make time to go to a restaurant, we just put the food out on the table buffet style. Grab a plate, a napkin, and some flatware and serve yourself.

Those plates are from an Italian set caled Palazzo by Seletti. The dishes stack to form palaces; each plate has a floor-plan on it and the rim has windows drawn on the outside. The roofs turn upside-down to stand on the chimneys as serving bowls. The drinking glasses stack like the Tower of Pisa. The whole thing is very cute; the ex and I collected them.

They are pretty amazing. I've never seen anything like them.

Here's another nice snapshot: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c4/b3/06/c4b306ff4a3f70782de9d0ec195ba0ca.jpg

[Jenise]

I'd not heard of them before, but they're very cool. Did you get to keep the entire collection or did he get half?

It was not easy to collect a complete set. I think Seletti was already winding-down production. We also encountered a couple of less than perfect pieces. So, the ex took the full set and I took all the extras.

The Palazzo are fun to set up and to use. In the little kitchen of the old house, however, they were a chore to unpack, clean, and repack. We did not use them as much as we hoped. Some of that, of course, can be chalked up to his introversion; there were not many dinner parties down through the years.

I should get the box out and see what I really ended up with!

For entertaining, I like to go hunting among my so-called plats de voyages, dishes of various kinds that I bought on overseas vacations. These have a strong memento feeling that rises above most random porcelain disks with glaze on them.

[Jenise]

Anything that requires unpacking and repacking is a chore. That's why I allotted so much cabinet space to dishware. I know myself and anything that I can't put my hands on in two seconds just never gets used.

I sure get what you mean about mementos. Though not the same as what you do, I love variety which is why I never signed up for a china pattern vs. owning a lot of different things. I could serve you dinner every night for two weeks and your main course would never look the same. It's why I buy new stuff and move other stuff on--it's FUN. It's why even buying these dinner plate-bowls, I bought four each of two different patterns (they came in sets of four) instead of eight all alike. And why the Waterford glasses Bob and I collected were one each of various patterns (do they call them patterns?) Anyway--no matchy-matchy at Chez J!

I got started on it when I was young: One weekend or other, my parents took me to Sagamore Hill, in Oyster Bay, which was a residence of Theodore Roosevelt. It's the usual big house, so-and-so sat here, kind of thing but, for whatever reason, we bought a dinner plate at the gift shop. A fancy one with a textured rim and a painting of the house in the middle. I ate off that plate for a couple of years! It couldn't go in the dishwasher because I wanted to use it every evening.

Anyway, as an apartment-dweller all my life, I don't buy tons and tons of stuff when I'm on a vacation. I try to pick one truly charismatic item that, years hence, will speak to me of the places I've been. I still giggle at the memory of a plate I bought in Japan: it is a long-ish rectangular dish with a green and black rustic finish. The clerk was trying to explain to me how to use it. I don't speak Japanese, he doesn't speak English, so he settled on holding his hand sideways along the plate, wiggling it and saying, "Fish!"

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