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Plates or bowls for everyday eating?

(150 Posts)
lixy Sat 05-Nov-22 17:45:42

My DD uses shallow flattish bowls for most food and says they hardly ever use flat plates. I use plates for most things but bowls for pasta.
There's an article in the Telegraph today saying that the trend is away from plates and bowls are the 'in' thing. They are comforting apparently and can be held comfortably so feel the warmth through them as well as the food.
Which do you prefer?

Esspee Sat 05-Nov-22 21:37:03

What about meals you have to cut up to eat? It's all very well for stews or stir fries but what about pork chops, sausages and the like? Or are we going to follow the Americans and have our meat cut up before serving, like toddlers?

Sago Sat 05-Nov-22 21:43:24

Plates, always round.
We are old fashioned and always eat at a table.
Soup,cereals and some puddings from a bowl and at a push pasta.
Everything else on a plate.

growstuff Sat 05-Nov-22 21:45:04

The only meal I regularly eat from a plate is a bacon and egg breakfast. I don't eat pork chops and hardly ever have a meat and two veg meal.

growstuff Sat 05-Nov-22 21:47:25

In summer, most of my meals are salads. I throw everything directly into a bowl, add a bit of dressing and toss everything. IMO it tastes better all mixed up and it's easier to toss in a bowl rather than on a plate.

Doodledog Sat 05-Nov-22 22:02:46

Bowls for most things, but plates if the food has to be cut up. Most of what we eat is forkable, so easier to eat from a bowl, and it keeps the food warmer, I think.

Macaroni cheese, curry, casserole - things like that are better in a bowl, IMO. Sunday roast (nut or meat), or fish and chips need plates, so you can cut the food as you eat it.

My only real 'rule' is that I only buy white crockery. I don't like seeing patterns under the food, and white will always (at least nearly) match other white things.

Rosie51 Sun 06-Nov-22 00:21:38

Doodledog

Bowls for most things, but plates if the food has to be cut up. Most of what we eat is forkable, so easier to eat from a bowl, and it keeps the food warmer, I think.

Macaroni cheese, curry, casserole - things like that are better in a bowl, IMO. Sunday roast (nut or meat), or fish and chips need plates, so you can cut the food as you eat it.

My only real 'rule' is that I only buy white crockery. I don't like seeing patterns under the food, and white will always (at least nearly) match other white things.

Snap! My crockery is all plain white, although different brands and styles. It is mostly bone china because that's much lighter, and I'm very miffed with John Lewis because they used to do a sort of basics range of bone china and have discontinued it. I have broken a few items and would like to have replaced them. White is white is white, so items from different ranges happily get used together.

rubysong Sun 06-Nov-22 00:45:16

I don't have any strong views about bowls but my brother in law can't stand them. He says he ate from a bowl when he was baby and probably will again in his dotage but while he has strength he will use a plate.
We have bowls for stir fry type things, curry, spag bol and stew.

MaizieD Sun 06-Nov-22 00:52:02

Plates for most things, large shallow bowls for pasta. It would never occur to me to do anything else. We seem to manage to keep stews and gravy within bounds on a plate...

We eat at the table.

The pasta bowls are good for making and serving a mixed salad for two in.

grannydarkhair Sun 06-Nov-22 00:59:23

I’m a bowl user a lot of the time, different sizes as appropriate for whatever I’m eating.
And I’m another all white crockery person, albeit there’s a range of shapes, sizes, etc. The only exception is mugs, all of mine are patterned apart from two plain red ones (inside and out) which I should just include in my next charity shop donation, as the tea/coffee/whatever just doesn’t taste as nice when I drink from them. Obviously all in my mind I know 😁

Spice101 Sun 06-Nov-22 01:53:07

Prentice

Bowls are the trendy thing grin I have noticed in tv dramas.
As so many now do not bother with eating at a table, simply scoffing from a bowl while sitting on the sofa, watching tv makes it easier for them.
I am not at all trendy and like a plate, knife and fork and eating a meal sitting at a table while chatting.

Me too. I hate not eating at the table

stella1949 Sun 06-Nov-22 02:22:11

I use flattish bowls from Ikea, for almost all meals. Large flat plates only for something like quiche and salad.

stella1949 Sun 06-Nov-22 02:23:57

Bowls can be used at the table - I always use bowls but never "scoff from a bowl while sitting on the sofa" .

teabagwoman Sun 06-Nov-22 07:06:54

Im using pasta bowls more now that I’ve lost so much of my sight. Happy to think that Im being trendy.

Calendargirl Sun 06-Nov-22 07:27:38

Wonder what King Charles uses?

Hmm, let me guess. hmm

Don’t suppose he does the washing up either.

Witzend Sun 06-Nov-22 07:32:43

Plates, obvs. unless its anything like one of my mega-thick soups.

Greyduster Sun 06-Nov-22 07:36:58

I have a couple of deep plates with wide rims - a cross between a plate and a bowl - that I use for pasta and stews. Eating anywhere but at the table is a recipe for disaster for me!😳

MissAdventure Sun 06-Nov-22 07:42:35

Plates.
I feel like a child if I have a bowl, plus I can't cut things up in a bowl.

Riverwalk Sun 06-Nov-22 07:56:42

A plate for anything that needs a knife & fork, and wide shallow pasta bowls for tagines, curry, pasta etc.

dogsmother Sun 06-Nov-22 08:21:17

Plates, at the table. Also using a knife a fork properly.
I taught my children to do this too and it really irritates me when so few seem able to do it theses days. I see it a bit like a right of passage like learning to tie shoe laces.

eazybee Sun 06-Nov-22 08:31:23

I use plates, bowls, pasta dishes and large 'Soup plates' as they are described for casseroles. I also have far too much china, but much of it goes back fifty years.

Redhead56 Sun 06-Nov-22 08:36:25

Practicality its a bowl for soup flat plate for meals at the table if we are eating together.
If I have a snack it’s often standing in the kitchen as my mum did while I prepare the meal for later. I spend most of my day in the kitchen unless I am going somewhere.
I am always chopping pickling baking squirrel and bird watching not necessarily in that order.

Oldnproud Sun 06-Nov-22 08:40:17

It must be twenty years since I bought some shallow pasta bowls to use just for pasta dishes.
In recent years, they have become my preferred 'everyday' crockery for all sorts of meals, especially runny ones such as stews, but also those served either gravy or a sauce.

ParlorGames Sun 06-Nov-22 08:50:56

Proper flat plates here for a 'plateable' meal - salads, pasta, curry, bolognese and chilli are served in a a shallow dish, soup and cereals in a bowl, sandwiches on a side plate.
Everyone sits to the table regardless of the meal, no one has a bowl on a tray in front of the tv, not even the GC.

Gundy Sun 06-Nov-22 08:55:09

Years ago I loved the shallow 8 inch flat bottomed bowls a restaurant used for salads. I searched and bought them. Now when alone I use them for my meals - (like small plate dining), with the exception of soup, which goes in a big mug.

When entertaining - all the good dinnerware comes out.
Cheers!
USA Gundy

lixy Sun 06-Nov-22 10:03:52

Doodledog

Bowls for most things, but plates if the food has to be cut up. Most of what we eat is forkable, so easier to eat from a bowl, and it keeps the food warmer, I think.

Macaroni cheese, curry, casserole - things like that are better in a bowl, IMO. Sunday roast (nut or meat), or fish and chips need plates, so you can cut the food as you eat it.

My only real 'rule' is that I only buy white crockery. I don't like seeing patterns under the food, and white will always (at least nearly) match other white things.

All white for us too, though it does come in various shades and styles as ranges have discontinued over the years.
Debenhams did a Wedgwood seconds range at one point and most of our crockery is from that.

I really enjoy being more relaxed around the whole area of eating and table manners than when I was a child; it puts the focus on appreciating food and company rather than using the right knife and fork.