Plates or bowls for everyday eating?

Thanks hollysteers. I’m no disciplinarian at all. But certainly taught and have retained my children into adulthood for weekly gather thankfully too. No judgment these days 😂

Usually, we sit a the table to eat and use a flat plate and a knife and fork for everything except (obviously) soup or rice pudding.

I can see that if you prefer to eat sitting in an armchair and only using a fork or spoon a bowl might be easier, and of course if eating with chopsticks a flat plate would be rather useless, wouldn't it?

My imagination boggles at the thought of eating Christmas dinner out of a bowl, though!

Gotta say I’m swaying toward bowls…. no sauces or gravies spilling off the plate edges ….especially with young grandkids!

On Saturday I went to a lovely Italian restaurant with DH and friends. Not being very hungry I opted for halloumi salad. Arrived in a bowl looking lovely. I tried to cut a large piece of halloumi only to discover it’s really hard to do in a bowl. It sank into the puddle of olive oil and soggy strips of pepper and courgette and became almost inedible. Just too much oil and I couldn’t escape it because it was in a bowl. Plates for me except soup, pasta or rice dishes.

If the food requires a knife and fork then I use plates.
A fork and spoon meal is served in a large, shallow pasta dish.

I use plates and bowls at home but I don't know anyone who has those ridiculous plate/bowl things with a huge rim that are still used in many restaurants - presumably to disguise the fact that you are not getting much to eat for your money. From personal experience as a cafe volunteer, I know they are also incredibly heavy if you have to clear tables.

We use plates for everything except soup, cereal and desserts. FinL in his 90s uses a dish for pasta shapes as it 'saves chasing it around' apparently

I use the dinner plate size pasta bowls regularly.

I think there is maybe more of a trend toward food that works well in bowls now. I probably reach for a bowl whenever what we are eating suits that. I do get what the notion that it is more comforting!

My godmother told me her father once had to prepare a squirrel for the table. He was Lord Halifax's gamekeeper and during the war General Omar Bradley had expressed surprise that we didn't eat squirrel in the UK. He only did it once because he said the smell from the musk glands was appalling. Apparently you have to be an expert to do it.

We mainly eat from pasta bowls now and save the plates for proper roast dinners.

hollysteers

Doodledog your parents’ routine sounds rather severe, but meals for the whole family can still take place at a table in a relaxed way. As you say, the correct use (in this country) of knives and forks, general manners is taught around the table.

If this doesn’t happen at home and sloppiness is the rule, when adults, our children will embarrass themselves in company dining out or staying with people with no idea how to behave.
As well as disgusting me in a restaurant!😁

I can assure you that my children wouldn't embarrass themselves, or me, in a restaurant, and I am certain that they wouldn't disgust you .

They were taught to eat 'properly' - I just didn't insist on formality at every meal. I did try to insist on regular meals around the table, but when I realised that it was because of my idea of what 'should' happen, and they would rather be playing football or whatever, I stopped forcing my ideas on the whole family every night. I still have happy memories of us all watching the Muppets together, laughing and eating off trays, and when we were all in at dinner time we ate together with nobody feeling resentful.

Lixy
We have both.
They are comforting apparently and can be held comfortably so feel the warmth through them as well as the food.
I don’t get this though.
Do you hold your bowl full of food, except maybe a soup bowl, when you are eating?

I read that Heston Blumenthal once served quirrel - can't say I fancy it.

An American friend told me about Brunswick Stew which used to be popular in the US - I suppose it's not much different from say rabbit or pigeon.

Redhead56, you eat squirrel ? that's unusual.
are you one of our north american GNers ?
do you shoot them or trap them.

Freddie mercury was a fan of those.

So much so, that he wrote a song about them.

"Flat bottomed bowls, you make the rocking world go round!"

Plates, but only because that's what we have. Flat bottomed bowls make sense for curries and things. If we ever break any plates I might replace them with some bowls.

Doodledog your parents’ routine sounds rather severe, but meals for the whole family can still take place at a table in a relaxed way. As you say, the correct use (in this country) of knives and forks, general manners is taught around the table.

If this doesn’t happen at home and sloppiness is the rule, when adults, our children will embarrass themselves in company dining out or staying with people with no idea how to behave.
As well as disgusting me in a restaurant!😁

Sorry that was for dogsmother!

travelsafar

Flat bottomed bowl's for pasta, rice and salads because now on my own. I hardly ever sit at the kitchen table to eat since my husband died, it feels all 'wrong' and a bit lonely staring at the space he use to fill. Now I eat on the sofa with TV for company and use one of those lap tray with fabric filled with something.

I too will have a TV meal in a pasta bowl since my husband died and on my own, apart from a meal which needs a knife and fork, when I sit at the kitchen table with a book to hand.

I think families sitting around with meals in front of the television is a very sloppy way to live. I remember fondly the whole family here for meals at the table, talking and laughing, it brings a tear to my eye!

dogsdinner I absolutely agree with you.

I would never have known this if I hadn't read it on here.
At least things are moving away from food being on ridiculous slates, chopping boards and drinks in jam jars.

I think a lot of these trends are ploys for manufacturers to make more money out of us.
Coats ate a good example. If it wasn't for fashions changing so quickly we would rarely have to buy new clothes. A good quality coat can last for years. Bur they keep changing the styles.
I'm not falling for it this year.
Anyway, those long duvet shapeless coats would look rubbish on me anyway.

I prefer bowls as I like sauces though I do use plates as well .

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.

Absolutely this, in our house. My children were taught how to use a knife and fork, and which ones to use for what, but we were equally likely to sit in front of the TV and eat off trays. I did hold out for us all eating together for as long as possible without making meals into a form of control, but was never really concerned about the sort of formality that ruled in my parents' house.

The table laid for breakfast the night before, everyone waiting for the last person to sit down before eating with penalty for lateness, asking to leave the table, no elbows on the table even after eating, sit up straight - that is not for me, really. I preferred a relaxed family meal that gave us a chance to catch up with one anther's news, whether that was at the table or not.

As the children got busy lives of their own, that became something of an occasional treat though. Thinking about it, I clung to the hope of the family eating together slightly past when it was really about everyone else and not just what I wanted, and it wasn't fair. In the end, meals were rushed because one or other of us really wanted to be doing something else. As with so many things, you have to bend in the wind, I think.

Depends what I’m eating. Pasta/rice/stews etc - bowls. Roasts and other meals plates.

Bit obvious tbh.

I use bowls for pasta, and plates for everything else.
Except soup bowls of course. different shape.

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.