Plates or bowls for everyday eating?

Very judgemental posts from some of you.

Nowadays, we quite often eat on our knees watching TV.

Our plates/bowls rest on a tray (not our bellies) and we are quite capable of relishing our food, chatting and watching TV.

Our table manners leave nothing to be desired.

Pippa22

Sadly many people sit on the sofa to eat with a bowl resting on their belly.
Gross but true.

Wow! Judgemental or what.

Bowls for pasta, soup and most deserts. Plates for everything else.

My husband has PD using large pasta bowls helps make eating easier for him

Having read the phrase ‘flat bottomed bowls’ so many times I now have Freddie Mercury singing Fat Bottomed Girls running through my head. 😂

Mollygo

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?

Well, that rather depends....
I have been known to cup my hands round a bowl of hot soup on a cold Winter's day but I don't make a habit of it.
I have also scoffed a whole bowlful of stew while leaning against the kitchen units.

And so yes, holding a bowl of warm food is, for me, an enjoyable way of eating.
I don't choose to eat that way at home very often being a knife and fork at the table sort of person, but I can see the attraction.

M0nica

I quite agree with Pippa. these eating habits go with diets high in ultra-processed foods (UPF'S), lacking in fruit and veg, and generally poor for the health, which puts added burdens on the NHS. By eating in a slumped position the food is going to go down the throat etc more slowly and contribute to acid indigestion.

Eating on the settee, also means eyes and mind concentrated on a screen, instead of concentrating on everything the pleasures of eating can contribute to your life.

MOnica:I find that a rather sweeping statement.
Bowls can be used at a table and filled with whatever you choose - salad, wholewheat pasta, brown rice, veggie chilli - whatever...

Equally I know quite a few people who have a TV in the kitchen/dining room.

I agree that posture is important but I 'm not at all sure about the correlation you draw.

Lixy it was a comment on *Pippa's post.
Sadly many people sit on the sofa to eat with a bowl resting on their belly. Gross but true.

M0nica I can't imagine why bowls would lead to less healthy food? Salad, soup, chili, curry, rice dishes, pasta dishes, bean dishes, sheppherd pie - we eat healthy home cooked, and often out of rimmed flatter bowls.

We eat at the kitchen table (or dining room if too many people are here, round us), but the settee would be fine.

Eating is certainly not pleasurable for everyone, I'd imagine many people eat to sustain life, apart from pleasure.

For many households cooking consists of going tothe freezer and getting out a readymeal, heating it in a bowl and collapsing on the sofa, or in a bed to consume it, each member of the family eating what they want when they want it, probably in a home that does not even own a dining table.

Thise of us who cook from scratch and have well balanced diets are a minority, otherwise why all the obesity, diabets and heart problems now being found in young people?

I don't see how any of those things can be linked to crockery .

I cook from scratch most of the time, never use ready meals, and have the occasional non-junk-food takeaway (eg a curry from a local restaurant) and eat mostly vegetarian food. My freezer contains leftovers or batch-cooked home-made meals, as well as ingredients to make them.

We have just bought a new dining table, and I have never lived in a house without one. I might have a bit of toast in bed (although I can't remember the last time I did), but otherwise don't eat there at all. If I felt the urge, I would do so though - it just doesn't appeal.

Despite all this, I eat out of bowls if the meal suits that better than a plate, occasionally eat in front of the TV, and (horror of horrors!) allowed my children to do so at times, too. We use trays, not our 'bellies' though - we are not savages - does that make a difference?

I am neither diabetic nor obese (although I am a bit overweight as a result of a thyroid problem), and my children are perfectly able to eat in restaurants without embarrassing or disgusting anyone.

There have been some quite jaw-droppingly judgemental comments on this thread, considering it is about crockery preferences.

It’s about 50/50 in our house. Flat plates for roast and grilled food. Pasta bowls for stews and risottos. We both like to sit at the table and as it’s suddenly developed 3 legs, we need a new dining table urgently. Other times we are happy to have food in bed or on the sofa. But mostly it’s on the table.

We do the same as Smileless2012.

Norah

M0nica I can't imagine why bowls would lead to less healthy food? Salad, soup, chili, curry, rice dishes, pasta dishes, bean dishes, sheppherd pie - we eat healthy home cooked, and often out of rimmed flatter bowls.

We eat at the kitchen table (or dining room if too many people are here, round us), but the settee would be fine.

Eating is certainly not pleasurable for everyone, I'd imagine many people eat to sustain life, apart from pleasure.

I'm a bit bemused by that too. I doubt if I used a dinner plate once over the summer and my food, which consists mainly of salads with some form of protein (eaten out of "flat bowls"), couldn't be much healthier - well all my blood tests seem to indicate that I'm eating the right food for me.

I cook from scratch. Delicious healthy food, hot or cold. I take my time to eat and savour every mouthful. Plates or bowls don't affect my cooking or my enjoyment of food. Or even where I choose to sit to eat. It's simply that certain foods are best eaten from a plate with a knife and fork and others from a pasta dish, using a fork and spoon.
I've personally never met an Italian, for instance, who eats spaghetti from a plate, using a knife and fork.

I’ve seen a lot of crockery sets recently where instead of traditional dinner plates they have a kind of lipped plate which is more like a bowl- I think a good idea as we get older, might stop a bit of messy eating and things coming off the plate (not mentioning anyone in particular who is guilty of this 🤣). We have some large shallow bowls we use for pasta or if we are having supper on our laps but generally still use our plates for dinners…..this may change when we get some new crocks.

I've gradually changed over to shallow bowls (what we used to call porridge bowls) - and eating on the sofa - unless it's a large dinner, formal, sit down occasion.

M0nica

*Lixy it was a comment on Pippa's post.
^Sadly many people sit on the sofa to eat with a bowl resting on their belly. Gross but true.^

Oh OK - thanks M0ninca
I don't usually disagree with what you say so I was a bit surprised!

from Doodledog
^I am neither diabetic nor obese (although I am a bit overweight as a result of a thyroid problem), and my children are perfectly able to eat in restaurants without embarrassing or disgusting anyone.

There have been some quite jaw-droppingly judgemental comments on this thread, considering it is about crockery preferences.^

Absolutely agree Doodledog though my 'slight overweightness' is due to a chocolate problem rather than anything medical I'm ashamed to admit.

Time to draw the thread to a close I think - it has been quite fun but feels as though it has run its' course to me.

Completely agree with the usefulness of pasta/lipped plates and use mine more and more for fork food eg. shepherds pie, lasagne, curries and also things in buns like burgers or taccos (what I call Saturday night food)
On a tangent here… where can I buy some individual none-boring dinner plates ie not grey or drab blue or cream? Fed up with these everywhere now, I yearn for colour🙂

Amazon had some lovely ones when I was looking, but I felt sensible and went for plain white (it was cheaper, too)

I wonder if mayfair might have something unusual?

Wayfair!

Ebay?

Mostly a shallow bowl for most things except a proper roast or if visitors join me, then it’s plates.