Dishes

Several months back, I visited an old high school friend at his new law office. As I sat across from him at his desk, I mentioned that I liked his ceramic coffee mug.

“I have two,” he said. “Actually, I have two of everything.”

He proceeded to tell me how he and his wife each had one bowl, one plate, one cup, one knife, one fork, one spoon, etc. All of which were really nice and aesthetically pleasing. “It really cuts down on dishes,” he added.

Thinking of our small kitchen, crowded cabinets, and never-ending pile of dishes, I approached Warren with my friend’s revolutionary idea.

“It would never work,” he said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Look at Jiro right now,” he said.

I glanced over and noticed Jiro’s breakfast. He had a bowl of grits, a bowl of dry cereal, a plate covered with shredded cheese, a juice box, a sippy cup of milk, and two spoons.

It’s true that Satchel and Jiro go through an amazing amount of dishes. As the designated short order cook in Warren’s absence, I have to admit that I am partially to blame. I am a woman of simple tastes who tends to cook “one dish” meals. The children, however, have grown accustomed to Warren’s elaborate meals. When I place a bowl of pesto in front of them, they invariable need a small side of olives, a pile of cheese, and a bowl in which to discard the tomatoes I have attempted to conceal in the sauce.

What’s truly amazing, is the amount of dishes that we own. Our approach seems to be the exact opposite of my friend’s. We have at least four different kinds of bowls, plates in varying shapes and sizes, and an array of ramekins. We have an assortment of plastic plates that we acquired on thrift store runs, a few things we “borrowed” from restaurants, and an entire collection of plastic goodies from our local Asian market.

Forget the fancy flatware sets at the boutiques and the superhero themed sets at Target, the Asian market is the place to go. They have dishes in every size and shape ranging in cost from .50 cents to $2.00. These are my favorites (You can find them online at kgrocer.com.):



We also like to get little dipping bowls for dipping and small snacks. The boys eat just about everything out of these bowls—rice, soup, cereal, ice cream, etc. They have been launched across the kitchen on several occasions without sustaining any permanent damage. I’m pretty sure that anything fancy we have every owned in the children’s dish department has cracked or shattered on our terra cotta tiles.

Don’t stop at dishes—get cheap flatware too! The Asian markets have great soup spoons like you find in Chinese and Japanese restaurants.

At one time, I spent a lot of money buying fancy Baby Bjorn spoons and whatnot, but now we are strictly using plastic take out utensils (unless we are eating soup). They are smaller than adult silverware, reusable, sturdy, and often free. At last count we had about 30 plastic spoons.

And they were all dirty.