ottawa foodies

So my pet peeve for today is the tired practice of serving good food on weirdly shaped dishes. Today I had a really nice brunch, but the dishes were strange ovoid bowls that did not enhance the experience. It was ok for the salad, but the other foods did not lend themselves to being stuffed/stacked into these vessels, and the oversized flatware could not easily be rested on the rims of the bowls. They therefore kept slipping, sliding and falling off throughout the meal. Messy and noisy. Also Huge oversized coffee cups, but tiny dollhouse creamers that had to be refilled after each cup of coffee.

I can't be the only one that's tired of precious, sculptural dishes. Flat plates have proved to be effective for hundreds of years, and I appreciate functional tableware that doesn't put "awesome design" ahead of practicality.

Plus, you'd think they'd be hell in the dishwasher. You'd probably have to do at least twice as many washes to do the same number of plates and check them all over to make sure they were absolutely clean and spot free.

Are these what they call "First World Problems" ?

Um I'm pretty sure this forums deals exclusively in first world problems.

Not just the forums - the whole site. So what? Not sure why to single out this one.

This might be a good time to point out that Ottawa is *in* the first world. And third world countries are not necessarily poor or unprivileged. Switzerland is a third world country and it has a pretty snappy gourmet food scene... en.wikipedia.org

blubarry, I noticed the same thing when I was at Gezellig. The cutlery sits so precariously atop the bowl-like plates that it is only through the server's incredible skill that they don't end up in diners' laps. It's also relatively difficult to *cut* anything inside a bowl.

The heavy cutlery is also my only complaint about Atelier. A large knife and fork seems like the wrong treatment for food that is so incredibly beautiful and delicate. Chopsticks would be better, but still not quite right as you need to be able to scoop sauces. Next time I go there I might bring my own chopsticks and a small spatula. That would be perfect.

Yes, first world problems indeed. :-)

Ha, ha, kudos to our host for actually knowing what "first world" and "third world" mean :-) I've known that for decades but still play along with the common misuse of the terms in some contexts

Back on topic of the thread - I get turned off by crazy shapes too. Square, Long and narrow rectangular, or triangular or whatever. I just want a simple plate. Round. Simple. Anything else just seems pretentious to me, and I find it distracting and detracting. It is a minus for me.

Re: Atelier; heavy cutlery aside, I don't mind the weird shaped plates there, because it seems to be part of the molecular gastronomy experience. New tastes, new ways of eating.

I like the looks I get when I disregard the spoon and pick up the fancy pancy soup bowl to my mouth and sip right from the bowl.

The best bowls have 3 or 4 lips where I choose one to be a spout to deliver the soup.

I just want a sheet of newspaper and social acceptance for using my fingers. Is that so much to ask?

...or maybe a bread trencher... Those went out of style WAY too soon....

HEAR HEAR!

* bangs table with sword to indicate approval *

All due respect, FF, but I doubt anybody outside of the UN uses the broad definition of '3rd world'. I think when anybody says '3rd world', they mean poor, slummy, dump of a country. I was once chastised by somebody for using the expression as they considered it a pejorative and the correct term (the conversation was in French) is 'pays en voie de developpement'. I replied, "well how long do these countries have to be on the so-called 'road to development', before we can give up on them and go back to the tried and true '3rd world' to describe these hopeless cases."

Back on-topic, I hate the goofy plates too, esp at breakfast joints, where my eggs get cold as I struggle to cut my food.

I have simply slid everything off onto my side plate (and asked for extra side plates if required) and then offered the 'weird-ass' bowl-plate-bucket-thing to my server as soon as possible. Letting him/her know that eating off of it is impossible.

I'm hopping that this gets thru to the Chef / Owner.

We'll see.

MichaelGA, will you be my friend?

Coincidentally, I have been considering plates for The Flying Banzini. My only significant requirement is that I can carry three full plates in my left hand (five if I am feeling optimistic). To accomplish this, they need to be more-or-less flat. This is why I can't understand kookie shapes... it makes it hard on the servers to deliver the meals.

Flat is the new flat.

Call me crazy, but I actually like the mismatched, thrifted approach to plates and flatware taken by the Hintonburg Public House. It's practical (no worries if a bunch of dishes break and you can't find an exact match) and environmentally-friendly (reusing). It appeals to me quite a bit, hipster-in-the-window discussions aside. ;)

MichaelGA: LOVE IT.

Long story short for me: if it's a neat design, great, but only if it isn't at the expense of common sense and functionality.