Spoons

[claudine]

Maybe he is thinking of meals like pudding, icecream, fruit salad, müsli ...? I would use a dessertspoon then. I know only 3 sizes: coffeespoon - soupspoon - dessertspoon. 1 and 2 are useless for me as I drink only black coffee and generally no soup at all.

[Walden]

....
Walden is not asking about any paradigm but the the one of which he speaks.

Of which he appears to be askance .....

As am I. Seriously. Nevertheless, sooner or later, one might hope perhaps to be able and ready to do as Romans when in Rome. It does happen, and why couldn't there be good reasons for it? Unfortunately, I cannot help, here.

I know enough to eat with my right hand, digitally. I also witnessed that I manipulate chopsticks better than many Japanese. No need to put Western flatware on a lesser plane, then.

I lived enough years in that portion of the world where cutlery isn't especially customary. I'm just curious whether soup spoons or teaspoons are more commonly used in an informal place setting. We've always used teaspoons.

I'm assuming those who eat with tablespoons have pretty big mouths.

[chrisoff]

I'd have thought those are all meals that require specialist spoons. They're not what I think of when someone says a normal meal.

The initial question was phrased like you'd use a fork, knife AND spoon everyday for eating steak and chips, chicken and potatoes, casseroles, roasts, chillis, curries etc. the kind of stuff that makes up the bulk of our western diet.

I don't see any need or point in using a spoon for those meals. But maybe I'm just lacking imagination.

[Wanderer]

We typically use the teaspoon for most meals.

For doing what!? I really don't understand why you need a spoon at all for most normal meals. Am I missing some fundamental part of the cuisine experience here?

Certain things are difficult to eat with a fork..

Grits, cereal with milk, creamed corn, etc.

We don't use spoons for most meals, it's true, but there are times a spoon is appropriate. At those times, we use the teaspoon.

I'm assuming those who eat with tablespoons have pretty big mouths.

Those are also called "soup spoons", and you eat from them by sipping from the side. They're too big for me to comfortably put in my mouth, and I have a pretty big mouth

[djm]

One of the best hints I ever learned about tableware was from the movie "Pretty Woman" where the hotel manager taught the hooker to work from the outside in. Whatever dishes are to be served will demand their own cutlery, specialized where necessary, and will be arranged from the outside in, so that with each course, you use the outermost implements of destruction, let them be picked up with the dishes at the end of that course, then use the next implements for the next course, and so on.

Since most North Americans don't eat fancy multi-course meals, common flatware sets only include a teaspoon and a tablespoon per setting. For soups you would use a tablespoon, sipping from the side of the spoon's bowl. For any other liquid course that requires a spoon, use a teaspoon, or better yet, use a dose of common sense. If you can't fit the spoon into your mouth easily, it probably doesn't belong there. :prim:

djm

[emmline]

We typically use the teaspoon for most meals.

For doing what!? I really don't understand why you need a spoon at all for most normal meals. Am I missing some fundamental part of the cuisine experience here?

If it is your family's custom to "set the table" as occurred when I was growing up, then each place would have been prepared with a napkin and fork to the left, and a knife and teaspoon to the right. If your plate happened to contain something along the lines of applesauce or tomato aspic, then the spoon would have been useful.

If, like me, you have degenerated from your polite upbringing, and are in the habit of allowing everyone to heap his or her own spaghetti into a bowl and carry it over to the table, then each person may select the implements he/she feels are necessary, and that may just be a fork.

[chrisoff]

If it is your family's custom to "set the table" as occurred when I was growing up, then each place would have been prepared with a napkin and fork to the left, and a knife and teaspoon to the right. If your plate happened to contain something along the lines of applesauce or tomato aspic, then the spoon would have been useful.

We set the table for every meal when I was at home but we just used to stick a spoon in any condiments or bowls of vegetables that were there. The size depended on the requirements (veg got a dessert or tablespoon, sauces usually a teaspoon). The only spoon at a place setting was a dessert spoon for, well, dessert.

[Innocent Bystander]

You struck a nerve here, Walden.

I prefer soup-spoons, but I am the only person I know who KNOWS that they ARE soup-spoons. They are the sort of ordinary egg-shaped-bowl spoons with a comfortable size for a mouthful.

Dessert-spoons have a round bowl, and are not quite big enough.

We use tea-spoons for ice-cream. I think the reasoning for this is that too large a mouthful may bring on an ice-cream headache. Also our family likes to spin it out a little ...to the point where the ice-cream is completely liquified.

But my wife does not like to eat with a spoon. She does not approve of soup. At all. (Why did I marry this woman? )
When I make Irish Stew, she eats it with a fork. I could eat it with a fork, but I choose to eat it with a spoon.

Once upon a time, when I was staying with a Bengali friend in East Ham, we regularly ate with our hands, Indian fashion. My sister in Brondesbury invited me for a meal and served me Indian. As I was talking to her I forgot where I was and started eating with my hand. Her eyes grew as large as saucers and she stared. Not so cosmopolitan as you thought you were, big sister.

[chrisoff]

I prefer soup-spoons, but I am the only person I know who KNOWS that they ARE soup-spoons. They are the sort of ordinary egg-shaped-bowl spoons with a comfortable size for a mouthful.

Dessert-spoons have a round bowl, and are not quite big enough.

In our household it's always been the other way round. Dessert spoons are egg shaped, soup spoons are round.

Wikipedia backs this up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_spoon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert_spoon

I have no idea why this thread has got me energised so much... maybe I'm just hungry.

[BigDavy]

Personally I like old heavy dessert spoons with deep bowls, they sound much better when playing them.

David

[Jack]

We typically use the teaspoon for most meals.

For doing what!?

For eating.

[chrisoff]

We typically use the teaspoon for most meals.

For doing what!? I really don't understand why you need a spoon at all for most normal meals. Am I missing some fundamental part of the cuisine experience here?

For eating.

No wonder I'm so thin...

[Steamwalker]

http://www.replacements.com/piecetype/flat_piece.htm

[brianc]

If it's dessert, use one of these:

[anniemcu]

A clean one. I'm only so picky.