One of my blogging superpowers is giving readers emotional whiplash. Share a vulnerable mental health post one day, and show up the next with some ridiculously trivial questions.
Here we go.
Recently, while emptying the dishwasher (yes this is A’s job, and yes we sometimes do it while she’s at school because we are KIND PARENTS even though some days she acts as though our sole purpose in life is to make her life miserable by enforcing horrific injustices including – but not limited to – unloading the dishwasher), John declared: We are spoon people.
He suggested I poll readers to see if we are trendsetters or middle-of-the-pack in terms of our cutlery habits.
Here is what we eat with spoons:
- Basically any dessert. Cake, pie, ice cream (obviously? but my father will eat pie – on a plate – with ice cream and USE A FORK), fresh-from-the-oven cookies, muffins split in half and smeared with peanut butter, etc.
- Any foods that don’t need to be cut. Stew. Soup. Meatballs. Rice. Fish. Mashed potatoes. Most vegetables. Casseroles. For example, if I served chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, and corn, we would almost certainly eat everything with a spoon. (Out of a bowl; see below.)
As for size, we are a Small Spoon Family. We never, ever use large soup spoons for eating, only for serving. (We eat soup with regular teaspoons.) We also often use sundae spoons which have an even smaller surface area.
What goes with spoons? Bowls. We are also a bowl family. Everything mentioned above that doesn’t require excessive cutting we eat with a spoon, from a bowl.
There you have it. We are spoon and bowl folk. Plates and forks are okay, too. We own them. We use them. But, chances are good, at least one meal a day in our house is consumed with a spoon…out of a bowl.
Your turn. Are you a “spoon” person? Big spoons? Little spoons? How do you feel about bowls?
Header photo by Raul Angel on Unsplash
Michelle G.
This is such a fun post, Elisabeth! I’m delighted to find out that there are spoon people in the world! I’ve never thought about it before. I like spoons well enough, but I can’t claim to be a spoon person. I also enjoy bowls and foods that go in bowls, but have never thought of myself as a bowl person. So to me, you are a trendsetting spoon and bowl family!
Elisabeth
Ha. I feel like I need some labeling system now; welcome to our home, we are Spoon People. It feels a bit like a Pixar movie or something. The Spoon Family vs. The Forks.
Look at us being trendsetters…
Lisa’s Yarns
We are not quite as much of a spoon family as you guys are. Like your dad, I would eat pie with a fork even if it was served with icecream (although I am really not a pie person). But I would not eat a cookie or bar or muffin or any other dessert with a spoon. I would eat it with my hands or with a fork. Beyond that, I would say that we generally eat a lot of spoon-forward meals – like picadillo, soup, stews, curries, etc. They all also tend to be one pot kind of meals. Tonight was an exception – I made a rice noodle stir fry dish. Since the vessel of the dish is noodles, it’s a fork meal; if it was rice, it would have been a spoon meal.
I think we are unique in not running our dishwasher daily. We run it every 2-3 days when it is full (we don’t put pots, pans, etc in – just plates, bowls, cups, utensils). So if we are going to run out of anything, it’s certainly spoons. And we are a hard pass on large spoons. I don’t know how people eat soup on those things. It’s way too big/unwieldy!
Elisabeth
How could/would…WHY?…with ice cream and a fork? I’m flabbergasted.
I do not George Castanza my chocolate bars, but I loooove to eat a fresh-from-the-oven cookie with a spoon. It keeps my hands clean and extends the eating experience.
Noodles we do eat with a fork…unless it’s chicken noodle soup, and then it’s a spoon. Actually, if I make any non-spaghetti/spaghettini dish…we’ll use a spoon. Homemade Mac n Cheese? Always, always a bowl + spoon.
Melissa
I hate dessert forks unless I’m eating dessert. I used to make the kids change mine if they set a dessert fork for me. We use bowls for noodles, stirfries with rice, soup, porridge, cereal, etc. I always use a soup spoon for soup and a dessert spoon for dessert unless it is a particularly rich dessert or one I want to savour, then I will use a teaspoon to extend the experience out. For cake I use a teaspoon. How funny is it that, we can have such strong preferences for what type of food we eat with what type of spoon.
Elisabeth
Isn’t it also amazing there are this many options in spoon and fork sizes?
I know I’ve been influenced by John; growing up we were a fork/plate household, but I do prefer bowls and spoons now, but maybe that’s just because it’s what I’m used to at this point?
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Ha… so fun. I’d say I am a fork person. I most likely eat everything with a fork unless it is soup.
Of course I have a cake fork and that is reserved for deserts. Sometimes pieces of fruit and to serve meat cuts (mainly because I do not have a meat fork).
I rarely use the big spoon. Only for soup.
But I go out of my way to get a tiny spoon (read espresso spoon) to eat any kind of desert like ice cream, pudding, yogurt. I hate eating that with a teaspoon.
This was a very fun read. You do come up with the most random blog posts and everyone has something to chime in. It is a gift.
Elisabeth
I don’t have a meat fork…or espresso spoons, but our sundae spoons are quite small and I loove the long handle for stirring things (we have some very “tall” mugs.
I love the idea that this is a “gift” of mine. It gave me warm fuzzies to read that, Tobia <3
Birchie
Listen, mental health needs to be discussed and so does cutlery use. You can’t say that one is important and the other isn’t.
We’re knife and fork people. And we’re bowl-ish people. I really like eating on pasta dishes (at least I think that’s what they’re called, basically they are plates with sides).
Elisabeth
Who am I to disagree with the all-knowing, Birchie. If you say cutlery is important, by golly it is!
I didn’t even TOUCH KNIVES. We are NOT knife people. When we have company I have to remember to set out knives. Also, we have preferred knives for cutting and preferred for spreading. We have a combo of two cutlery sets in our drawer and one set is so much better for spreading things like butter, and the other is better for cutting food.
Joy
What a fun post! I am a bowl and spoon person and by extension, a everything-in-one-bowl person when I have my druthers. My family is a mix. The formal European influence of Tim’s childhood still has a residual effect on our family meals which largely feature plates and forks/knives – although, strangely enough, I’m the only one who uses my knife!
Elisabeth
Yes! We LOVE everything in a bowl. We tend to be “mixers” in our household. I think a plate lends itself much better to keeping everything separate which I know is very important for some people.
We aren’t knife people and often go multiple meals without using one. I mostly cut things with the side of my spoon…or fork, depending on what we’re having.
Suzanne
I’m with Birchie: mental health and day-to-day minutiae are both important topics .
This was so charming to read. I have never thought about it before, but it turns out I am staunchly a fork person. I eat stir fries and rice and mashed potatoes and pasta with a fork. I eat pie-and-ice-cream with a fork. Fish. Mac-n-cheese. Potato-, tuna-, and chickpea-salads. I think spoons are solely for soups and ice cream and stirring things.
I guess there are other spoon exceptions. Jell-O is a spoon food. Creme brulee. Mousse. Beyond that, and the bigger soup and ice cream categories, I can’t really think of anything I use a spoon for? There MUST be other things. But even corn and peas, I eat with a fork. Even stew-type, sauce-forward dishes like coq-au-vin and chicken paprikas and curries: fork.
I do prefer the smaller size of both forks and spoons. The others are too uncomfortable in my mouth.
Elisabeth
All this ice cream with forks is blowing my mind. Every single thing you list – except maybe the stir fries – I would eat with a spoon!
mbmom11
We are mostly fork people, with spoons not far behind. My grandmother recommended using spoons as to get every crumb. But we are little plate people – dessert sized I think? I keep buying them at thrift stores because we use a lot of them every day.
We go through phases where we have almost no cutlery of a certain type – spoons were disappearing at an alarming a few years ago, and I ordered some new ones online They were HUGE soup spoons – no very good for cereal or ice cream. (Note to self – double check the dimensions of anything ordered online.) Luckily, soon after my sister gave me the large box of the “extra” silverware my mom used to keep on hand for holiday meals and parties, so we are set on cutlery for a while.
Elisabeth
I do think spoons make it easier to clean one’s plate!
We used to struggle to make it between dishwashing cycles with our sundae spoons and I loved them so much we bought another set of 12. And now we never run out and it is lovely. I also bought a bag of spoons at a thrift store ($3, I think, for about 6) and they look different from our regular set, so I send THOSE to school in lunchboxes. I used to use (and reuse) plastic cutlery, but it’s much easier to send metal spoons and then I can pop them in the dishwasher. Having enough cutlery is such a little thing, but has a huge impact on making the kitchen (and washing cycles) run smoothly.
Emily
I think we are mostly fork people, but I’m still processing eating a cookie with a utensil at all. Aren’t they hand food?!
Elisabeth
I eat a cookie with my hands if it’s hard/crunchy, but if it’s soft and gooey – especially if it’s straight from the oven – I will put it in a little bowl and eat it with a spoon.
Nicole MacPherson
Well, this is one of those weirdly fascinating things that I have never thought about before BUT NOW I WILL FOREVER. Huh. Spoons. I am…I guess I am not a spoon person? Nor am I part of a spoon family? I mean, the guys use spoons for yogurt and cereal and oatmeal and ice cream. But if that ice cream was served with cake or pie, they’d use a fork. I use a fork for essentially everything except soup, and then I would use a large spoon. We use spoons as serving utensils, but forks to eat everything. And something else weird, should I share? I don’t know if I should share. Okay, I will, even though it makes me sound like Mr Pitt from Seinfeld. I use a spoon to eat popcorn. I’m going to just leave it at that!
Elisabeth
Large spoons don’t fit in my mouth properly and I always end up dribbling soup everywhere. Maybe I have a defective mouth or I’m just eating things wrong?
Popcorn with a spoon. That is a first for me! Sounds fun and like a great way to pace oneself with eating + would keep the fingers clean. I like it, Nicole!
Nicole MacPherson
Oh, and I feel like I should add that we also are mostly plate people. I like bowls for pasta and stir-fry, and salad, but if it were up to the guys they’d use plates for everything except our spoon foods. But I’m the one serving dinner and so I get to dictate the bowls for those foods! Big plates for everything else.
ccr in MA
Isn’t it funny how we’re all over the map here! I’d say I’m equally a spoon and a fork person, though you know I’ll be thinking about this now while I eat, so we’ll see if I have second thoughts. I am however staunchly in favor of using small spoons and small forks. My mother likes the bigger ones and sometimes she gives them to me, too, but if I’m getting a utensil, it’s always the small ones.
I also like bowls and sometimes she does, but sometimes she plates something I would bowl.
Also I have been known to eat something like a muffin with a fork, mostly to keep my hands free (like if I’m eating while working).
Elisabeth
Yes, I’m regularly team “eat it with cutlery” because it keeps my hands clean!
Marcia (OrganisingQueen)
This is fascinating – is it a north american thing?
We eat most food on plates with knives and forks.
Bowls are for cereal and soup and some saucy pasta 🙂 I like to give the kids “messy” food in bowls too – but it’s these newfangled bowls that look like plates (very flat surface and the size of a side plate). But always with forks except if the food doesn’t support it (cereal and soup, and some desserts, e.g. pudding with custard)
Elisabeth
I have some shallow and wide bowls…which I love. I think they might be pasta bowls? I’m a big fan of using those for just about anything; even toast sometimes…but mostly because I really enjoy the aesthetic of the pattern!
Maria
Hmmm we are probably sorta spoon people. Growing up we always set the table with a fork, spoon, and knife regardless of what was being served but now it’s usually a fork and spoon. We do tend to use spoons for a lot of things BUT if there’s something that needs a fork (like a piece of meat or lettuce) and there’s not anything like soup that can only be eaten with a spoon we tend to default to forks. I prefer small spoons unless it’s soup, and my husband tends to only like big spoons. He’s a bowl person and I’m a plate person.
Elisabeth
I also grew up in a household where you got a fork, knife and spoon regardless of what was being served (my parents still do this).
Gigi
Well now, this is an interesting topic; which I’ve never given any thought to until now. We are mainly fork people. Very little gets eaten out of a bowl. If I eat pie or cake with ice cream, it’s usually with a fork. If I do use a spoon, I prefer the teaspoon to the table spoon. If my husband sets my place with a table spoon, I will return it to the drawer and exchange it for a teaspoon.
Speaking of spoons, when my son was in kindergarten I’d give him a spoon for his pudding cup and then one day I noticed all the spoons were missing. Upon questioning him, it turns out he was throwing them away!
Elisabeth
Yup – I sometimes have guests ASK for a tablespoon for soup because my default is always to set out teaspoons.
Oh my goodness that is TOO FUNNY (though not at the time, I’m sure) about your son. I recently bought a set of 6 spoons at a thrift store specifically for school lunchboxes. I had been sending (and washing/reusing) plastic spoons, but that was a bit of a nuisance.
sarah
SPOONS and I HATE soup spoons.
Elisabeth
Wow – you have feelings, Sarah 🙂
But I agree with those feelings 100%…
Shelly
I like to think you post like the ebbs and flows of life.
I had never considered this before. I’m a dessert fork and teaspoon person mostly. I do use a dessert for for eating most meals.
I think we would use bowls more often if they fit better in the dishwasher.
When I was married I had a beautiful plate set that was on my list and we still use but the plates a d bowls are “bulky” and don’t fit well in the dishwasher. I would totally switch to correl but I can’t justify spending money when our set is still useable.
Elisabeth
Bowls are definitely far more of a nuisance for the dishwasher. The ones we use the most are wide and angled in such a way that they fit into the dishwasher perfectly; our bigger bowls (for cereal and oatmeal) are a lot more of a hassle.
San
“Emotional blogging whiplash” LOL this is the fun of blogging… we cover EVERY POSSIBLE TOPIC 🙂
Thanks for sharing your spoon reference. That’s one of the things that would never just come up in conversation. Haha. I definitely love spoons, especially sundae spoons – I use them for yogurt (+ granola), ice cream, oats… but I would NOT use them for soup. I do like a big spoon for soup (especially if it’s a chunky soup).
In Germany, we definitely eat cake with a fork, although if ice cream is involved, I would probably opt for a spoon myself.
Elisabeth
I don’t like using sundae spoons for dessert, either! It’s too small and not satisfying enough for a bite. But I can’t use a soup spoon for soup; I end up with broth all over my face. Am I doing it wrong?
coco
I love spoons and bowls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I keep buying new small spoons but throw them if I don’t like them. I’m picky in that sense. I have my favorite set of spoon and bowls. I eat oatmeal, soup, fried rice with the same set. They bring me comfort!
Elisabeth
It is so comforting to use a beloved set of dishes! I couldn’t agree more (same with mugs – I have a favourite mug that automatically makes me feel better!)
Jenny
Ha- you guys are definitely spoon people! I use a fork much more often than you do (but maybe I should rethink that?) I agree that I hate the dessert forks- I never use them!
Elisabeth
Maybe I’ve converted you to the spoons team?
NGS
We have eight of each type of cutlery. Eight teaspoons, eight tablespoons, eight butter knives, etc. And we are almost always use all of them before we run the dishwasher. LOL. I guess that just makes us cutlery people?
Elisabeth
Eight! We wouldn’t make it through a meal, let alone a single dishwashing cycle! I vote you buy some extra cutlery, Engie!
Sophie
Ok, I’m a bit late to this party, but wow, I didn’t know a spoon could be used for all these purposes! We are perhaps more fork people? Foods that don’t need to be cut are eaten with a fork (often out of a bowl though!). I like a big fork, Al will use either big or small. Teaspoons are only used for tea, or dainty cakes etc. Large tablespoons are used for cereal, ice cream etc, and soup spoons are used for, well, soup! Too lazy to use a small spoon and need extra scoops to drink the soup haha!