Maybe it's because I lived alone for several years, but I've never been one to linger at the table during or after a meal. I'd fix my food, sit down just long enough to devour it, and then immediately leap up, clean my dishes, and go on with my evening. I know I should savor it a little more, but my impatience takes over. (Obviously, dinner with friends is another story).

But if you regularly linger at your table, or spend time chatting with meal companions, this bowl with a spoon rest might be just for you. No more resting your spoon on your bowl or dirtying your tablecloth - if you want to take a break from eating, just prop your spoon in its little seat until you're ready to chow again.

Conveniently, the spoon comes with the bowl, so it fits perfectly, although I can't promise that just any ol' spoon would do the trick. Although for $21, you might just want to just stick your spoon on a place mat and be done with it.

[via] Boing Boing

Most of the time when I eat ice cream, I eat it straight out of the container with an iced tea spoon. This habit totally wigged my first boyfriend out and he always insisted that I scoop what I wanted out of the carton and into a bowl. After he moved out, I reverted to my old habits, cozily wrapping a folded kitchen towel around the container as an insulating handle. I come by this particular tendency honestly, as that's just the way we always did it in my house while I was growing. It's akin to the how my mom's family used to eat cheesecake when she was growing up. Her mom would plunk a frozen cake down on the kitchen table and everyone would sit around it with forks, picking at the defrosting edges.

However times are changing. I need to worry about things like portion control. One thing might make using a bowl for my ice cream a little more appealing is this specially designed, insulated ice cream bowl from Zak! Designs. Brightly colored for maximum allure, it keeps your dessert cold while protecting your hands from getting chilly.

via Turkey Hill

Perhaps calling this bowl "perfect" is a bit of a stretch, but it is designed for both utility and beauty, so it must be getting close. The Udon Noodle Bowl is reminiscent of a giant shell, with spiraling layers that fit perfectly into your hand. At the top, there are grooves to hold the included chopsticks in place when you're not eating. Every bowl is handmade and will vary from the next ever so slightly. All are both microwave and dishwasher safe.

If soup, rather than noodles, is your comfort food of choice, you might want to consider the buddah bowl instead. Also designed to fit ergonomically into the palm of your hand, this bowl can double as a giant mug for large cappuccinos in the morning and a soup cup in the evenings, or even as a dessert bowl for ice cream.

Yesterday, I was reading this article on the importance of breakfast, considering the meal suggestions that the article suggested, when I noticed something odd. In addition to the recommendations for grains (bread or cereal), fruit (bananas) and protein ("eat a spoonful of peanut butter"), the article suggested that parents "make sure [kids] drink the milk out of the bottom when they're done" if cereal is served. They also suggested trying to serve kids only unsweetened, whole grain cereals and I don't even know a lot of adults who will go for that all the time. But that's a whole 'nother post. The thing that caught my attention was the milk at the bottom of the bowl.

I know that there are some people who love nothing more than slurping up milk from the bottom of a bowl of cereal. Especially sugary or chocolaty cereal. I simply am not one of them. Am I alone in this? I try to match the amount of milk to the amount of cereal so that I don't have a lot leftover in the bowl and, if I want to drink some more milk, I'll have it in a glass on the side.

How interested are you in accessorizing your cereal? Personally, I'm quite satisfied with my relatively plain bowls and prefer to spice up my cereal - especially hot cereals - with actual spices or sugar. When it comes to using cereal to accessorize other things, I'm willing to be a bit more open, so the idea of the Cereal Bowl Light is an interesting one. It is a real light that has been built into a cereal bowl and is topped of with real Fruit Loops and a spoon. When the spoon is touched, the light turns on.

The seller says that it is "the best thing that you will ever buy in your life," and while I'm not trying to cast doubt on the seller's sincerity and think that the light is interesting in a pop-art sort of way, it's probably neither the best thing you will ever buy nor is it "the coolest light on earth." It is the best, and possibly only, cereal bowl light and a must-have for anyone who really loves their cereal.

[via coolhunting

An alternative lifestyle deserves alternative dinnerware and the Piercing Collection of dinnerware certainly qualifies. Not only do the pieces feature black-and-white tattoo-inspired designs, but the cups and bowls are actually pierced with small metal rings. The overall look is edgy and getting dishes with tattoos or piercings is certainly easier (and probably cheaper) than doing either to your own body. The dishes were designed by Barbara Schmidt, are made in Germany and are dishwasher safe.

Only the mugs and bowls seem to be available right now and both are sold separately. You can buy several and make a matching set, or just use one mug at the office to surprise your coworkers. Just make sure there's a good coffee machine wherever you intended to use the mug because, due to the piercing, it cannot be put into the microwave.

Kellogg's is planning to raise prices and decrease package sizes for its ready-to-eat boxed cereals this fall. The cereal giant is expected to increase its marketing budget, or at least maintain it, to make sure that customers keep buying their products in spite of pricing changes. After all, they have to convince the consumer that it is worth paying more money for less cereal for their profits to remain the same.

But is it worth it? The two main reasons that people eat cold cereal are convenience and price. A bowl of cereal takes seconds to prepare and you can get several meals out of one box. But, if given all the time and luxury of a relaxing Sunday, cereal might not be the first thing that breakfasters would reach for. A small price hike, about 2%, might not make a big difference in buying habits, but it will certainly set the stage for other cereal companies to follow in the footsteps of the largest cereal company and could even lead to further changes in pricing. When consumers realize that they are getting less than what they think they're paying for, some might stop buying cereal on a regular basis and the companies could be hurt more in the long run.

While perhaps a few months late, the LA Times' auto columnist Dan Neil recently offered his thoughts on KFC's Famous Bowl-the all-in-one combination of mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, fried chicken pieces and shredded cheese. Neil bravely digs into the "steaming, sweating pound of food goo" to find that it's "like throwing up in reverse." He's certainly taken one for the team here. The Bowl then serves as a jumping off point for Neil to ponder the American fast food industry and, after considering things like the Carl's Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger and the "Luther Burger," Neil decides that KFC's offering is comparitively tame. Even the styled ad photos for the Famous Bowls look gross. I can only imagine what a lovingly prepared speciment coming from the drivethrough looks like.

If you're a football (soccer) fan, chances are that you've been watching the World Cup qualifiers and can't wait for the finals to begin in June. To support your favorite team and show your enthusiasm for the sport, check out the Football Bowl from Mixko. It is an earthenware bowl cast from a deflated football, giving it an authentic look without that rubber/leather smell that would result from trying to use a real football as a bowl. It's a great way to serve chips or other munchies during the game. The bowls are £50 each, but that's still a lot cheaper than flying to Germany to watch the games live.

 

While watching the Pistons play the Cavs this weekend, I couldn't help but see (sadly, several times!) the commercial for KFC's attempt to get in on the bowl trend (about two years too late, mind you) with the Cheesy Chicken Mashed Potato Bowl. Apparently, this thing is mashed potatoes, then gravy, then corn, then fried chicken pieces, then grated cheddar cheese.

Some have deemed it the "Cardiac Arrest Bowl."

Various forums, meanwhile, are abuzz with questions like "do cheese and gravy mix?"

For me, it's never simply a question of "is it tasty?" For me, it's a question of "is it tasteful?"

I can't help but wonder what other products are awaiting us in the coming years:

• The Thanksgiving Dinner Bowl: base of yams, then cranberry paste, then turkey, then gravy, then pumpkin pie, and finally a dollop of Cool Whip
• The 21st Birthday Bowl: base of 6 french fries, then Irish Car Bomb, then 6 watermelon shooters, and finally gyro sandwich
• The Bachelor Bowl: base of microwave pizza, then leftover Chinese take-out, then salsa, finally finished by whatever's still in the "Crisper" drawer

[Image Courier-Journal] 

Cereality is a popular breakfast food chain based on the premise that people like cereal because it's a good breakfast food. The Surreal Bowl is a cafe based on the concept that people like cereal because it's sugary. They sell cereal two scoops at a time - so you can mix your Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles - with one topping and milk. Along with the prospect of combining any two cereals, the range of toppings available amounts to the every 7-year-old's dream Saturday morning breakfast since they include Oreos, peanut butter cups and even gummy bears. Not to worry, there are healthier cereal and topping options, too, but in a room that's full of 50's, 60's and 70's kitsch, including plastic furniture and Felix the Cat cartoons playing on TV sets in the corners, why not indulge and relive your childhood. At least, relive the childhood you would have liked to have if your Mom never had a say in what you ate.

Surreal Bowl
611 Central Ave.
St. Petersburg, Florida
phone: 727-452-1761

[Image Weekly Planet]