I don't know about where you are, but here in LA, it is H-O-T, warm. It almost seems like Mother Nature just decided to skip Spring entirely and go directly into summer, which brings me to...outdoor dining.

Unbreakable Bowls are a must for dining out on the patio, whether you're sitting outside in the pre-hot warmth of the morning sun enjoying a bowl of cereal (Fruity Cheerios or otherwise), or dishing bowl-ing out ice cream sundaes for a birthday party. The color-rimmed polycarbonate Bowls come in a set of four, and promise not to chip, fade, or cloud, even when put through a dishwasher.

Available from Frontgate for $19.50.

[via: ThisNext]

Salad-On-Ice is not a failed icecapades routine. It is a well-designed bowl that might just be the perfect salad server.

There is nothing worse than a bowl full of lettuce that sits out at room temperature too long and looses its crunch. Salads should be crisp and refreshing (although some might be a little worried about eating lettuce at the moment), but you can't keep running back and forth to the refrigerator for seconds and third helpings, especially not when you are entertaining. Salad-On-Ice is a bowl that has a hollow stand designed to be filled with crushed or cubed ice to keep salads cold and fresh throughout an entire meal, even during a hot summer barbecue. It is made of shatter-resistant acrylic and comes with a lid and a pair of serving utensils.

The bowl would also work well for fruit salads, pasta salads or even chilled desserts, like trifle.

[via cribcandy]

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.

 

Bamboo is now used to make tableware, wallpaper, flooring and lacquer-ware.

A company in the UK has just begun importing the lacquer-ware, The dishes are coiled by hand and impregnated with 18 layers of natural, food-safe lacquer. They retail for £12.50 and up each. Vibrantly coloured and waterproof. They join Zak-Designs Bambu trays, chopping boards - which look particularily good - and kitchen utensils in one impressive and design-conscious range. Even the bamboo is organically grown.

The manufactuer has its own website.

There are a lot of ways we try to "change lifestyle" (diet) with respect to our eating habits. Some of us take drastic measures and completely change our diets, but we know how successfully that works. Sometimes, little things, like simple portion-control, is all you need.  

These little Mesu bowls from Studio Panepinto are for portion control, but are as fashionable as they are functional. They've got little pictures for you of what 1 cup and all its fractional family look like, so you'll know exactly how much Ben & Jerry's you're eating. Didn't know a half cup serving was so small, huh? They are $49.95 for the set of dishwasher-, microwave-, and freezer-safe bowls that nest for storage.

[via: popgadget]

As Super Bowl Sunday rolls around and some of you get ready to have people over for drinking and snacking, a pre-new-year's-eve post of mine comes to mind. Some of you may remember a recent study from Cornell University professor and "food psychologist" Brian Wansink, where we learned that glass size affects how much people pour. Short, wide glasses resulted in people (even trained bartenders) pouring more liquor than with tall, thin glasses.

Another Wansink-led study last year focused on snacking and bowl size. As you can imagine, people tended to eat lots more, 56 percent more, when they were plucking Chex mix from big bowls rather than small ones. In that study, the extra snacking broke down to 142 calories more per person.

Obviously, if your beer is coming from a can or a bottle, everyone will probably have their own, and if you have a keg, a red plastic cup is probably in order. But, if your guests are mixing drinks, the glass size is good to keep in mind. And, if you've got limited amounts of snackage, small bowls could be in order.