The Topography Bowl is made to look like a round mountain range, which you then fill with soup or salad so it looks like a mountain lake or forested valley. I guess this would be a conversation starter at your next dinner party, if you can afford it. The price is $179 a pop. Over at Inventor Spot, M Dee Dubroff' constantly throws out comments on how silly this thing is, and I agree. However, if you have the money and tend to like eccentric dinnerware, the Topography Bowl may be just what you're looking for.
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.
Our friends over at Engadget tipped us off to a really unusual diet-helper called the Smart Plate. The 15-cm plate was invented by a Ukrainian scientist, Dr. Hryhory Chausovsky, and is weight sensitive. When the plate is overloaded with food, a palm sized computer attached to the plate is activated and audio alerts are triggered. At that point, acting like your own personal "weight-watcher," the plate will reprimand the user, saying things like, "Stop right there! And what about excess weight?" and "Where's your willpower?" If you really have a problem with overloaded your plate, especially in a buffet-type of situation, it would be worth getting a few odd looks as you pulled out your own dish if it helped you keep your diet under control. And having your plate reprimand you in public is significantly more embarrassing than just bringing out the plate itself, so there is a good chance that the plate really would keep you on track.
Dr. Chausovsky has a number of other weight-loss aids to his name, too. He has a second version of the plate that has a different type of sensor. This one will play music faster and faster, depending on the speed at which food is eaten and the rate at which utensils touch the surface of the dish. Slower eating would keep the music at a normal tempo. He also has a belt that monitors a stomach's expansion during a meal, an armband that monitors calorie intake per bite, a refrigerator magnet that demands"Are you here because you are really hungry, or is it just your emotions?" when the door is opened and "food spectacles" that are tinted to make good food look unappealing.
Chausovsky says that he doesn't take any money for any of his inventions, since he got into the business to benefit people, not to profit from them.
As the holidays approach, we'll certainly be doing our fair share of entertaining, whether it's a casual get together of friends on a Saturday afternoon watching football, a simple cocktail party, or a full-blown sit down dinner. In any case, you're going to need the right stuff to set your table (and I don't mean a tablescape) -- linens, plates, cups, and flatware.
We'll cover your indoor tailgating another day, but if you are throwing a luxurious sit-down dinner party, Neiman Marcus has some fabulous ideas for setting your table. They've gotten together with four top designers who have picked things to set tables in their particular style. There's master of knits and resort-wear St. John, Valentino, Jay Strongwater, and my personal favorite, Nanette Lepore, who sets the table with rich crumpled linens and Baroque-inspired dinnerware.
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.
There's a heatwave, and if you don't have air conditioning in your house, it might be better to get outside and sit in the shade where there is even the slightest possibility of a breeze. If you're planning to have a picnic, or eat by the pool, use these biodegradable plates and utensils. The plates, cups and bowls are made from renewable resources - a material called bagasse, which is a compostable sugar cane fiber, a byproduct of the sugar refining process. The flatware is made from potato starch and vegetable oil. All pieces are unbleached, FDA-approved food-safe, and can be usedin the microwave, the freezer, are oil-resistant, and can handle hot food.
The dinnerware is available at Branch in packs of various quantitites ranging from $4 for bowl to $14 for complete flatware sets.
Normally, I am a bargain shopper. I don't shop at super high-end stores, and I try to wait for sales because paying
full retail hurts me.
However, shopping for kitchen and cooking things goes against every other shopping and money principle I stand for.
Table Art in Los Angeles could break me. The store is just that - they sell
gorgeous dinnerware, serving trays, cups and mugs, and all kinds of other dining things that make your table into a
masterpiece.
Sandra Lee's tablescapes need not apply.
Table Art 7977 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 (323) 653-8278 www.tartontheweb.com
Our friends over at 
As the holidays approach, we'll certainly be doing our fair share of entertaining, whether it's a casual get together of friends on a Saturday afternoon watching football, a simple cocktail party, or a full-blown sit down dinner. In any case, you're going to need the right stuff to set your table (and I don't mean a tablescape) -- linens, plates, cups, and flatware.
An alternative lifestyle deserves alternative dinnerware and the 
There's a heatwave, and if you don't have air conditioning in your house, it might be better to get outside and sit in the shade where there is even the slightest possibility of a breeze. If you're planning to have a picnic, or eat by the pool, use these 
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