The Bowl

There was yet another article yesterday about “The Bowl”, and how wonderful they are to eat. While true, methinks the hype is totally overshadowing the simplicity of it. I found myself discussing this with a friend yesterday, and it got me to thinking about it. So this morning I started to look around the net to try to pull together what is special about a “bowl” of food, as opposed to a “plate” of food. And why it should be expensive just because it is a new way of labeling a meal, and downsizing the amount of actual nourishing ingredients.

What I found was what I consider unadulterated hype. After reading the ingredients lists for several places that specialize in same, it was clear that a “bowl” consists of leftovers such as we all have available at any given time in the refrigerator. That is . . . a large-ish portion of some sort of grain or starch, topped with some smaller amount of an assortment of veggies, cheese, meats, seeds, nuts and then a sauce or dressing.

The difference? Well, when you go to a restaurant, they will have a wide variety of possibilities for your enjoyment. At home you can have either a wide variety of possibilities as well, or just a few possibilities, any of which would be suitable for the occasion. You’re going to eat only one meal right now, so an infinite variety of choices is probably not necessary, or even desirable.

You can even make a bowl from scratch, and that’s what I did for Special Sunday Brunch this morning. I made up a batch of herbed polenta, sprinkled it with bacon and mozzarella cheese, and then plopped a soft-poached duck egg on the top. The yolk of the egg made the requisite “sauce”.

Since this was totally extemporaneously done, I didn’t have any appropriate garnishes at hand – like parsley or cilantro. I did have blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and pineapple available, but with the rest of the meal, they would have been superfluous. But were I making a special effort, those little touches would have made The Bowl something really special.

In reading over this post, it does sound a bit curmudgeonly, but it does point up once again that really healthful eating never goes out of style, it just changes its shape a bit, and costs more than it should because of the perceived novelty!

You CAN try this at home, kids! Please do. ;->