to loathe the current fad for serving meals on wooden boards?

[DustBunnyFarmer]

The worst was a fancy local bistro serving my steak and chips with pepper sauce on a board. There was no way I could pour the pepper sauce over the steak without serious risk of run-off. I ended up dipping each mouthful in the jug of pepper sauce before eating it. Same restaurant served veggie meals on the same boards (there didn't seem to be any differentiation). Totally unsatisfactory. I also think chopping boards are not particularly hygienic. Bleurgh. Also, at the kind of prices swanky bistros charge, you would think they could afford proper crockery. The sooner this fad wanes, the better IMO.

in reference to the shovel pic!

I would just ask for a plate and relocate the food myself. I worry about complaining incase anything "extra" happens to my food.

Ah, I encountered this phenomenon for the first time on Saturday.

DH and I felt like trying a new cafe, because the children were arguing about which one of our usual options, and we'd declared that if they couldn't agree on A or B, mummy and daddy were picking D, so shush and we popped in a cafe that we'd been walking past for a while.

We went in, looked around, saw people being served on boards, and I said, "No bloody way. I want plates with rims. We are not ordering here. We are leaving".

We left.

God knows with the jam jars. I felt like a toddler in a cubby-house, drinking out of a jar whilst perching at a stump.

Love this! So true. I haven't come across the jam jars phenomenon yet. Probably just a matter of time though.

Because who doesn't love a good rim.

I've enjoyed the cook-your-own-steak-on-a-bit-of-basalt before, usually on holiday, but it's always been advertised as such and I decide on it because I find it quite fun. If I'd just ordered a steak and they turned up with that without telling me I would be very put out.

They are no good for gluten-free food either - gluten contamination soaks into the wood and doesn't wash off. Was v. cross at an expensive restaurant where the kids' gluten-free option turned up on a wooden board.

Do you ever feel like the kitchen staff are out the back going I bet you can't get them to eat off that shovel / Let's see if they fall for the jamjar / pmsl, he just sat there while I balanced his egg sandwich on the nose of a friendly dolphin.

I suppose if your pay is shit and your conditions crap, you've got to get your laughs where you can, eh?

Actually, I thought of another one! I was in Barcelona in August and ordered a dessert of greek yoghurt, fig compote and granola but it was served in a really tiny jam jar with an even tinier spoon. Is there perhaps a Europe-wide shortage of plates? All very odd