Oh my days, nearly 10 years living here and in the back of my head I was missing something at meals but it didn't click what.

And why don't the Swiss use or have them? I've never even seen a trace of one but I know soups are very popular so what is going on? And come to think of it a normal (desert) spoon isn't ideal is it (all that spilt soup).

And whilst anyone is at it, what else is missing here that you wouldn't immediately think of but is popular elswhere in the big world?

(does any also know why soup spoons are rounded?)

Here's one for those (swiss) who possibly don't know what they look like:

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We noticed that before we moved here and made sure we bought the new cutlery set in the U.K. before the move.

Soup spoons are rounded as you only eat soup (with the soup bowl tipped away from you of course) from the side of the spoon.

Other spoons such as dessert spoons are longer and thinner as you actually put them into your mouth.

Washing up bowls.

England is neither big nor the world.

Are you hinting that other countries other than GB also don't have Soup Spoons?

Yeah, I don't normally find these in Swiss restaurants. They would work quite well with fondue. Weird that they don't use them...



And they are quite popular since over quarter of the world uses them...

It's quality, not quantity that counts.

cant find a goblin teasmaid here

While I've not "missed" that sort of spoon (it's not generally included in more "common", ie bought from wal-mart, k-mart or target, tableware sets in the US), I have SEEN "Asian" style soup spoons a plenty in the Asian markets.





I think those are designed with the idea that you're going to slurp from the edge rather than sticking it in your mouth too.

Us "barbaric" Americans tend to eat our soup with either a normal table spoon ("esselöffel" here) or what maybe in reality is a "dessert spoon" elsewhere... and stick the whole spoon in our mouth, with the idea to eat quietly. (Slurping is considered rude and barbaric over there. )

This would be an example of what the average US household has for flatware, and actually the larger (again, "esselöffel" here) is what is called a soup spoon in that setting. (My mouth being small'ish, I tend to use the smaller "tea spoon" for my soup.)

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I think the Swiss, just like many other people, put the soup spoon (table spoon) in the mouth like you do the dessert spoon. Is there a real reason for not doing so, I mean other than "that's the way it has always been done"?

And where do you see England in that comment? We are talking food here.

He's talkin' about...one of these:

I do not know why it is done that way in the UK, unless it is a "posh" thing somehow.

I was taught when we lived in Japan that slurping your meal is a signal to the chef that you're enjoying their work. I kinda like that idea but it doesn't mesh well with my ideas of "British" table habits so I doubt the reasoning is the same.

Soup is served rather hot (usually, with obvious exceptions), and I suspect the idea of sipping (not slurping!) it is to cool it as it is ingested.

What is of greater concern, however, is the Swiss notion that a dessert spoon is tiny (not much bigger than a teaspoon) and what everyone else recognises as a dessert spoon, they call a tablespoon.

you can`t spell.......

Exactly. And, as your link shows, American flatware set practically never include what we would call a tea spoon. The smallest size actually is kind of a dessert spoon, at least 60% larger than a real tea spoon.

My theory is that Americans do not know what a teas spoon is, but all recipes use them. So the cooks take dessert spoons instead. Result: Those 60% cause all the overweight.

I do know what you are getting at...

Cause you don't eat fondue with them?

This is a peculiarly British thing. I'd never seen them until I lived in England. Hence, FrankS's comment is appropriate:

Exactly why the British need a plastic washing up bowl to put inside their steel (or porcelain, or plastic) washing up sink, I have no idea.

It is when added to Scotland and Wales to make Great Britain!