Fondue is Fun. No, really. It is.

In my recent travels I came across these beautiful, bewildering and pristine fondue bibs.

I was dumbstruck for a short spell when I first noticed them, as they raised all sorts of questions and my mind raced in many different directions trying to answer the heavy issues at hand.

The first direction my mind traveled was to a place where I imagined asking my husband to wear one while eating fondue. Asking an adult male to wear a colorful bib at the dinner table is something that you may try, but you do so at your own risk. But apparently, in the 1970's there were households where men sat around wearing bibs while eating fondue, probably getting nutmeggy cheese in their mustaches and beards and all over their bib, but not on their shirts. Maybe a colorful bib goes with a colorful polyester shirt quite well, it might even be camouflaged against this backdrop. The same could not be said of a Nike t-shirt, or a modern sensible cotton work shirt. No, most modern men would look and probably feel like they were being dressed up as a baby.

After recovering myself somewhat I realized these bibs were still new in the original plastic packaging which naturally led me to the image of a man standing up and saying no to the bib, probably sometime around 1982 when men had become much more uptight about a lot of things, including bibs and fondue.

Perhaps that's what brought these to the place where I found them, or perhaps it was something else. Every generation wants to separate itself from the icons of the previous generation and fondue was one of the casualties of the 1970's. You can't print "Fondue is Fun" on a bib and present it to a young Madonna fan in her lace gloves and Boy Toy belt in 1984 and expect her to buy it. You might as well be saying "Going to bed at 8 o'clock is fun", or "Hanging out with your parents is fun" or "Liver is fun". Perhaps these bibs were printed in the late 1970's as part of a last ditch effort by the Fondue Council to save Fondue. A last, pathetic battle cry as it were.

Fondue went deep underground in the 1980's, it's heart still beating, but hidden from view (like Voldemort) in the back of kitchen cabinets (not so much like Voldemort) (damn it, now I'm going to have nightmares). Occasionally, children who knew nothing about bell-bottoms with penny farthings embroidered into the cuffs played in the utensil draw and wondered what the weird two-pronged skewers with the wooden handle and colored plastic dot on the end were for. And so they experimented by jabbing them into their sister's arm. Thereby ensuring the fondue skewers were confiscated and disappeared without fanfare or explanation.

To be fair to everyone that came after the 1970's (and those that emerged from the cloud of the 1970's) there must have been some confusion as to what was being fondued during Fondue's heyday. Some anthropologist associates of mine have been studying these bibs for the past few weeks, and in spite of deep research, they have yet to identify the foods pictured on the bibs. For those who haven't tried modern fondue, in this new millennium we are likely to have warm chocolate with fruits such as strawberries and pineapple dipped in our fondue, or a cheese fondue with delicious breads and raw vegetables. But if I am reading these bibs correctly, in the 1970's a fondue was some kind of yellow and brown liquid, and for dipping you had a choice of small tufts of grass, whole unshelled walnuts, large beef bouillon cubes and an assortment of yukon gold unpeeled potatoes.

So while I thank the 1970's for bringing Fondue into the mainstream, I am grateful to modern food thinkers for reinventing this cultural classic for our sophisticated, yet less adventurous (and less drug-addled) modern palates.

Fondue is fun. It is certainly fun to think about. It is fun to imagine that because it has a French sounding name, I am eating ethnic food when I eat Fondue (and may end up as skinny as a French woman) (and as stylish). But, it isn't fun to ask someone to wear one of these bibs against their will. One, because it might rip while you are struggling to tie it on. And two; these have survived almost thirty years so are you really going to use them once and throw them away?

Value judgments aside; if you are the lucky person who snaps these rare bibs up, and you choose to use them, you may find that if you place them on your fondue prepped dinner table, everybody at the table might just start to smile and enter a warm, colorful and maybe even slightly psychedelic place and put a bib on themselves. Even men in Nike t-shirts.

See you soon at So Dishy for more perfect dining accessories!

Watching Mad Men But Not Paying Much Attention To The Story...

A week ago I picked up Season 3 of Mad Men from the public library. You know, the AMC drama set in a 1960's New York ad agency, and revolving around handsome scoundrel-slash-mystery man and too cool for his own good, advertising superstar Don Draper. So, I have not seen the first two seasons, and maybe I need to in order to become fully hooked on this series, but strip away the beautiful, beautiful design and attention to historical accuracy in terms of the look of the show, and the story seems to me a bit, dare I say it...soap operaish...

Ok, so a few of you probably just clicked away from my blog after reading that. But for those who stayed, I didn't bring up Mad Men just to tear it down. Quite the contrary. Perhaps the reason I was not so taken with the story, is that I wasn't paying attention. How could I? The background is so overwhelmingly gorgeous. All the period costumes, furniture, hairstyles, and of course glassware and china were so distracting. I was pointing at the screen saying "Look! Pyrex Pink Daisy!" and "Roly Poly Glasses!" and other random Tourette's like pronouncements on the dishes they were using and taking to their fabulous parties and such (until my husband threatened to leave the room). Apparently the budget for each show is somewhere near $2.5 million, and it appears quite a bit of the money is spent on the set and overall look, no doubt including trawling eBay for dinnerware. (Now that's a job I'd do for free!)

To bring a bit of Mad Men style to your life why not check out our genuine 1960's Diamond Roly Poly glasses. Perfect for a stiff drink after work, or grocery shopping. Whatever. Also a perfectly acceptable glass for milk, or orange juice if you just want the attitude without the punch.

Or, these beautiful silver and wood bowls that would look gorgeous on the mid-century credenza in your advertising agency lobby. Or your coffee table, if you don't have an ad agency yet.

Then I suggest you take your hard-working (albeit womanizing) husband, and precious well-dressed 1960's kids (who you barely know) on a picnic and don't forget your Thermo-Serv Playing Cards Ice Bucket and Tumbler Set for more drinkies. (And don't forget the alcohol, because Don's probably going to have a flashback to his secret past life and you are going to need a drink.)

So, raise your glass, (again) in honor of those misogynists and cheaters and the women who worked for them and loved them/put up with them (because that's what we gals did in the early 60's), for I declare today (and only today) Mad Men Dinnerware Day, and I would give Betty Draper the key to my city, if I had a city and if she put a little more effort into making the most of her enviable kitchen.

And don't forget to visit So Dishy for more wonderful retro kitchen ware!

Time To Get Your Vision Checked.

Just like Christianity and Cajun cooking, there is, in my opinion, a holy trinity of American Cookware.

In the past I have blogged about two parts of this trinity before, Pyrex and traditional white Corning Ware. Today I want to talk about the third part of this sacred grouping which straddles both Pyrex and Corning Ware. (And yes I did just use the words sacred and straddles in the same sentence.)

In case you haven't already been introduced; please meet Visions - a line of amber and cranberry colored clear glass cookware by Corning. It looks more like Pyrex to me, but is made by Corning. Visions was introduced in the early 1980's and the original pieces were made in France before finally settling into a life of production in the US.

On the right you will see the wonderful 4.5 quart dutch oven (available here) in amber (the more popular/common color).

Now, here is why I love this stuff.

1. It can be used on the stove top and that just thrills me. Still. I love to be in the kitchen and turn to look at the stove and see the glass pot sitting directly on the gas flame and the pot can handle it. It makes me feel good about the quality of glass cooking my food.

2. I can see what's going on in there. These are my favorite pots for popping popcorn. We all want to watch the bread rising in the oven as it cooks, right? Being able to watch food change from one state to another is very interesting to me and these pots keep you informed of what's going on in there. Visions makes typical metal pans seem so secretive.

3. Easy to clean. This may be just me, but using a scourer on a metal pot is like scraping fingernails down a chalkboard.

4. No loose handles. I have a stainless pot that no matter how many times I have tried to fix it with the screwdriver, the handle starts rattling around after a week or two. Not so with Visions.

I could go on. I think these look lovely displayed too, if you have open shelving in your kitchen.

We have added a lot of Visions Ware to our store recently. It won't last long in there, but you are sure to own any pieces you purchase for years and years to come! For all the Visions items currently available in our store click and visit So Dishy!

Saying Goodbye...

Years ago I was wandering around one of my favorite hangouts when some beautiful, bright yellow caught my eye on the back of a shelf. I reached back past the pile of Made in China dinner plates to find an open sugar and creamer set by Homer Laughlin in the yellow Harlequin line.

These pieces never seemed to make it into my online store and haunted my workspace for a long time, being moved from shelf to shelf, until one day I gathered up all of my favorite pieces for a photo shoot and they were scooped into the mix.

Once the photos were downloaded, it was clear who won "most photogenic" at the shoot. The sisters of course! And one of the photos we took that day ended up gracing the front of my business card.

A few weeks ago, I put the creamer and sugar in my store, and yesterday they sold to someone who no doubt will love them as much as I have (although I hope they are put to more use!).

It isn't likely that I will find another set, I have never seen them in the places I go to buy my inventory since that day 5 or 6 years ago.

But, for now at least, (and to the disappointment of the 1000's of pieces of china I have waiting for their moment in the spotlight), the Harlequin twins will still be the stars of my business card.