"I’ve eaten the same meal on a plate, it just wasn’t that good"

February 17, 2016 6:55 PM

"Power Bowls" are the newest trend for hot skinny people (are there any other kinds of trends we care about?)

Want to be hot, young, skinny and live in New York City? Just try a bowl!

Have someone else make you a bowl:
The Whole Bowl in Portland (natch) is like "eating a hug."
Bowl of Heaven for exotic "superfoods" in a bowl.
Paleo bowls

Make some bowls at home:
14 super healthy bowls

vegan bowls

Chili in a bowl is probably not what hot skinny people are eating but it's in bowl!

Or just say fuck it, and eat bowling alley nachos instead.

posted by vespabelle (235 comments total)

I'm a moderately broke graduate student who also eats a) protein, b) vegetables and c) carbs in a bowl, because bowls only require one utensil.

I guess I'm cool now too, can I have a trend?
posted by kurosawa's pal at 6:57 PM on February 17, 2016 [34 favorites]

Do all New York newspapers exist just to make you hate New Yorkers, or is it just the Post, the Times, and the News?
posted by fatbird at 6:58 PM on February 17, 2016 [61 favorites]

white people
posted by yueliang at 6:58 PM on February 17, 2016 [66 favorites]

I also feel bad for my white friends who have always eaten things with bowls. They now have to justify why their peers are selling these commodities. omg.
posted by yueliang at 6:59 PM on February 17, 2016 [10 favorites]

i am afraid if i start hating bowls like this article wants me to do i'm just going to have burn my house down and move into the woods because there's no coming back from this molecular-level state of loathing
posted by Tevin at 7:03 PM on February 17, 2016 [20 favorites]

Seems healthy, practical, and unpretentious. I can't hate on this. LAME.
posted by prize bull octorok at 7:03 PM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

POWER







BOWLS
posted by Doleful Creature at 7:04 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

We've been there, done that.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 7:04 PM on February 17, 2016 [13 favorites]

isn't this just like stir fry with rice except you replace the white rice with unshelled brown rice and the stir fry with like just raw, uncooked vegetables instead
posted by runt at 7:04 PM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

Huh. For lunch, I had a reasonably sized portion of brown rice, sprouts, chicken, and vegetables with an Indonesian-inspired peanut-lime sauce. It was delicious and satisfying and very healthy. It came in a paper carton which could reasonably be described as a bowl. I've been eating this for years.

I am neither hot nor skinny.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:06 PM on February 17, 2016 [14 favorites]

Sounds like a basic human diet across the globe for thousands of years?
posted by bleep at 7:06 PM on February 17, 2016 [43 favorites]

I have to admit though, a salmon quinoa bowl doesn't sound too bad, but I don't get why I would have to pay $13 for it.
posted by yueliang at 7:07 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Seems healthy, practical, and unpretentious. I can't hate on this. LAME.

Sure you can:

“I’ve eaten the same meal on a plate,” she says. “It just wasn’t that good.”

posted by fatbird at 7:07 PM on February 17, 2016 [82 favorites]

It's a salad with protein. They have to call it something to sell it. Most people buying "power bowls" must know that they are only called that to be sold to them as part of a trend, and yet they can't help themselves. It's weird living in the coastal cities.

For me, "power bowls" is a bit too close to "power bowels" for a food item. But I suppose if you put enough fiber in there, that's the result...
posted by praemunire at 7:08 PM on February 17, 2016 [18 favorites]

I walked past three places today offering "warm bowls".

Warm. Bowls.

(I mean I also had a 14 dollar 'New England' salad of lettuce/romaine/ap0le/beet/walnut/cranberry, etc that was so big I was exhausted from chewing halfway trough but kept up out of grim determination and I think I met my dietary fiber requirements for. ....ever )?
posted by The Whelk at 7:08 PM on February 17, 2016 [9 favorites]

>Now bowls have gone mainstream.

Um.

In other news, shirts have gone mainstream. Yes, the esoteric secret upper body covering previously known only to a select few has made its pop culture debut!

In other other news, I can't fucking stand it.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 7:08 PM on February 17, 2016 [50 favorites]

I for one find a bowl of food very convenient!

Except one time my friend and I went out and she got a big salad that was mounded up in a bowl. Lettuce is lighter than rice and acai and whatnot so every time she took a bite her lettuce would end up on the table. That was sadness in a bowl.
posted by vespabelle at 7:09 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

No, that checks out. Stuff skitters off plates. Plates kinda suck.
posted by prize bull octorok at 7:09 PM on February 17, 2016 [12 favorites]

I read this as "power bowels" and thought "so that's how they stay so thin."





I'll see myself out.
posted by 4ster at 7:09 PM on February 17, 2016 [22 favorites]

Panera is a common stop when nobody wants to cook and yes a power bowl (or a broth bowl) has basically been my go-to for a while. In general it should be pretty innocuous because Protein + Veggies + Whole Grain has been a dietary basic for like 5000-6000 years give or take. But I guess make the whole grain Quinoa and free range chicken and kale or brocollini and you got a LOLWHITEPEOPLE trend.

When really it's just western restaurants learning a trend Chinese cooks mastered ages ago.
posted by vuron at 7:09 PM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

How slow can a news day possibly get, you may ask.
posted by mhoye at 7:10 PM on February 17, 2016 [46 favorites]

For chic, wellness-conscious New Yorkers, it’s all about healthy, hearty bowls filled with veggies, proteins and flavorful toppings — without an empty calorie in sight. They’re more filling than salads, lower in carbs than sandwiches and popping up on menus around town.

THEY ARE SALADS. JUST IN A BOWL!
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:11 PM on February 17, 2016 [16 favorites]

I eat almost everything out of bowls. I'm sure not skinny though. Probably because most of my "everything" is pasta covered in cheese.

I'm having a pasta, cheese, and courgette bowl right now! I am the new hotness. I guess.
posted by angeline at 7:11 PM on February 17, 2016 [14 favorites]

You know, I can tell the "hot skinny people love it!" framing is supposed to make me hate this, but... it sounds good. I have never, ever been satisfied by salad-as-a-meal, and the only other fast choices near my work are burgers, gutbuster sandwiches, very oily Chinese food, and gutbuster burritos. If I can start having a bowl of veggies and protein - possibly some of them even cooked! - as an even slightly healthier alternative to those items, and have it be more satisfying than a salad, then I am in.

If I promise not to go paleo or condescend to other people about their alternate food choices, can I just like it?
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 7:11 PM on February 17, 2016 [17 favorites]

Fuck these guys; I eat ice cream out of a coffee cup.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:12 PM on February 17, 2016 [37 favorites]

...and now I'm reading "bowl" as "bowel" everywhere, which is making this thread quite disgusting.
posted by praemunire at 7:12 PM on February 17, 2016 [10 favorites]

broth bowl

My people have a similar dish. We call it "soup."

Anyway, the best bowl is a Thanksgiving Leftover Bowl. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy. Done right, it will weigh about four pounds.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:13 PM on February 17, 2016 [66 favorites]

but I don't get why I would have to pay $13 for it.

Because of how retail rent laws are structured it's makes more sense not to have tenants than lose estimated value on properties so rents are priced higher than most business can physically sell units to meet.
posted by The Whelk at 7:13 PM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]

Of course power bowls are the gateway drug to juicing and that way lies madness (for some variations of juicing).
posted by vuron at 7:14 PM on February 17, 2016 [5 favorites]

power bowls: late crisis capitalism
posted by yueliang at 7:14 PM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]

I'm surprised that KFC was so ahead of this trend with their Famous Bowls.
posted by sparklemotion at 7:14 PM on February 17, 2016 [9 favorites]

Boweling
posted by The Whelk at 7:16 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

I lived in a house with three engineers who never, EVER did the dishes. They couldn't fathom how the dishes got clean. Somehow the dishes went from being all over the house to being clean and it's like, when did the dish fairy come? (I am the dish fairy)

They got this trend beat. They'd eat out of anything.

I walked in on one of them eating cereal out of my four cup measuring cup. More than once. Wake me up when that's a trend.
posted by Neronomius at 7:17 PM on February 17, 2016 [16 favorites]

*has a bowl of Apple Jacks*
posted by jonmc at 7:18 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

I remember eating an acai bowl once, and got confused about why I was eating a berry smoothie in a bowl with bananas. I felt like it was so wasteful, but then my bowels felt really clean. POWER BOWLS MUST BE STOPPED
posted by yueliang at 7:19 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

On the one hand, bla bla bla boring trend.

On the other hand, what if somebody started a restaurant that was like Naf Naf or Chipotle but for dol sot bibimbap? I'd be there every day. If your bowl isn't hot enough to sizzle your grain to a crisp, it is not a fucking power bowl.
posted by escabeche at 7:19 PM on February 17, 2016 [44 favorites]

Post Trolls with Bowls
posted by gwint at 7:20 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Power Bowls? As in, the power to eat twice from one purchase when you reply, "everything" to the Cava persons's, "what do you want on this?" question.
posted by Slackermagee at 7:21 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Overthinking a bowl of beans?
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:22 PM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]

2017 food trends

forks
heat
surfaces
pieces
combinations
digestion
posted by threeants at 7:23 PM on February 17, 2016 [33 favorites]

As a huge fan of pho, I approve of this trend. As long as the food in the bowl is pho.
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:23 PM on February 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

My coworkers and I have a running joke about how I always eat my lunch (which is usually a mishmash of leftovers) out of a bowl. But it isn't because I am hip! The real reasons are a) it feels safer, like I'm less likely to accidentally knock food onto the floor, and b) I don't want my coworkers to judge my mishmash leftovers, so I hide them in my nice safe bowl. It's a security blanket bowl.
posted by aka burlap at 7:23 PM on February 17, 2016 [10 favorites]

isn't this just like stir fry with rice except you replace the white rice with unshelled brown rice and the stir fry with like just raw, uncooked vegetables instead

The 1970s are calling to offer you a copy of Laurel's Kitchen.

As always the people quoted are insufferable, but the bowls sound tasty (and much more flavorful than the horrible brown rice bowls I remember from my childhood).
posted by Dip Flash at 7:26 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

New York is the capitol of earnest. The up and coming kids miss their hippie parents.
posted by Oyéah at 7:27 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

You know, this is easy to roll your eyes at, but it actually makes a good bit of sense. You get a bunch of different flavors and textures, with lots of room in the formula for interesting ingredients and combinations, and a better proportion of macronutrients. You can serve 'em hot, which brings out flavor and is way more appealing in February. The term "power bowl" is undoubtedly a marketing gimmick, but I'd happily ignore the marketing and eat that bowl in the photo.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:27 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

“I’ve eaten the same meal on a plate,” she says. “It just wasn’t that good.”

This is true. Soup served on a plate just isn't the same.
posted by dephlogisticated at 7:28 PM on February 17, 2016 [16 favorites]

And, yeah—this is basically white-person bibimbap. (Which is fine with me. Bibimbap is fabulous.)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:29 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, all giggles aside, food in bowls is good. Less spillage. The stuff gets to swim around a bit more easily in whatever delicious sauce you put on it. There is a sense of scattering and spreading out on a plate. Food in bowls is somehow more pleasantly tidy and compact.
posted by angeline at 7:30 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

what if somebody started a restaurant that was like Naf Naf or Chipotle but for dol sot bibimbap

I think you're looking for Bibigo, which is pretty close.
posted by cell divide at 7:30 PM on February 17, 2016

white people

White people in New York, amiright?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:30 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

White Power Bowls
posted by cazoo at 7:31 PM on February 17, 2016 [14 favorites]

Thermodynamicswise, the bowls hold heat better, food stays nice for a long carefully chewed meal. All hail our new Esalen overlords.
posted by Oyéah at 7:31 PM on February 17, 2016

This is way better than the scheduled 2018 food trend, Power Fully Enclosed Spheres
posted by prize bull octorok at 7:32 PM on February 17, 2016 [5 favorites]

This is one of those times when I guess I was way ahead of the trend because I've been using bowls for a long time now. I didn't realize other people didn't know about bowls. I should have told them.
posted by thefoxgod at 7:32 PM on February 17, 2016 [25 favorites]

Big Lebowlski.
posted by effluvia at 7:35 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Macrobiotics are bullshit, but that doesn't mean Buddha Bowls aren't tasty.

"@escabeche: Bibigo launched fairly recently in America, and I think they want to expand.

Also, depending on the city, you can usually find small shops here and there that do it."

I've been to the one in Westwood. It was OK. Much slower than a Chipotle though. And the day we were there with friends they somehow ran out of hot sauce, so it was like o_0 how do i bibim
posted by klangklangston at 7:36 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Bibigo is owned entirely by CJ, which used to be the sugar production division of Samsung until the 90's, whereupon it was divested and split off into all foods. All foods. I think they almost supply 1% of all food in Korea? Something like that. It's not not a giant megacorporation, is what I'm saying. They make movies. They have a shopping channel and a bunch of malls. They make K-pop stars. Biochemicals. Health care stuff.
posted by hleehowon at 7:37 PM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

My dinner tonight was tofu, cauliflower, rice, and peanut sauce. In a bowl. I feel so trendy. Too bad I'm fat and cold, not hot and skinny.
posted by Daily Alice at 7:38 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

So... These are salads with (white) aspirational marketing (targeted at women).
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 7:40 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm about to disrupt the gluten space with my groundbreaking toroid bread products.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:41 PM on February 17, 2016 [15 favorites]

Remember when power bowls were part of getting ready for a Phish show?
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:42 PM on February 17, 2016 [20 favorites]

Yeah so quinoa is the new hotness and the greatest thing ever but are biscotti and I the only people who've tried it a few times and just kinda nope? I mean it's not just actively gross but kinda like eating soggy sesame seeds sooooo why do that?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:45 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

But I eat all my food out of Klein bottles so I'm awesome that way.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:46 PM on February 17, 2016 [10 favorites]

I'm about to disrupt the gluten space with my groundbreaking toroid bread products.

Mmmmm... donuts.
posted by Daily Alice at 7:49 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

White Power Bowls

Hmm...

Take the skinheads bowl-ing
Take them bowl-ing
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:50 PM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]

I like quinoa personally but it definitely benefits from being cooked in broth rather than just water.

The texture I guess is a bit mixed but I like millet and buckwheat and all sorts of alternative grains.
posted by vuron at 7:51 PM on February 17, 2016

if an NYC-area pot dealer hasn't yet run with "POWER BOWLS OG"... well... there ya go.
posted by raihan_ at 7:53 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

White Power Bowels

They really ruin thanksgiving
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:54 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Yeah so quinoa is the new hotness and the greatest thing ever but are biscotti and I the only people who've tried it a few times and just kinda nope? I mean it's not just actively gross but kinda like eating soggy sesame seeds sooooo why do that?"

I've had it be good IN things, but never had it been good AS a thing, if that makes sense. A little quinoa can fill out a lentil dish or something, but any time people have made me something that featured it, it was bland as cardboard.
posted by klangklangston at 7:56 PM on February 17, 2016

I have my dinner in a bowl 9 times out of 10. Some sort of carb, some sort of protein, a bunch of veggies (e.g. steamed), and a sauce. All diced up, mixed together, and eaten with a fork. I use different combinations every night depending on my mood and what I have available.

Growing up my family ate the same carb, protein and veggie elements, but placed in neat piles on a big flat plate. It never occurs to me to cook that way--I think it's because mixing everything together with a sauce makes it so much more flavorful. Why would I want to keep them separate?
posted by mantecol at 7:58 PM on February 17, 2016

4ster: "I read this as "power bowels" and thought "so that's how they stay so thin."





I'll see myself out. "

No, please, stay around.
posted by Samizdata at 7:59 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

def cute how people think quinoa is a thing now. jk NASA has been all about that since forever. and by NASA i meant South America
posted by special agent conrad uno at 7:59 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

this just in: omg tomatoes.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 8:00 PM on February 17, 2016 [5 favorites]

This sounds suspiciously like the Bread And Butter buffet food I cobble together into a plastic container for lunch most days.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:00 PM on February 17, 2016

I'm about to disrupt the gluten space with my groundbreaking toroid bread products.

LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gluten-Wave Observatory) recently announced the first recorded detection of waves in gluten space, caused by the collision of two massive bread toroids over 1 billion years ago.
posted by dephlogisticated at 8:00 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

oh okay

they're Hungry Man dinners
posted by duffell at 8:00 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

But in a BOWL!
posted by angeline at 8:01 PM on February 17, 2016

This further supports my theory of the bowl wars. Everyone needs a bowl and they who produce the most bowels wins.

Then that fucker Diogenes decided to get all hand cuppity because some kid displaced utility with practicality.
posted by clavdivs at 8:02 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

New York yuppie food trend pieces are over now, right?
posted by aaronetc at 8:02 PM on February 17, 2016

duffell: "oh okay

they're Hungry Man dinners"

There has never been a Hungry Man with quinoa.

And there will never be one.

I neglect to see a downside to this...
posted by Samizdata at 8:04 PM on February 17, 2016

Is this somehow related to that Super Bowl thing that just happened? So many bowls, so little time.
posted by ghostpony at 8:04 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

NY Post writer sees food touching, gets mad.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:06 PM on February 17, 2016 [14 favorites]

Cambridge, MA, has had Life Alive a long time now, and I can recall finding "bowls!" articles in my Cooking Light and Eating Well and Real Simple mags for years. The amazing thing about trends is how long it takes for something you can find around in all sorts of places to become "trendy."
\
posted by Miko at 8:06 PM on February 17, 2016

There has never been a Hungry Man with quinoa.

And there will never be one.

Just wait until a few months from now when they roll out a line of "Hungry Gentleman" Frozen Dinners featuring quinoa, microgreens, uh... omega-3 flakes... and... antioxidant... fluid.

Look, my Powers of Prediction aren't 100% here.
posted by duffell at 8:08 PM on February 17, 2016 [14 favorites]

These sound pretty good, to be honest. I mean, if you squint and read only quotes from trend pieces, maybe this can be something we're all supposed to hate, but to me it seems pretty harmless and nice.
posted by teponaztli at 8:09 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also, burrito chains have been serving burrito bowls for longer than I care to think about.

And are they really telling me before this, everyone delicately plated their leftovers instead of just dumping everything that looked good over rice?
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:09 PM on February 17, 2016 [10 favorites]

Maybe the thing is that life in New York is so exciting, rich and complex that people have actually forgotten what it is to eat food that isn't from a remote island, made of exotic milks or on fire, and so these "bowls", which really seem pretty quotidienne to provincial old me, burst upon them as a total revelation. Maybe I'll move to New York and introduce "soup" - like "bowls" (in a bowl, in fact!) but liquid! I bet once I've got this "soup" business going, I can buy some of that fancy real estate that New Yorkers are always talking about.
posted by Frowner at 8:13 PM on February 17, 2016 [13 favorites]

And are they really telling me before this, everyone delicately plated their leftovers instead of just dumping everything that looked good over rice?

Remove "that looked good" and you're describing my culinary life from age 19 to 25 right there.
posted by duffell at 8:13 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Gosh, if I'm cooking, that's how i eat, and I'm neither hot, nor rich, nor skinny. I am a New Yorker though. It must just be part of what makes all New Yorkers so intolerable.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 8:15 PM on February 17, 2016

I like this. Sure, on paper it looks similar to a salad. Except when I buy a salad for lunch it usually has 90% lettuce, 5% other veg (carrot, tomato, onion), 5% protein and that is just not enough protein unless I buy two salads.

Rice or quinoa, bulky veggies like sweet potato, avocado, broccoli .. that shit will keep me from stabbing my coworker with a plastic knife over a slightly mushed M&M.

I am not hot, skinny or trendy but I want this.
posted by bunderful at 8:16 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

You know, it genuinely sucks when you can't like something without people feeling compelled to make comments about how shitty you are for liking it.
posted by teponaztli at 8:17 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Maybe I'll move to New York and introduce "soup" - like "bowls" (in a bowl, in fact!) but liquid!

Well, problem with New York is, it's gotta be something they haven't seen before...
posted by Miko at 8:17 PM on February 17, 2016

My favorite Winston Churchill story is the guy who had to call on him at home during the war to deliver or pick up some papers and found him at lunch. His lunch was a bowl of kidney stew which is disgusting enough to a lot of people. But at his lunch table he had a tumbler of scotch with about five ounces in it and a lit cigar. In between swigs of the whiskey and puffs of the cigar he would pick up the bowl with one hand, raise it to his lips, and shovel stew into his greatness with a spoon using the other hand.

I have no doubt a fourth of the human race would find my eating habits and my dietary substances equally disgusting.
posted by bukvich at 8:18 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

What.

“The bowl is very Instagram-friendly, you can see everything,” says Lukas Volger, a Brooklynite who has a cookbook called “Bowl” out in March. It’s one of no less than five bowl books out this year.

If someone asked me to write a satirical hipster-yuppie puff piece, I couldn't come up with anything as good as that right there.

Now I want bibimbap though.
posted by j.r at 8:20 PM on February 17, 2016 [5 favorites]

Yeah so quinoa is the new hotness

I've been hearing people saying quinoa is the new thing lately and... wasn't it the new thing once already? I distinctly remember it being the go-to low hanging fruit joke food before kale.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:21 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also I so want the next lifestyle POWER item to be a resurgence of PYRAMID POWER! The time is ripe for retro woo.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:24 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

It's a fine way of portioning out a complete meal of nutritious and tasty foods that go well with each other. It's a good trend, and I mourn the passing of Panera Bread's Lentil and Quinoa and Miso-Ginger Soba broth bowls - these weren't readily identifiable as "soup." Think of a really good Pho or Ramen, with non-traditional flavors and ingredients.

For bowls as a whole as a cullinary trend, apart from the KFC Famous ones, I like the novelty, I like that the portion sizes are smaller, I like that I feel fuller after I eat one because of the riot of flavors and textures, I like that I'm getting a lot of fiber and protein from a small meal. Basically the only thing to dislike is that some people who seem pretentious are enthusiastic about it and lifestyle writers are doing pieces on it.

Sometimes shit gets popular because it's legit.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:27 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Quinoa has already been through being the new hotness, being a bit of a joke and being discovered to be a bad thing (international trade in quinoa disrupts traditional markets in Bolivia). All this happened between about 2008 and 2013, and indeed things have progressed to the point where serious lefty types don't buy quinoa.

I'm a bit amazed at the speed with which quinoa has come around again, too. Like flared pants - never really went away and now they're the new thing. I can't decide whether this is because we are living in an exhausted world a la M. John Harrison or whether we're living in a world that is merely super accelerated. Either way, I've been buying up 1990s printed button-downs for spring.
posted by Frowner at 8:27 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

For some reason it sent me into an irrational fury that the reporter used a comma splice while quoting someone.

“The bowl is very Instagram-friendly, you can see everything,” says Lukas Volger

It doesn't even bother me when people actually use comma splices themselves, but alleging that you heard one in somebody else's speech is some dastardly shit!
posted by threeants at 8:31 PM on February 17, 2016 [12 favorites]

I still remember my friend's Peruvian mother being told quinoa was hip and pricey in like 2010. SHe just blinked and said.

"We fed that to the chickens."

and moved on.
posted by The Whelk at 8:31 PM on February 17, 2016 [17 favorites]

You know what would go great with your $14 Power Bowl? A $16 cold pressed juice.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:32 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

naw the cold pressed watermelon water was like 5$
posted by The Whelk at 8:34 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've been preferentially eating out of a deep bowl since the early 2000s. When I went to grad school, the only dishes I had to start with were a knife, fork, spoon, mug and a deep bowl.

I was eating out of bowls before it was cool.
posted by jb at 8:34 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Stuff skitters off plates. Plates kinda suck.

ur supposed to kill the stuff first
posted by um at 8:34 PM on February 17, 2016 [39 favorites]

So basically, the yuppies have discovered Pollo Bowls from Pollo Loco- 610 calories, $5.00. they're basically our go-to "Moderately healthy cheap food" choice.

Geeze, bowls, Bulgolgi bowls. Bimbimbap bowls. Donburi. Oh man, DONBURI. I make a damn good Oyako Donburi. And then there's Katsudon, Unagidon...gimmie all the Don, right here.

Yeah, bowls. Who cares if the New Yorkers like them.
posted by happyroach at 8:36 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

This would be better with a bird on it.
posted by meinvt at 8:37 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

I think somebody lit up a bowl before writing this article.

Although I do own cookbooks that contain "Power Bowl" recipes.
posted by GuyZero at 8:37 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Basically the only thing to dislike is that some people who seem pretentious are enthusiastic about it

I think you just stumbled onto a phrase that applies to like 75% of internet criticism.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:38 PM on February 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

aren't these just really big versions of jar salads that everyone got huffy about?

Whatever it all ends up with me slamming another Kaletopia Green Dream juice with a shot of vodka and low key googling the side effects of vitamin A poisoning.
posted by The Whelk at 8:39 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

On the other hand, what if somebody started a restaurant that was like Naf Naf or Chipotle but for dol sot bibimbap? I'd be there every day. If your bowl isn't hot enough to sizzle your grain to a crisp, it is not a fucking power bowl.
posted by escabeche

I live in Toronto's Koreatown. We have 6 places that do bibimbap in a row.

I love where I live.
posted by jb at 8:39 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Like any trend that shows up in the NYC mass media, bowls are SO OVER grand-dad.. All the cool kids are eating food on a stick although quinoa on a stick is proving to be a challenge.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 8:41 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

A $16 cold pressed juice.
I keep seeing that shit in LA and I'm like wtf because actual apples are really delicious and about 2 dollars. I'm mostly being snarky because it's Trust Fund Economics that make those idiots think they can have a 15% cost margin on juice.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 8:41 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

The comment/favorite ratio on this post is inspiring.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 8:43 PM on February 17, 2016

All the cool kids are eating food on a stick although quinoa on a stick is proving to be a challenge.

Possibly the most Iowa idea I've had yet: you make the quinoa into the breading and deep fry the thing on the stick. Quindogs!
posted by jason_steakums at 8:44 PM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

This is how people eat in Asia. But I'm glad trendy, skinny white girls are being portrayed as having invented it...
posted by bearette at 8:48 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Power bowls give me the power shits.
posted by fnerg at 8:53 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

jar salads that everyone got huffy about

flask soups
thimble pies
urn lasagnas
vat sandwiches
posted by threeants at 8:53 PM on February 17, 2016 [15 favorites]

This is how people eat in Asia. But I'm glad trendy, skinny white girls are being portrayed as having invented it...

Maybe I'm reading too much subtext into a New York Post (HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR) story, but I read the article as making fun of skinny trendy honkies for being so excited about putting food in bowls.

Next up: skinny trendy honkies in NYC invent the "pelvic mashup" where you get penises and vaginas together in thrusty grindy ways.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:59 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Quinoa gives me a stomachache, which I'm pretty bummed about because it's a tasty source of veggie protein. But I also feel kinda smug when I'm in a healthy foody place and I'm like, I can't eat quinoa, can I have some wheat instead?
posted by the_blizz at 9:02 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Great. I'm now forced to eat cereal off a plate just so I don't drown myself for being like THEM.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:07 PM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

There's a juice bar near work that makes Bowls, and does brisk business at lunch. Plating aside, the appeal is pretty straightforward: it's quick to assemble, warm, filling, not greasy, has vegetables, and is clearly made of actual food.
posted by parudox at 9:11 PM on February 17, 2016

Maybe these restaurants could compete for some kind of super bowl trophy.
posted by w0mbat at 9:18 PM on February 17, 2016

Once I discovered these plastic bowls in a chinese restaurant supply store I've had a hard time eating anything - pasta, homecooked food, frozen meals, biscuits, etc. out of anything but a bowl. They're so easy to hold right under your chin and shorten the distance between food and your mouth. It keeps the sofa clean. When I eat with other people I'm a bit more couth, but at home it's all bowls all the time.
posted by bendy at 9:19 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Pls back the kickstarter for my new eatery, Pile, where the servers assemble your macrobiotically balanced meal in your cupped hands, by hand, in an act of nourishing human connection that dispenses with the confining hegemony of flatware and bowls

You might get E. coli
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:19 PM on February 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

You might get E. coli

That costs extra.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:25 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

Yeah I don't think anyone objects to bowls, which is a fine way of saying "salad without lettuce" and "deconstructed burrito with no tortilla" and all of their ilk collectively, as well as being delicious; everyone just objects to acting like "bowls" are a trend that's Just! Been! Discovered! and that their virtue lies in their Instagramability rather than their tastiness.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:25 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

And the even betterer thing about bowl meals is once you've finished your meal you have a hat!!
posted by soundguy99 at 9:25 PM on February 17, 2016 [15 favorites]

Put it on a plate, son - you'll enjoy it more.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:27 PM on February 17, 2016 [9 favorites]

i'm a skinny New Yorker. For dinner i ate a pile of thai takeout from a corner joint and washed it down with a six pack of beer.

New yorkers are skinny because we have to walk 3-5 miles a day. Prescription uppers help too.

Bowls really have nothing to do with it.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:28 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

In other other news, I can't fucking stand it.

Indeed. It's like the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation all over again.
posted by juiceCake at 9:31 PM on February 17, 2016

Yeah so quinoa is the new hotness and the greatest thing ever but are biscotti and I the only people who've tried it a few times and just kinda nope?

I've had violently horrifying allergic reactions to it; the first time I ate it I was vomiting and pooping blood within about 30 minutes. It was a very exciting day for everyone in my office.

tbh i feel personally victimized by quinoa
posted by poffin boffin at 9:41 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

I am amazed that there are over 130 comments about this stupid article and bowls.

Dairy and carbs in my bowl. Captain Crunch and whole milk. Suck it skinny people.
posted by AugustWest at 9:49 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ok, I read the article again and asides from the snark there are parts of this I really, really like. Like, I have some leftover cornbread in my fridge, just sitting there being useless. Tomorrow morning I was going to crumble it into little pieces, break some eggs into it, cut up some peppers and throw those in, cover it in cheese, bake it, and then throw a bunch of hot sauce. I was then going to put it on a plate....but I can throw it in a bowl.

If I throw it in a mason jar instead will that make it better than bowl? Smaller, portable, just as easy to break? It could be like....raw canning? Jarring? (I wish my bowls were bigger).
posted by Neronomius at 9:49 PM on February 17, 2016

Wait, do people not eat meals out of bowls? I eat all my meals out of bowls. I never called it a power bowl though. I called it "the bachelor lifestyle."
posted by Anonymous at 10:01 PM on February 17, 2016

Now, once you're on the everything-in-a-bowl train the next level is embracing the spork. All serving dishes become bowls. All utensils are whittled down to the spork. Life starts looking better and better.
posted by Anonymous at 10:04 PM on February 17, 2016

Healthy, convenient protein-containing meals with little or no meat become trendy. But apparently pretty easy to frame this so it's perceived as a negative thing.
posted by mark k at 10:14 PM on February 17, 2016

I bought some nice bowls recently. They have bunnies on them. My life is now complete. also I totally just ate chicken-andouille gumbo out of my bowl
posted by Standard Orange at 10:16 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

"This is how people eat in Asia. But I'm glad trendy, skinny white girls are being portrayed as having invented it..."

Well, technically, this is how people eat anywhere where there are bowls. That's what bowls are for. Oh, great, the word "bowls" now seems really strange now. Bowls. Bowls. Godammit, it sounds like a sad dog howl-barking.
posted by I-baLL at 10:20 PM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

I'm about to disrupt the gluten space with my groundbreaking toroid bread products.

I bet you'll see take out places within the year offering crusty half inch thick, nine inch in diameter bowl shaped breads full of all these ingredients except the carbs.

There'll probably be a home machine that bakes them automatically a few months after that.
posted by jamjam at 10:21 PM on February 17, 2016

"You know, it genuinely sucks when you can't like something without people feeling compelled to make comments about how shitty you are for liking it."

DO YOU ALSO LIKE SPOONS? I HEAR THEY ARE IN.

"If I throw it in a mason jar instead will that make it better than bowl? Smaller, portable, just as easy to break? It could be like....raw canning? Jarring? (I wish my bowls were bigger)."

bowls are kinda played out but I invented one with a handle its called a mug
posted by klangklangston at 10:25 PM on February 17, 2016 [5 favorites]

Another thought I had about bibimbap.

There exists a radical anisotropy with regards to the canonicality of foods. That is, within a population of foods there exists a sort of positive feedback loop that continually gives some foods more canonicality than others. So the hamburger is at the top of that sort of anisotropy in the US, but within the US, for example, in Philadelphia cheesesteak is at the top of that sort of anisotropy.

One can think of bibimbap in this way. Previously, it was part of an ecosystem of different regional foods which Korea has in abundance because it has many regional cultures (because travelling anywhere was hard and systematically discouraged until modernity). But of all the countries in the world, probably Korea is the one to have grasped the capitalist nettle the hardest in the shortest amount of time, by dint of absolute command. So bibimbap is declared to be the second national food of Korea, after kimchi, even though kimchi is naturally at the top of this anisotropy for Korea overall. So it can be construed as the cheesesteak of Jeonju, I think.

I suppose I have to go find a random matrix theorist to think about it sufficiently hard or something.
posted by hleehowon at 10:30 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

I wouldn't mind if this trend caught on in Honolulu.

We've had Asian rice and noodle bowls since forever (ahi bowls, poke bowls, bi bim bap, garlic chicken udon salad ... which is my go-to comfort food), but it would be nice to see this expanded into new flavors and a more diverse selection of grains.

I know that LOLWHITEPEOPLE is supposed to be a sarcastic insult on metafilter, but sometimes LOL skinny white people do have good ideas.
posted by kanewai at 10:30 PM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Empirical validation of a positive feedback mechanism for the canonicalization of dishes: find a skew distribution among them. There definitely seems to be a fat tail on the regional distribution of dishes: pizza gets delivered into space, but still-alive octopus is found only in a few seafood restaurants in Seoul, Busan and some port cities, and ortolan is eaten only in some parts of the French countryside and in very traditional haute French cuisine.
posted by hleehowon at 10:33 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

But also do not forget that many positive feedback mechanisms create effects which admit of hierarchical ontology, just because you get a lot of entropy out of exploration in dynamical space (I'm imagining something like search in gradient descent spaces). So I'm imagining the categorization of food into bowls and such as emanations of a more fundamental informational structure that underlies the metaphysics of what we call objects. The world is everything that is the case: the world is the totality of facts, not of things.
posted by hleehowon at 10:35 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

hleehowon I suppose I have to go find a random matrix theorist to think about it sufficiently hard or something.

Are you planning on running an SVD on national dishes?
posted by yeolcoatl at 10:39 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

So, back again with another thought.

My cat eats out of bowl and yet still manages to get kitty kibble ALL over the floor. I don't know many skinny white and hot people in person. Can they fix this problem? There has to be a solution, she probably wastes at least twenty bucks of premium (award-winning) kibble a year. Please, skinny-attractive-white-person-who-eats-out-a-bowl, you're my only hope.
posted by Neronomius at 10:56 PM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

I used to eat bibimbap, curry don, poke bowls, bun cha, and other bowl food* pretty regularly, but since lame/entitled/hipster/old people have gentrified them, they just don't taste as good.

*(includes really good Cincinnati chili+spaghetti, and Hawaiian-style Japanese places. Also, ask me about the Glasgow Salad, nomz!)

I've since moved on to obscure-but-tasty flat-shapewayed foods. (2D is much more honest and artisanal and inspiring than 3D!)

Don't worry if you can't get a Tlayuda or frankie or Bánh xèo in your town. Soon, you will.
posted by Anoplura at 11:19 PM on February 17, 2016

Wait, do people not eat meals out of bowls? I eat all my meals out of bowls. I never called it a power bowl though. I called it "the bachelor lifestyle."

I call it "My wife and I took two ceramics classes together."

My cat eats out of bowl and yet still manages to get kitty kibble ALL over the floor. I don't know many skinny white and hot people in person. Can they fix this problem? There has to be a solution, she probably wastes at least twenty bucks of premium (award-winning) kibble a year. Please, skinny-attractive-white-person-who-eats-out-a-bowl, you're my only hope.

"Tray".

Also, plates are better than bowls for the generic fussy cat: having something pushing one's whiskers inhibits eating.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:05 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am struggling to see why power bowls are different from going to the salad bar at pizza hut. If they still have salad bars at pizza hut.
posted by biffa at 12:06 AM on February 18, 2016

Eating out of a bowl is now TRENDY? It's called POWER BOWLS? Oh for fucks sake. Devo was right. Instead of continuing to evolve, mankind has begun to regress. Post-haste, apparently.
posted by bawanaal at 12:17 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

->sebastienbailard
My cat is not a university student. A tray? My cat barely deigns to eat out of a bowl. I tried to have her eat out of a plate but still the same problem. That's why I was using my Captain Planet/Inspector Gadget/Power Rangers Sexy-Thin-White People Beacon.

She needs something sophisticated. And with a cool name. And exotic. And something else. And buzzwords. And More buzzwords. Because my cat deserves these things.
posted by Neronomius at 12:39 AM on February 18, 2016 [6 favorites]

I am going to assume the person who started this bowl restaurant overheard all the cool kids saying things like, "Hey, you wanna go out for a bowl," and was like, eureka! Then, after their bowling alley business failed, they did this.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:56 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

'That sounds like bull to me,' he bawled.
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:08 AM on February 18, 2016

This thread is why I love MeFi but I do need to stand up for The Whole Bowl in Portland because sometimes you eat your weight in Voodoo Donuts and Salt and Straw ice cream and have no clue how to navigate cooking in your Airbnb and then find yourself at a lovely outdoor market where everything looks amazing but is too much for your stomach to handle and then The Whole Bowl appears like a shining beacon in the distance and saves the day
posted by that silly white dress at 1:31 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

My cat is not a university student. A tray? My cat barely deigns to eat out of a bowl. I tried to have her eat out of a plate but still the same problem. That's why I was using my Captain Planet/Inspector Gadget/Power Rangers Sexy-Thin-White People Beacon.

Put the bowl in the middle of a tray. Move spilled food from the latter to the former. Refer to it as "canteen concept" to satisfy your cat's high-falutin pretensions.
posted by Dysk at 1:49 AM on February 18, 2016 [7 favorites]

“Even if I had the option to eat off a plate, I would eat out of a bowl,” adds [Justine] Parker, who works in marketing at Elle magazine, lives in Greenwich Village and says she only ever eats out of bowls.

Justine, you have that option. You can eat off a plate, out of a polystyrene container, a paper bag, a cardboard box. If you go to a lot of places these days they'll give you your food on a random flat thing like a slate or a chopping board that wasn't actually designed for the purpose and is probably difficult to clean and store but it seems edgy. All these options are available. The 21st century is like that.
posted by Grangousier at 2:58 AM on February 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

threeants: "jar salads that everyone got huffy about

flask soups
thimble pies
urn lasagnas
vat sandwiches"

jalads
floups
pimbles
lasurngna
vatwiches

I'd eat all of that.
posted by chavenet at 3:05 AM on February 18, 2016 [8 favorites]

It's not a salad! I mean, it is, but it's a grain salad, which most Americans don't think of as "salad" (and probably a lot of non-Americans, since a grain bowl with protein/veg is just a normal meal in many cultures).

That said I refuse to buy a "bowl" at any restaurant, because they are way too fucking expensive. If I'm paying $12 I'm getting fucking pasta or a roast beef sandwich or something. I make my own power bowls at home and I call them "lazy dinner."
posted by stoneandstar at 3:18 AM on February 18, 2016

I must also defend the bowl for eating out of, because it is cozy and fun. So it always has been; so it always shall be.

My boyfriend prefers the plate for some reason. He also prefers to eat dessert with a spoon, while I prefer a fork (barring pudding/ice cream/custard). Irreconcilable differences.
posted by stoneandstar at 3:20 AM on February 18, 2016

1. How long are his whiskers?

2. A spoon is a tiny bowl with a handle that you use to eat food out of your bigger bowl. It can not be improved upon. Why on earth are you using a "fork"?
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:29 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is an Onion article, right?
posted by HuronBob at 3:43 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

On lonely Thanksgivings and Christmases, i would make a Sadness Bowl -- Stove Top stuffing, mashed potatoes, canned peas, gravy, and shredded deli turkey all mushed together.

It tastes like contemplating suicide!

/better now
posted by ELF Radio at 3:46 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

i think somebody got this idea after clanging about the cat wet food bowls and seeing the cat interest go from nil to you are the best person on the planet
posted by angrycat at 3:47 AM on February 18, 2016

So does this mean there will be more food coming like the Pei Wei chicken teriyaki bowl? b/c I had one for lunch yesterday and it is awesome: chicken and teriyaki sauce on rice with raw spinach, cabbage, carrots, and onion - I mean I'd probably eat 80% better if I could just have every meal with those veg.
posted by graymouser at 3:52 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you go to a lot of places these days they'll give you your food on a random flat thing like a slate or a chopping board that wasn't actually designed for the purpose and is probably difficult to clean and store but it seems edgy.

There's a barbecue place round the corner from my house in Dublin that's taken this to it's logical conclusion.
posted by kersplunk at 3:56 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Someone up thread said that the "bowl" was just like bibimbap for white people; I'd buy it, because consider - you see "wraps" everywhere now, after only a handful of years, and what else is that but a burrito for white people?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:58 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

you see "wraps" everywhere now, after only a handful of years, and what else is that but a burrito for white people?

It's also terrible.
posted by Dysk at 4:03 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

You might get E. coli

Artisanal E. coli.
posted by XtinaS at 4:19 AM on February 18, 2016 [7 favorites]

i'm about to make a grain bowl. it might have strawberrys on top. and possibly milk

INNOVATOR
posted by indubitable at 4:23 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

"you see "wraps" everywhere now, after only a handful of years, and what else is that but a burrito for white people?"

In Peoria we call them Shawarma for the Non-Lebanese. Burritos are latecomers.

No seriously we have a huge Lebanese population and every other restaurant is Lebanese food and all the grocery stores have an in-house hummus recipe.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:54 AM on February 18, 2016

My local cafe has been selling these for years and years now, but I've never had one because they are all quinoa-based and quinoa is the taste of sadness.

This does not stop me from downing tons of pho and bibimbap and curries out of an assortment of bowls in places all over town, fortunately.
posted by TwoStride at 5:07 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

You don't need a full table settting for just one bowl. Some kind of small fold-down tray attached to the chair, perhaps? And, a single elegant utensil, like maybe one big spoon? If that sounds short on flair, a colorful napkin can be provided, perhaps one that is conveniently held in place by a strap, that snaps around the diner's neck?
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:08 AM on February 18, 2016

You might get E. coli

That costs extra.

20 dollars, though, right? Same as in midtown?
posted by Chitownfats at 5:22 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Now, once you're on the everything-in-a-bowl train the next level is embracing the spork. All serving dishes become bowls. All utensils are whittled down to the spork. Life starts looking better and better.

A while back my wife bought me a tactical spork for a present. No, really -- it is a spork with metric wrenches, a screwdriver, and a bottle opener. I keep it in my glove box because it is surprisingly useful, but also kind of embarrassing to own. So once the hipster market for bowls is saturated, I foresee an opportunity to sell "tactical bowls" to the preppers, survivalists, and gun aficionados. Add some black tactical hardware and a wrap of paracord, and PROFIT.

Joking aside, I spend a lot of time driving places on the freeway for work. Stopping for lunch often means a sad choice between three unappetizing fast food places selling bad burgers. Having the option of a "power bowl" with vegetables and whole grain would be killer, and I would happily pay through the nose for it.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:24 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

These are great but can I waffle it?
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:36 AM on February 18, 2016

I feel like this is an attempt to convert everyone into hipsters. We were all eating things in bowls before it was trendy...
posted by Foosnark at 5:41 AM on February 18, 2016

Bowls, as has already been mentioned, usually require a utensil (spoon, spork, etc.) and tend to encourage solitary eating experiences. In today's Web 2.7 Sharing Economy, that seems a little old fashioned. Washing sporks is energy-consumptive, and holding a bowl in one hand and a spork in the other leaves no hand free to uber your lyft back to your air-bnb when you are done eating. That is why I am starting a trendy new chain of trough restaurants. Just walk on up to the trough that looks best to you: the pad-thai trough, the burrito trough, the American Trough (bacon cheeseburgers, fries with ketchup, steak, fried chicken, all mixed in a big trough,) and dig in! Your hands will be free to pass out business cards or do origami, and your servers will hose your face off at the end of the meal, carefully getting all the leftover chunks of bahn-mi and chicken-fingers with honey-mustard out of your beard. Troughs: the Next Big Thing for the Hot and Skinny!
posted by Cookiebastard at 5:48 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

My cat is not a university student.

maybe you just didn't try hard enough as a responsible pet owner.
posted by indubitable at 5:51 AM on February 18, 2016 [9 favorites]

I remember eating a 'powerbowl' at the original Fresh by Juice for Life in Toronto, probably back in 2000? I thought it was a little overwrought and over-marketed back then, it's essentially a bunch of ingredients on top of brown rice with dressing on the side. Quick, nutritious, and delicious meal, but is this really a trend?
posted by sid at 5:54 AM on February 18, 2016

Crraaaaappppp. My new lunch system involves freezing small containers of cooked grains, beans, and vegetables, which I dump in my big pyrex bowl microwave, adding some good oil and something with flavor (usually pickles). It's been great... I can make huge batches so I only have to make grains or beans or vegetables each weekend, stuff doesn't go bad in the freezer, I can have some variety through mixing and matching, it takes about 15 seconds to "pack lunch" in the morning, and it tastes good.

I feel so ashamed now, though.

And clearly I need a spork.
posted by BrashTech at 6:05 AM on February 18, 2016

The restaurant bowl concept that strangely didn't go big.
posted by lathrop at 6:26 AM on February 18, 2016

Okay I just checked out the "chili in a bowl" link, and it has actually given me an awesome idea for a small party I'm having in a couple weeks. (Who knew?)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:32 AM on February 18, 2016

A friend introduced me to buckwheat a couple of years ago, and impromptu buckwheat stir-fry in a bowl has become one of my standard too-late-to-actually-cook options. Hot skinny people from New York probably don't use spicy sausage, red peppers, caramelized onions or loads of melting pecorino in their power bowls, but that's their problem.
posted by Dr Dracator at 6:41 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

When not required by the type of food (soup pretty much has to get eaten out of a bowl rather than a plate) the decision on whether I'm going to eat the food I'm making out of a bowl or off of a plate is made after opening the cupboard door and looking at our stacks of both for a moment. Sometimes I ask Mrs. VTX if she has a preference.

I otherwise do not think about nor place any particular importance on bowls. If I ever talk to someone who wants to gush about the benefits of eating out of a bowl, I'll advise them to pick up a hobby.
posted by VTX at 7:09 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think I did this in college because there was a period when I had a bowl and not a plate.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:31 AM on February 18, 2016

You had a bowl? Pssssh. i just used my saucepan.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:04 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

To this day, I still have problems getting that last bit of rice off of a plate. In polite company, I do this awkward flip up with a fork or get another utensil to help. More often, I just use my hand to help.
posted by ignignokt at 8:13 AM on February 18, 2016

One time I was ravenous and needed to catch a bus at dupont circle and then I saw beefsteak and got a grain bowl with a whole bunch of hot fresh veggies and an unbelievable selection of toppings in the same amount of time as fast food. I'd put it in the top 10 meals of my life for satisfaction and convenience alone.

My goodness, if this is the new trend to hate, I don't even want to know you people.
posted by R a c h e l at 8:45 AM on February 18, 2016 [7 favorites]

> ...and now I'm reading "bowl" as "bowel" everywhere, which is making this thread quite disgusting.

javascript:(function(){db=document.body;db.innerHTML=db.innerHTML.replace(/([Bb])owl/g,'$1owel')}());

...you're welcome
posted by ostranenie at 8:50 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I also just bought 6 each of every size of the same bowls bendy has and they're perfect. The smallest two sizes are perfect pinch or prep bowls too. Now that I have an Instant Pot, pretty much all our meals are stewlike, so the bowls have gotten a lot of use lately.

Maybe 7-8 years ago a place opened up near my office that was I think supposed to be the test store for a chain of Chipotle-type bibimbap restaurants. It sounded great, if more or less like a faster Mongolian barbecue, so I went in and did the thing.

And they handed me a PLASTIC BUCKET of food. Plastic, like the same squishy-firm plastic of a sturdier to-go soda cup, like the kind you took home and reused in college. A BUCKET. OF FOOD. With a HANDLE. I know it's not that different from a bowl, but psychologically it's a fuckin' bucket. I could have finished my lunch and started making sandcastles. The opening was just slightly smaller than your face.

With it came a spork and the really splintery wood-tasting kind of takeout chopsticks.

I never went there again, and I don't think they lasted more than about 6 months.

I do like a nice Big Salad, though. I'm not totally against the bowl trend.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:03 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

This seems like the thread to let people know about my Korean-Scottish bowl restaurant idea, Bibimbap Scotty.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:32 AM on February 18, 2016 [12 favorites]

“The bowl is very Instagram-friendly, you can see everything [....]”

Ahhh, yes. That's what I've always hated about plates, the way they visually obscure everything.
posted by webmutant at 9:34 AM on February 18, 2016 [13 favorites]

To be fair, it's the chefs getting fancy with plating, putting stuff on top of other stuff. I guess bowls discourage this, in that that is what happens by default in them, so chefs get fancy with the, er, bowling by making sure stuff is NOT on top of other stuff.

I'm often disappointed that my food isn't photogenic enough. Just the other day I was shaking my gear sadly as I are a delicious steak that simply wasn't the right shape for instagram or flickr.
posted by Dysk at 9:52 AM on February 18, 2016

I am amazed that there are over 130 comments about this stupid article and bowls.

Welcome to Metafilter, the land of stupid articles and amazement.
posted by blucevalo at 10:07 AM on February 18, 2016 [11 favorites]

Pls back the kickstarter for my new takeout bistro, Verticality, where your paleo-vegan PowerSalad is artfully arranged inside a very narrow cylinder and you have to eat it with a crochet hook
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:16 AM on February 18, 2016 [8 favorites]

"actual apples are really delicious and about 2 dollars" Are these like, gold plated apples?
posted by Oyéah at 10:32 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

XtinaS: "Artisanal E. coli."

the "E." is for Etsy.
posted by chavenet at 10:39 AM on February 18, 2016

Just the other day I was shaking my gear sadly

I call this Saturday Night.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:42 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

webmutant: "Ahhh, yes. That's what I've always hated about plates, the way they visually obscure everything."

The plate goes under the food. Under...the...food!
posted by chavenet at 10:44 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is an Onion article, right?

The Onion isn’t long for this world at this rate.

NY Post writer sees food touching, gets mad.

Seriously, WTF? Do people need to have every tiny option in life spelled out and commodified for them before it’s OK to do?
posted by bongo_x at 10:45 AM on February 18, 2016

I am behind this trend 100%
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 10:54 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yes I rather expect you WOULD be.
posted by angeline at 10:57 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Next they'll put a bowl upside-down on top of the bowl and all the hot skinny people will be eating balls.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:16 AM on February 18, 2016

they'll put a bowl upside-down on top of the bowl

mofongo
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:03 PM on February 18, 2016

new takeout bistro, Verticality

Tall food? Been there, done that, too.
posted by Miko at 12:23 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not one mention of the Taco Bell Power Cantina Bowl? Mefi, you make me sad.
posted by prozak at 12:29 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Welcome to Metafilter, the land of stupid articles and amazement.

This might be my favorite MetaFilter comment ever.
posted by webmutant at 12:31 PM on February 18, 2016

As an Asian person whose meals mostly come in bowls and other deep containers, I regret I didn't see this thread sooner and made yueliang's comment.

And to echo some others, bowls are just the easiest way to eat all these ingredients, and my Asian friends and I have often noticed that we should be fatter but because we have a mostly southeast asian diet we're not. Really, Americans could do with some better diets that aren't all cheese and butter.
posted by numaner at 2:32 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

also, are we not doing warnings to nypost links like we do with dailymail anymore?

* resumes scrubbing browser history *
posted by numaner at 2:34 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not gonna lie though, even with my snarky white people comment, there is a definite need for affordable, nutritious restaurants with whole foods. in a bowl. That doesn't cost the same amount as whole foods.
posted by yueliang at 4:01 PM on February 18, 2016

And a wishful addendum to yueliang's thought: it would be nice if the defaults on those whole foods bowls were vegetarian with the option to add meat. Seems like current similar offerings are always the other way around and I find it annoying.

(probably the restaurants in the article do in fact do this but I would like to see it more widespread, salads don't need to always have meat as the default protein for pete's sake...)
posted by angeline at 4:54 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Beth at Budget Bytes has been doing things that she calls bowls since early 2010. I don't think this is a new trend.

Anyway, I really like her Banh Mi Bowls, even if I recognize that anything that is not a sandwich cannot, by definition, be a banh mi.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:26 PM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Here in small town Maryland, some of us eat impeccably prepared food right out of the pot on the stove, whilst crying lonesome tears and watching episodes of That Girl on a tablet perched on the back of the stove.

Also, because eating out of the pot on the stove is the meal equivalent of using a standing desk, it is better for you.
posted by sonascope at 5:50 PM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

"One can think of bibimbap in this way. Previously, it was part of an ecosystem of different regional foods which Korea has in abundance because it has many regional cultures (because travelling anywhere was hard and systematically discouraged until modernity). But of all the countries in the world, probably Korea is the one to have grasped the capitalist nettle the hardest in the shortest amount of time, by dint of absolute command. So bibimbap is declared to be the second national food of Korea, after kimchi, even though kimchi is naturally at the top of this anisotropy for Korea overall. So it can be construed as the cheesesteak of Jeonju, I think."

That's pretty interesting. I didn't realize that bibimbap was from Jeonju — I only knew that Jeonju was known for an elaborate bibimbap (in part because the best bibimbap shop I know in LA is called Jeonju). I would have guessed that since both Japan and China have a bunch of different mixed rice dishes, and it has the general flexibility of a burrito or stir fry (you can put a lot of different things in it and still call it a bibimbap), that it would have been one of those widespread dishes across the Korean peninsula. If anything, I would have guessed that dolsot bibimbap would have been the regional variation, but I guess not.

My brother's father-in-law is from Jeonju, so I should ask him about that. I do know that my brother's mother-in-law makes some of the best, most elaborate bibimbap I've ever seen, but she's from Ansan. (It is kinda funny that she didn't trust my brother or any of our relatives to mix the bibimbap properly — after watching us for a moment, she just took the chopsticks, rolled her eyes, and whipped it all perfectly in like three motions.)
posted by klangklangston at 6:06 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

The first time I had bibimbap I was like "oh hey this is exactly like how I eat everything! and I don't have to do it all myself!"

One of my favorite meals is broken rice with shredded pork, barbecued Vietnamese pork sausage, a fried egg, topped with pickled veggies and doused in fish sauce.
posted by numaner at 8:00 PM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Anyway, I really like her Banh Mi Bowls, even if I recognize that anything that is not a sandwich cannot, by definition, be a banh mi.

Ok, so banh mi literally means bread, so in my head she's calling it a bread bowl, which is hilarious to me. Anyways, what makes it real Banh Mi and not some knockoff, and this is serious business, is the pate. Real, honest to god, chicken liver pate. That's what gives it that certain taste. You can change most anything else inside a Banh Mi, but without that it's not really Banh Mi. So that bowl she's making is pretty much my typical meal of rice, bbq pork, and veggies, pickled or not. The only exception to the pate rule is the grilled chicken banh mi, usually for people who don't eat red meat, since many pate also contain pork livers. I am willing to concede that to maintain some friendships.

sonascope, you're not too far from Rockville, MD! Come up there and visit Pho Nom Nom and try their Banh Mi. I promise it will be worth the trip.

Vietnamese rice dishes are really really easy, and the ingredients can be found in many grocery stores, except maybe fish sauce and pickled veggies, but if the protein has enough flavor you won't need those, heck one of my usual dishes involves pork belly slices (not exactly bacon) cut into smaller bits, sauteed with sugar and soy sauce, and served with cut up cucumber (like in that Banh Mi Bowl actually).
posted by numaner at 8:13 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Three day Pinterest mug meal cleanse
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:52 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

"Three day Pinterest mug meal cleanse"

In Which the Writer Catalogs Microwave Mistakes Enmugged in the Search of Sustenance and Listicles
or
Ate Clickbait; Didn't Sate.
posted by klangklangston at 9:26 PM on February 18, 2016

Quinoa, egg, cheese, and spinach or broccoli in a bowl, microwave it. Been doing it for years. I thought I was lazy, turns out I’m way ahead of the curve. Like always. Sometimes I’m so ahead I’ve actually circled back around I’m behind it. It’s just that you in the mainstream don’t know enough to tell the difference.
posted by bongo_x at 9:46 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Behold the internet backlash: We Want Plates.

Sadly for these restaurants, I have gotten out in front of this trend and only consume my food from artisanal hand-carved boxwood clogs from Holland. I will be opening up a bespoke retail establishment in the Mission District of San Francisco and expect to be at full manufacturing capacity within the first two weeks.

I must go, my quinoa, acai, and micro-kale clog is getting cold.
posted by ananci at 10:13 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Behold the internet backlash: We Want Plates."

Slate pitch: Power bowls are backlash against "small plates" trend dominating this bistro I'm stuck in.
posted by klangklangston at 10:36 PM on February 18, 2016

Vietnamese rice dishes are really really easy, and the ingredients can be found in many grocery stores, except maybe fish sauce and pickled veggies,

...and most Vietnamese pickles are the fast pickle variety, where you only need to leave things sitting for an afternoon before they're good to use, not weeks or months like with a lot of old-school European pickles.
posted by Dysk at 2:39 AM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think the "We Want Plates" site is more a backlash against dining serveware then it is against a meal concept. This "bowl" trend is more about capitalizing on meat-and-veg-over-grains or stews as a meal idea - "We Want Plates" is a response to when restaurants serve you your steak on a cutting board or your burger on a slate shard or your pickle inside a vase or whatever.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:48 AM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

This can't be new. This is all I ever see on Tumblr and Pinterest. It's been this way for a couple of years at least.
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 5:16 AM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

sonascope, you're not too far from Rockville, MD! Come up there and visit Pho Nom Nom and try their Banh Mi. I promise it will be worth the trip.

Pho Nom Nom is good, and is a nice close walk to the grave of F. Scott Fitzgerald for those moments in which you need to stuff your face with banh mi whilst slouching on a grave, tentatively sipping a lukewarm Parisette, and bemoaning the unreachable green light at the end of Daisy's dock. Boats against the current.

Saigonese, on Grandview in Wheaton, is also good for cheap banh mi, though their other Viet food is more meh.
posted by sonascope at 6:17 AM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

sonascope, you're not too far from Rockville, MD! Come up there and visit Pho Nom Nom and try their Banh Mi. I promise it will be worth the trip.

wait
what

That is there?

Highlty-recommended banh mi
Rockville

I live... in Rockville...

*dashes out the fucking door*
posted by duffell at 8:18 AM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

a nice close walk to the grave of F. Scott Fitzgerald

I had no idea! That grave is part of St. Mary's, where I used to go every Sunday when I was a more devout Catholic.

Saigonese, on Grandview in Wheaton, is also good for cheap banh mi,

I agree, but I feel like they skimp on the pate for the price.

*dashes out the fucking door*

Let us know how you like it!
posted by numaner at 1:31 PM on February 19, 2016

I had no idea! That grave is part of St. Mary's, where I used to go every Sunday when I was a more devout Catholic.

Oh, yeah! The cemetery is pretty small, so if you wander out that way, you shouldn't have much trouble finding the grave. It's actually pretty easy to identify with all the candles and statuettes and so forth that are usually strewn around.
posted by duffell at 4:56 PM on February 19, 2016

> “Bowl meals are definitely a trend with traction,” says Aimee Harvey, managing editor of global content at food-industry consulting firm Technomic. “Bowls are up 29.7 percent in the entree category over a five-year period.”

lol it's a real-life version of this character on the Simpsons. Have they tried Rastafying any of the bowls by 10% or so?
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:17 AM on February 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Last Whole Earth Catalog featured a book (mentioned, but not named in a 1980 review) "advocating that everything be eaten from one bowl." (I have it in my head as The One Bowl Revolution.)

And one of the Kroebers (A L or Theodora) quotes 'Ishi', last of the Yahi, in referring to the extinction (outright deliberate genocide, that is) of his people, as saying "our bowl is broken", and though I wouldn't swear to it, I seem to recall the gloss being that each member of the tribe had their own bowl which was the only thing they could eat from, and that banishment was effected by ritually breaking an individual's bowl.
posted by jamjam at 12:07 PM on February 20, 2016

Neronomius: "I walked in on one of them eating cereal out of my four cup measuring cup."

Wait. Am I the only one who does this?

It has a handle! You know how much you're eating! It's better than a bowl in at least two separate ways!
posted by schmod at 3:29 PM on February 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

The handle is balanced for pouring stuff out of it, not holding it up. It's a lot easier to hold a bowl in the palm of your hand.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:44 PM on February 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

🍜
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:52 PM on February 24, 2016

I've pretty much eaten nothing but banh mi bowls for the past week because of this thread
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:07 PM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sys Rq: "The handle is balanced for pouring stuff out of it, not holding it up. It's a lot easier to hold a bowl in the palm of your hand."

I was pretty sure that this was incorrect, but just to be safe, I ate a bowl of cereal out of a measuring cup. For science.

The handle on my (Anchor 2-Cup) measuring cup works quite well for cereal-eating purposes. Works well for pouring too. It's a handle. You can hold the cup with it. And eat cereal while you hold it. Or I guess you could also use it to pour out your delicious cereal (you monster).
posted by schmod at 9:22 PM on February 24, 2016