Speaking of salad paraphernalia, does anyone actually USE the inefficient old two-utensil method? After spending fifteen years collecting all sorts of artistic teak & stainless steel vintage specimens, I find I actually only use my lowly XOX/ Goodgrips hot-dog tongs for serving.
The attraction of lovely-to-look-at, not-so-lovely to use lessens as I age. I find myself preferring function over aesthetics more and more.
So, who's more orthodox a Modenist-- the person who serves with Goodgrips hot dog tongs, or the person who serves with a difficult to use, MOMA-approved salad set?
Restaurant Supply wins again!
I have a bunch of these tongs. Both the long and the short versions....that one above is a shortie. These things are SO useful. For the grill, for sauteeing, for getting pickles out of jars, you name it. Heck, I even use the long ones to get stuf down from the high shelf!
But, I have always prefered two separate tools for tossing salad. I don't find them inefficient at all. The tongs have a tendency to crush delicate greenery. Right now I'm using a pair of long bamboo finger type of thing and they're only OK at the task. I've been searching for the right thing to replace them with.
I've been liking these from Blomus and below is a link to another pair I quite like.
http://www.allmodern.com/ZACK-20811-zac1494.html
Coming back to this with another thought...
Ya know, w-h-c, I think you have really hit upon an interesting discussion point with your thoughts on functionalism versus the 'MOMA approved' design statement.
I will ALWAYS choose my things; kitchen tools, cars, bras, furniture or a screwdriver, based on how well it performs for me. As much as I really, really care about aesthetics and the precepts of modernism, I can't enjoy using things that work poorly and only look good!
It seems we agree on that point, but interestingly you ask which is actually more essential to the modernist manifesto. I vote function over form. I'd rather purchase a plain serviceable item over a 'designed' item any day if the plain item is the better suited functional choice. And I think that the original modernist crowd (Nelson, Saarinen, Eames, et.al.) believed that too!
What say you?
Not w-h-c, but since you...
Not w-h-c, but since you asked, I root for a perfect world where the planets of form and function align. We could probably have a lengthy discussion here at DA solely on tongs, the best designed tongs, etc.
This is a guess only, but I wonder if the preference for tongs over a two piece salad-grabbing-system has quite a bit to do with how uncoordinated most of us are with our off-hand.
Functionalism, though, is a slippery slope sometimes, and people can be very adaptive/creative given certain criteria. I'm reminded of that old routine (can't think of the comedian) that goes something like 'you'll know you're a bachelor when you find yourself eating cereal out of a Bundt pan ... with measuring spoons,' or something like that.
Hmm.
I have a few sets of tongs. The simple ones from a restaurant supply,
(NYC is full of them), ARE the best design. They function and do their task
without notice. A recent set with a lock mechanism, and some silicone,
woohoo, red, (eyes roll)
has an unnecessarily strong spring that opens too wide and so strong that not
only can a normal hand not hold it properly, but it flings whatever it is
intended to serve all over the place. It has been discussed so often what
a failure it is and that it takes two hands to do such a simple thing.
A really nice tong?
Pearl River in ChinaTown has a bamboo set. Two strips an inch wide,
not shaped like a whale, fork and spoon, or emotcon tips...just attached
very simply to a nicely angled triangle and deliver a serving almost
silent.
Offhand coordination...huh!
Well, honestly I never thought of that, but I'd imagine that it's something that product designers have to think about! I'm a lefty, and a rather ambidexterous lefty at that, so these kinds of things don't often occur to me.
I agree functionalism is very subjective,but humans have one basic design and ther are definitely truisms in designing products to met our needs.
Ha ha
That's outrageous. And funny. Shades of Kramer, making a salad while showering. . .
You've seen my salad servers before, but . . . this is the place for them, I guess.
The new ones, and the original pair, after 40 years of use in my oldest friend's kitchen. WoofWoof's wonderful "hands" are the obvious comparison . . .
Hmm. . .
no. But the "hands" are clearly there !
I had failed to provide any advice (being too inexperienced to have any) on the care of the first pair -- made in the college shop, of maple, unfinished) and I expect that over the years the spoons had been soaked clean many times, resulting in eventual failure of the thinnest short-grain sections of the "scoops."
The newer pair -- I made three sets at once -- are of cherry, and are kept coated with mineral spirits -- and dried promptly after washing.
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com