Slate or plate?

I have a dishwasher - its me!

We don't all have dishwashers

Aren't we all a bit too clean these days though, hence the arrival of superbugs. I quite like the "slate" look.

I think this was aired on an earlier thread but yes, it is really off putting - at least I find it so. A friend stayed in a Cotswold town for a week and her food was served on trays most evenings - this in several different restaurants too - and one night the tray was metal, stone cold, and consequently so was her dinner. We had a meal in a restaurant in Portugal and our food was on wooden platters which made me think about the scratches and grooves, but one of our party had his chicken served in a piece of terracotta guttering! I do agree - plain white plates make a meal look appetising and colourful. Assuming it's not rice pudding or just mashed potato!

Hate things being served up on slate or wood, or anything else that can't be washed properly. So unhygenic, Ghastly!! And as for jars etc for my drinks!!! Enough said!!!

I think TV food shows are making food presentation more and more pretentious, its getting to be quite silly at times. I dislike slates etc and especially jars for drinks. Nothing shows food to a better advantage than a plain white plate IMHO.

*meal, not mel.

Mollie, we were out for a mel with some friends yesterday, one of whom is in the mid-stages of dementia. When I booked, I asked the restaurant if the music volume could be turned down and they were most obliging.

So thank you to Carluccio's, who also serve their food on plates - that was very helpful!

Of her face not the meal?

We took my 85 year old mother out for lunch.Her fish and chips were served in a mini wooden crate on a piece of laminated newspaper.Wish I had taken a picture to show you all?

Anyone been watching Creme de la Creme? The latest idea is live plating - it is a show, they make an artistic display straight on to the table (no plates involved at all).

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0539qt3

My OH has sent food back which came on a plank of wood. No problem, they just re-plated it.

We went to a new restaurant last night and I was horrified to be served steak etc on a plank of wood. Everything kept falling off!

We ended up telling our waitress all the things we'd noticed as it was a soft opening, actual opening tomorrow night. I thought we were being really constructive and helpful and she took it all in then told us she was the owner and her husband was the chef! I was very embarrassed obviously. But at least she's had some feedback!

I remember the other thread on this, it was quite a funny one. I said ' they will be serving fish and chips in a flat cap next' and another poster said 'they already are doing!'

Just googled about food being served on slates etc and it's obviously been going on for years, and yet I was unaware of it. Must get out more! Sounds horrific though. Yuck!

Re the other hygiene concerns, plastic chopping boards give me the creeps. I use wooden ones all the time – a small one for chopping and a larger one mainly as a stand for hot dishes that I take out of the oven. But every few days I put the smaller board in the dishwasher, together with any wooden spoons I've used and sometimes even my wooden salad bowl. Probably not at all necessary hygiene-wise, but works fine.

Deeda, apparently it is only beech that is "self-disinfecting", any other wood is, I suppose, "self-infecting"!

Yes - not keen. You should have seen my SIL's face when he was presented with a huge grey slate with a teeny tiny dessert in the middle! He's a big lad and was a bit pissed off!

Those cloths can be really manky! They wipe the pipe with a dodgy looking cloth then shove the pipe into a jug of milk that ends up in your coffee! Yuk!

Slates and boards are a pet hate of mine but I've never been brave enough to ask for a plate. I think I will next time... loud music is another thing, hard to have a quiet conversation with your companion when some rock music is playing loudly in the background.

Omg this has been my pet hate fir years .I have a background as a chef and did years teaining in catering hygeine.How can a slate or horrbley stained board be germ free.I have ME/CFS, and 5 other seris immune diseases, so i cant run the risk of getting anything else ie food poisning on top of the suffering im going through every day This majes my blood boil.

Plates every time for me - I don't like slate or slabs of wood as I generally make a mess with these lol

My pet hate are the coffee shops, who wipe the milk pipes that do the frothing, with the same cloth over and over again, similar to what sarahhellenwhitney wrote.

Plate every time for me and don't get me started about the wooden boards they use as well.

If you want to see this trend or anything else that you don't like disappear then boycott the place and write to them telling them why. Only if enough people do this will businesses listen!

And they serve stuff with gravy on a slate!
I was,told years ago that wood chopping boards are more hygienic than plastic. Glass ones may be hygienic but what on earth do they do to your knives?

me too - I hate wooden platters, plastic, slate, anything that isn't china/earthenware [glazed too please!] - grump, grump.
Have you seen the latest fashion of "dressing" plates for dessert on the table with pudding stuff thrown around and dropped and piped and much handled and...?

Not the same but on the subject of hygiene, 'coffee' shop staff wiping tables with the same cloth.?
Apparently they have never heard of 'disposables.'