Thursday, July 16, 2009

Rice bowl with top



Today I left the office early for my annual OBGYN appointment. The doctor's office is on California Street in the Inner Richmond district. After my visit, I headed a few blocks west for a late lunch at one of my favorite Asian restaurants, Mandalay. I hadn't been there in awhile and needed to get my Lap Pat Dok (tea leaf salad) fix.

Luckily, they were still serving lunch and I ordered the special combination Tea Leaf Salad and Basil Chicken. Delicious. After I got my complimentary soup, they brought out my combination with a bowl of rice, just like the one shown in the picture. What I liked was that the bowl had its own lid, something I'd only seen with larger rice bowls.

I'm not sure why, but I found the small bowl with lid concept to be simple yet ingenious. The lid keeps the rice moist and warm. It made me immediately think of my family dinners in New York's Chinatown, as Dad always takes an empty rice bowl and puts it on top of the remaining rice in another bowl.

It typifies what I admire so much in Asian design: practicality, compactness and elegance.

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