Finger bowls: graciously archaic or a nice touch?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Thinking of how people who dined graciously handled the formal place settings put before them, I was thinking about a very old tradition of using the finger bowl, which is well before most people's times here. How do guests wipe their sticky fingers after eating items such as artichokes, shellfish, corn on the cob, asparagus, any other handheld food?

the website

Finger bowls are presented after the main course and before dessert. If the bowl is placed on a plate directly in front of you, lift the bowl with both hands and place it to the left of your place setting. If there is a doily under it, move it as well. Often the finger bowl will be placed to the left. Dip the fingers of one hand into the bowl, dry on your napkin which remains on you lap. Follow with the other hand. There may be a flower or a lemon slice in the bowl. Leave it be. (Some restaurants use hot towels in a similar manner as finger bowl.

article here from Epicurious.com(scroll down)

Finger bowls are genuinely helpful after eating artichokes, shellfish, corn on the cob, asparagus or any other handheld food. And they're easier to use than you might think. Just dip the fingers of one hand and then the other into the bowl, and wipe them with a napkin. Never bring the water to your mouth.

After you've used a finger bowl presented on a dessert plate, pick up the dessert silver (if it is on the plate) and put it to either side of the plate, then lift the finger bowl and its doily and place it to the left of the plate. This requires two hands.

and, it goes without saying (but I must!), do not drink the contents of the finger bowl ...

[*Deborah*]

Impossible to eat crab legs with anything resembling efficacy if you don't have a fingerbowl or hot towel.

Are they that unusual, or do I just eat messy food in nice places fairly often?

[Milagai]

Impossible to eat crab legs with anything resembling efficacy if you don't have a fingerbowl or hot towel.

Are they that unusual, or do I just eat messy food in nice places fairly often?

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I don't know about in the US, but in India,

fancy restaurants almost always give you a finger bowl

(warm water, a slice of lemon to get the grease off your

fingers, a napkin to wipe).

Remember we mostly eat with our fingers (though prob

less so in fancy restaurants) so it's really useful...

Milagai

[gourmande]

Oh my gosh... I thought I was the only one who still used them! And yes, I certainly feel old fashioned doing so, but it sure serves its purpose well!

I always add lemon slices or wedges to the bowls and usually provide an extra napkin.

Graciously archaic and nice touch are not necessarily mutually exclusive

edited for typos

Edited September 22, 2005 by gourmande (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Daniel Rogov, the Ha'aretz food critic, even discussed the finger bowl at some length here on the Strat's Place website

Your guests will think you especially considerate if you supply them with finger bowls.   To prepare a finger bowl, partially fill a small bowl with lukewarm water and, if you wish, float a rose leaf or very thin lemon slice in the water. Place the finger bowl in the center of a larger plate and near the edge of the plate place a neatly folded napkin.  To use a finger bowl, take the napkin off the plate and place it to the left of the saucer. Dip the fingers in the water gently and swish them around. Wipe your fingers with the napkin you have been using throughout the meal, fold it casually and place it on the rim of the bowl. Place the clean napkin on your lap and continue using it through the rest of the meal. I agree with Craig Claiborne that the use of perfumed napkins is ostentatious and thus vulgar.

and here as well ... with an anecdote about Queen Victoria ... check it out!

One of Queen Victoria's dinner quests, unfamiliar with formal etiquette, drank the water in his finger bowl. The Queen, to make sure her guest was not dishonored, followed suit and drank from her own bowl as well.

[mizducky]

I think fingerbowls are pretty useful, but what I *really* dig are the oshibori hand towels presented at Japanese meals. There's something incredibly soothing about wiping one's hands with a nice steamy-hot towel--really adds to the feeling of being pampered.

[ellencho]

The first time I ever heard of fingerbowls was in the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. She drank the water and ate the flower petals of some older woman benefactor of hers without knowing what it was. Now I know what it is, and nobody has ever set one before me!

Edited September 22, 2005 by ellencho (log)

[-sheila mooney]

I think fingerbowls are pretty useful, but what I *really* dig are the oshibori hand towels presented at Japanese meals. There's something incredibly soothing about wiping one's hands with a nice steamy-hot towel--really adds to the feeling of being pampered.

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At a place in Paris that serves big seafood platters (Wepler's on Place Clichy) we used to get fingerbowls. Now -- they offer those dreadful lemon-pledge-smelling towellettes in foil packs. Which is worse? Fingers that smell of crab and shrimp, or fingers that ruin the rest of your meal with the scent of bogus lemon oil? One can always simply use the washroom basin -- probably the best course of action...

[M.X.Hassett]

I love fingerbowls, I always think of the scene in Scarface where Pacino eats the lemon from the fingerbowl.

[gourmande]

... I always think of the scene in Scarface where Pacino eats the lemon from the fingerbowl...

The things I miss not being a Hollywood film addict!

Edited September 23, 2005 by gourmande (log)

[Daniel Rogov]

As noted in several quotes from my writings above (for which thanks!) I am much in favor of the finger bowl which can be served after any especially "sticky" dish and not only after the main course (think of starting off with spiced chicken wings and then going on to a shrimp mousse without the use of a finger cleaning devise in-between!!!

I much favor these to the hot-towels used in Oriental restaurants and on airlines for although they may start of steaming hot by the time they work their way to your ips and fingers they seem to have transmorgified to something cold and slimys. As to scented hot towels - definitely opposed as you dre not touch those to your lips if you plan to either eat something else afterwards or perhaps to kiss them. Cold alcoholic scent is not conducive to either good food or good seductions.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Appears that the finger bowl is still a topic of interest, at least to the New York Times:article here

The problem, you see, the reason for the yelling, was the bowl in front of me. An embossed sterling silver bowl sitting on a plate, flanked with a knife and spoon. I — deluded soul — had assumed it was about to be filled with dessert. After all, a waiter hovered behind me with a silver tray and after making a few guttural noises, after poking the bowl once or twice, which he seemed to hope would nudge my memory, give me an "aha!" moment to do ... what, exactly? Well, that's when the scolding began. Because I, veteran of hundreds of New York dinner parties (it only feels like thousands) did not recognize a finger bowl.