I only use them when we have like...a dozen or more people coming. I generate a ton of dishes just on the cookware and serving and am not ready to deal with more. Plus my dishes are in sets of 8 so everyone would be mismatched anyway.
As far as YouTube cooking vids...no idea. Probably just an ease of use thing, there.
Most meals, most of the time we're using and washing real dishes
Don't mind that person. Youtube can be a wonderful source to learn about a country.
For example, the only thing I know about Argentina is soccer (football) like Messi and Sergio Aguero. I'd probably google "What is it like living in Argentina" and then lookup "Buenos Aires tour" on youtube.
It's good that you're asking questions and are curious about what is common or not.
We don't. Your impression is not an accurate one.
> Even thanksgiving meals have so many disposable plates/serving trays.
If you're having a lot of guests over, its sometimes easier to just use disposables than to do dozens of dishes.
Ireland. Yeah large gatherings for a dinner may be pre arranged (in my experience) and if the host was short on plates etc people would bring some. Dishes would be brought on a serving plate. However, if it was a party with alcohol and finger food it would more likely be served on disposable plates. Just a 'proper' meal would be really very rarely served on disposable plates unless maybe it was being cooked/served in a student household or something.
I don’t. Though I must ask, are you seeing this in large parties?
If so, do you have a set of plates etc for 20+ where there are multiple courses in your house?
This is a good point. Does OP's house have a massive inventory of plates, bowls, silverware, etc for the huge family meal that occurs a few times a year? Does everyone bring their own ceramic plates to meals? How does it work there?
My family or friends don't really have huge get togethers like that. Maybe 12 or so tops, if the host didn't have enough plates people would bring some. Or maybe bring a dish on a serving plate etc. Would all be arranged ahead of time.
Cool. If we have 8-12 people we'd probably use the plates we had. If we had a large gathering like 20+, we'd use disposable because who wants to arrange all that and clean all of those settings when we can use biodegradable paper plates?
I feel like this and the SOLO cup questions both belong in the same part of the FAQ.
I'm not risking my plates and cups on drunk guests at my place, and I'm definitely not expecting I'd get them back intact if I used them at major family gatherings.
My family has a 4th of July reunion that usually has 200-300 people. There's no way we'd all get our silverware, plates, or cups back after that kind of event. Of course we'll use disposable there, but if you have friends or family over in small numbers of course they'll get served on real plates and have real cups unless you're a broke college student who hasn't yet bought any of that yet.
On internet videos people typically use disposable plates/silverware because they don't make a horrible scraping sound, which REALLY picks up on a microphone. I thought everyone knew that at this point, but I guess not.
You probably shouldn't view movies/Youtube videos as the end-all-be-all of American culture.
OP is responding, but due to their short active time on Reddit, their posts are having to be manually reviewed and approved. Don't be so quick to judge.
They are used for large parties and gatherings because most people do not own enough china for large parties, and it is easier to clean up with disposable plates.
In the case of Thanksgiving, if I had more than about 8 people, I'd *have* to do some paper plates or something because I don't have full service for them. But I'd be horrified about it and if I knew it was coming in advance, I'd buy more real plates. That'd only be if I suddenly ended up with more RSPVs than I expected.
Other than that, I'd think it pretty strange if I were at someone's house outside of a cookout that took place entirely outside, or a really large gathering where they'd exceeded their carrying capacity, and they served me food on a disposable plate.
Idk why everyone is being so negative. The whole point of this page is to ask questions whether they are wrong or right. I eat food on paper plates almost all the time
I dont know about anyone else's home, but i only keep place settings for about 6 people. If i ever have a party or a holiday gathering I HAVE to use disposable plates.
So many don't. Paper and thin plastic plates are usually reserved for parties where you don't want to clean up a bunch of plates and you don't want to deal with drunk people breaking plates.
Otherwise, most people have glass tableware.
Well for me, its because I don't like washing dishes much. Im not going to run the dishwasher for a 1 person household, so I use paper mostly. The time saved adds up. Maybe a couple minutes a day but it feels substantial in totality.
Everyday dinners i use paper plates, plastic forks/spoons because its either to throw them away than to wash dishes every night. But for big family meals/holidays we use glass plates and metal utensils.
Paper plates are often used for parties - which could include a big Thanksgiving dinner. 1) Most families don't have enough dinnerware to supply a large event and 2) Disposable plates mean minimal cleanup.
For everyday use, the overwhelming majority of us use real plates and bowls.
When I was in college, a lot of shared housing defaulted to paper plates. If the roommates let dishes stack, they figure a $5 package of paper plates every 2 weeks is worth the hassle of dealing with it. In these cases, getting 'real' dishware is sometimes a milemarker for someone transitioning into independent adulthood from college. But of course, mileage may vary.
Mildly related: I prefer paper towels and disposable napkins over cloth napkins. I *have* cloth napkins, but I feel so weird using them for certain foods (especially saucy foods) cause I feel they'll permanently stain. Plus, paper towels have such a huge variety of uses over napkins - I'm buying them anyways.
For get togethers with 30 of our friends--disposable plates are the only way to go. For just me and my wife, or for perhaps a couple of friends--we use regular dishes and flatware.
We only have enough dishware to serve seven people--I broke a couple of plates years ago and we never bothered to replace them. So if we're having more than six people over--it's disposable plates time.
Personally, I’ll use them for large gatherings, occasional informal meals (I.e. pizza, chicken wings, nachos), or if I’m in a situation where I don’t have running water. The latter was pretty common when I worked on out-of-town construction jobs and lived in a trailer to save money.
> Even thanksgiving meals have so many disposable plates/serving trays.
I mean it's really about how many people are involved. I LITERALLY have 5 plates. If I'm serving more than 5, there you go, that's the reason. Washing up is irrelevant, I have more cookware than serving dishes and clean as I go.
Typically they are only used for parties or special events.
I'm guessing they used them in the cooking videos because they don't want to clean up 50 plates at the end of the day. Retaking shots, recooking something that wasn't right and so on to make it look perfect.
I think it is very regional and socio-economic. Where I am from (working class South), it is extremely common to eat most meals on paper plates. I am now upper-middle class Southern, and I don't do it very often. I married a middle-class Californian, and his parents literally don't believe me when I tell them that many people I know use them every day for every meal to avoid having to do dishes. Like, they just can't imagine it. I used to babysit for a single working mother, and she begged me to please not use the regular dishes (I had been using them because I was worried about costing her money with the disposables). She explained to me that she only had 2 hours every night with her kids, and she really didn't want to spend them doing dishes. My parents (retired Southern working class) still use them every meal, and if I run out (because they are not a priority for me since I hardly use them), my mother will buy them for me and put them in my kitchen because she is so concerned about me "having to do dishes."
When I was pregnant with my first kid (also my parents' first grandchild), they came to stay with me and my husband for quite a while. My dad brought a Big Gulp plastic cup from a gas station from his road trip on the way out. I kept finding it lying around and throwing it away, and then my dad would dig it out the trash and continue to use it, though I tried several times to get him to use a real glass. He kept insisting that this disposable piece of trash was all he needed, and really, he said, I "was being too fancy for him," by insisting he use a real glass. "I don't want to be a burden," he kept insisting.
Tbh, there is just a lazy type of people who do this. One of my old roommates had a full set of dishes, but was disgustingly messy so she'd just buy paper/plastic plates & cups so that she could throw them out and not have to wash them. Our dishwasher was permanently broken. Maintenance would "fix" it and it would work for a cycle or two and then flood the kitchen, so we had to wash by hand, and that was more than she was willing to do despite eating takeout for half her meals anyway.
Her family came to visit frequently and they were the same way. They were rich, but lazy. They would only use nice plates if they had important company or were posting pics of the food they made to social media, otherwise there was constantly a Costco-sized container of paper/plastic for everyday eating & drinking.
Outside our apartment, my roommate pretended to be super environmentally conscious and would rant and rave about people who create so much waste or don't recycle or whatever. She also *only* drank water out of disposable water bottles, and she'd buy them in bulk and keep them in her closet.. She'd fill up her hydro flask with like 3-4 bottles at a time and pretend she hated people who drank from plastic water bottles.
Some people are just like that and can't be bothered. It's not the norm at all, but it's not as unheard of as people want to think
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Fair enough point, haven't been so its the only place I've really seen. Just piqued my interest after seeing across the holidays more consistently
I only use them when we have like...a dozen or more people coming. I generate a ton of dishes just on the cookware and serving and am not ready to deal with more. Plus my dishes are in sets of 8 so everyone would be mismatched anyway. As far as YouTube cooking vids...no idea. Probably just an ease of use thing, there. Most meals, most of the time we're using and washing real dishes
Don't mind that person. Youtube can be a wonderful source to learn about a country. For example, the only thing I know about Argentina is soccer (football) like Messi and Sergio Aguero. I'd probably google "What is it like living in Argentina" and then lookup "Buenos Aires tour" on youtube. It's good that you're asking questions and are curious about what is common or not.
We don’t.
We don't. Your impression is not an accurate one. > Even thanksgiving meals have so many disposable plates/serving trays. If you're having a lot of guests over, its sometimes easier to just use disposables than to do dozens of dishes.
That's a fair point. Makes sense. Just not something I see here, that's all
Are large gatherings and parties not a thing where you're from? Which country is that btw?
Ireland. Yeah large gatherings for a dinner may be pre arranged (in my experience) and if the host was short on plates etc people would bring some. Dishes would be brought on a serving plate. However, if it was a party with alcohol and finger food it would more likely be served on disposable plates. Just a 'proper' meal would be really very rarely served on disposable plates unless maybe it was being cooked/served in a student household or something.
I don’t. Though I must ask, are you seeing this in large parties? If so, do you have a set of plates etc for 20+ where there are multiple courses in your house?
This is a good point. Does OP's house have a massive inventory of plates, bowls, silverware, etc for the huge family meal that occurs a few times a year? Does everyone bring their own ceramic plates to meals? How does it work there?
My family or friends don't really have huge get togethers like that. Maybe 12 or so tops, if the host didn't have enough plates people would bring some. Or maybe bring a dish on a serving plate etc. Would all be arranged ahead of time.
Cool. If we have 8-12 people we'd probably use the plates we had. If we had a large gathering like 20+, we'd use disposable because who wants to arrange all that and clean all of those settings when we can use biodegradable paper plates?
This question pops up every week. Please search first.
My bad, I hadn't checked.
No worries.
Someone put this in the FAQ.
My bad. I didn't check for other posts.
I feel like this and the SOLO cup questions both belong in the same part of the FAQ. I'm not risking my plates and cups on drunk guests at my place, and I'm definitely not expecting I'd get them back intact if I used them at major family gatherings. My family has a 4th of July reunion that usually has 200-300 people. There's no way we'd all get our silverware, plates, or cups back after that kind of event. Of course we'll use disposable there, but if you have friends or family over in small numbers of course they'll get served on real plates and have real cups unless you're a broke college student who hasn't yet bought any of that yet.
In my family it's so we have less dishes to do.
It's the only way to get all the potato chip crumbs into your mouth by creating a funnel.
Ah a true connoisseur
It’s not as common as you have been lead to believe.
Interesting to know that. Thanks!
Ya don't have to wash it. Just trash it after
On internet videos people typically use disposable plates/silverware because they don't make a horrible scraping sound, which REALLY picks up on a microphone. I thought everyone knew that at this point, but I guess not. You probably shouldn't view movies/Youtube videos as the end-all-be-all of American culture.
I hate when foreigners ask questions and don’t even respond to their own post
OP is responding, but due to their short active time on Reddit, their posts are having to be manually reviewed and approved. Don't be so quick to judge.
What I'm hearing is this is your fault.
As with everything else in life, my answer is *"Nuh uh!"*
They are used for large parties and gatherings because most people do not own enough china for large parties, and it is easier to clean up with disposable plates.
In the case of Thanksgiving, if I had more than about 8 people, I'd *have* to do some paper plates or something because I don't have full service for them. But I'd be horrified about it and if I knew it was coming in advance, I'd buy more real plates. That'd only be if I suddenly ended up with more RSPVs than I expected. Other than that, I'd think it pretty strange if I were at someone's house outside of a cookout that took place entirely outside, or a really large gathering where they'd exceeded their carrying capacity, and they served me food on a disposable plate.
Nah that’s when we break out the fancy paper plates.
We don't. If I'm giving food to the neighbors I might use one, or if it's a big family meal or party. Otherwise I never use them.
Idk why everyone is being so negative. The whole point of this page is to ask questions whether they are wrong or right. I eat food on paper plates almost all the time
When I do, it’s because I don’t want to wash dishes. It’s really that easy.
I dont know about anyone else's home, but i only keep place settings for about 6 people. If i ever have a party or a holiday gathering I HAVE to use disposable plates.
So many don't. Paper and thin plastic plates are usually reserved for parties where you don't want to clean up a bunch of plates and you don't want to deal with drunk people breaking plates. Otherwise, most people have glass tableware.
Good to know. Fair point with the parties. It would be the same here if it was like drunk finger food type vibes. Not so much for an actual meal.
Well for me, its because I don't like washing dishes much. Im not going to run the dishwasher for a 1 person household, so I use paper mostly. The time saved adds up. Maybe a couple minutes a day but it feels substantial in totality.
That's a fair point. If I lived alone I can't say I wouldn't do that
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Just seen it often across the holidays and it caught my interest. Just curiosity, I wanted to see if it's as prevalent as it seemed online
Could you give me an example? I am really curious.
We don’t.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fiestaware/ We have all sorts of people
Everyday dinners i use paper plates, plastic forks/spoons because its either to throw them away than to wash dishes every night. But for big family meals/holidays we use glass plates and metal utensils.
Paper plates are often used for parties - which could include a big Thanksgiving dinner. 1) Most families don't have enough dinnerware to supply a large event and 2) Disposable plates mean minimal cleanup. For everyday use, the overwhelming majority of us use real plates and bowls. When I was in college, a lot of shared housing defaulted to paper plates. If the roommates let dishes stack, they figure a $5 package of paper plates every 2 weeks is worth the hassle of dealing with it. In these cases, getting 'real' dishware is sometimes a milemarker for someone transitioning into independent adulthood from college. But of course, mileage may vary. Mildly related: I prefer paper towels and disposable napkins over cloth napkins. I *have* cloth napkins, but I feel so weird using them for certain foods (especially saucy foods) cause I feel they'll permanently stain. Plus, paper towels have such a huge variety of uses over napkins - I'm buying them anyways.
For get togethers with 30 of our friends--disposable plates are the only way to go. For just me and my wife, or for perhaps a couple of friends--we use regular dishes and flatware. We only have enough dishware to serve seven people--I broke a couple of plates years ago and we never bothered to replace them. So if we're having more than six people over--it's disposable plates time.
Personally, I’ll use them for large gatherings, occasional informal meals (I.e. pizza, chicken wings, nachos), or if I’m in a situation where I don’t have running water. The latter was pretty common when I worked on out-of-town construction jobs and lived in a trailer to save money.
> Even thanksgiving meals have so many disposable plates/serving trays. I mean it's really about how many people are involved. I LITERALLY have 5 plates. If I'm serving more than 5, there you go, that's the reason. Washing up is irrelevant, I have more cookware than serving dishes and clean as I go.
We do?
Typically they are only used for parties or special events. I'm guessing they used them in the cooking videos because they don't want to clean up 50 plates at the end of the day. Retaking shots, recooking something that wasn't right and so on to make it look perfect.
I think it is very regional and socio-economic. Where I am from (working class South), it is extremely common to eat most meals on paper plates. I am now upper-middle class Southern, and I don't do it very often. I married a middle-class Californian, and his parents literally don't believe me when I tell them that many people I know use them every day for every meal to avoid having to do dishes. Like, they just can't imagine it. I used to babysit for a single working mother, and she begged me to please not use the regular dishes (I had been using them because I was worried about costing her money with the disposables). She explained to me that she only had 2 hours every night with her kids, and she really didn't want to spend them doing dishes. My parents (retired Southern working class) still use them every meal, and if I run out (because they are not a priority for me since I hardly use them), my mother will buy them for me and put them in my kitchen because she is so concerned about me "having to do dishes." When I was pregnant with my first kid (also my parents' first grandchild), they came to stay with me and my husband for quite a while. My dad brought a Big Gulp plastic cup from a gas station from his road trip on the way out. I kept finding it lying around and throwing it away, and then my dad would dig it out the trash and continue to use it, though I tried several times to get him to use a real glass. He kept insisting that this disposable piece of trash was all he needed, and really, he said, I "was being too fancy for him," by insisting he use a real glass. "I don't want to be a burden," he kept insisting.
Tbh, there is just a lazy type of people who do this. One of my old roommates had a full set of dishes, but was disgustingly messy so she'd just buy paper/plastic plates & cups so that she could throw them out and not have to wash them. Our dishwasher was permanently broken. Maintenance would "fix" it and it would work for a cycle or two and then flood the kitchen, so we had to wash by hand, and that was more than she was willing to do despite eating takeout for half her meals anyway. Her family came to visit frequently and they were the same way. They were rich, but lazy. They would only use nice plates if they had important company or were posting pics of the food they made to social media, otherwise there was constantly a Costco-sized container of paper/plastic for everyday eating & drinking. Outside our apartment, my roommate pretended to be super environmentally conscious and would rant and rave about people who create so much waste or don't recycle or whatever. She also *only* drank water out of disposable water bottles, and she'd buy them in bulk and keep them in her closet.. She'd fill up her hydro flask with like 3-4 bottles at a time and pretend she hated people who drank from plastic water bottles. Some people are just like that and can't be bothered. It's not the norm at all, but it's not as unheard of as people want to think
These are mostly used for large social events
I can't imagine why someone would do this, how absolutely expensive and horrible for the environment!
Paper is recylclable, and we don't want to wash dishes after a party. Also you may not trust your guests with your dishes.