This version is much classier.
I saw a video from some cooking channel, sadly I can’t remember which one, that showed how to make a food bowl out of melted parmesan cheese. You spread freshly grated parmesan cheese into a thin, even layer in a non-stick frying pan, melt it all together, then at the right moment slide it out of the pan and onto an upside-down bowl on which you mold the cheese. When it has cooled you can fill it with – well, I don’t remember what they filled it with because I was so focused on the bowl. I want to eat a bowl made of melted parmesan cheese.
(I wouldn’t use the good Italian stuff for this, but I would use freshly grated and not pre-grated, because who wants to eat cellulose?)
You can do that with regular cheese (cheddar or such - but real, not processed) on a plate in the microwave - I did it here and formed them into cones, but they can just as easily be moulded into little (or large) dishes
Alinea solves this with a single giant “dish” for the whole table for some courses (primarily dessert). You can see it being utilized in this “family style” dessert.
Or if you want to see a dessert being built:
Currently on another site I read:
And it occurs to me that there is an American food where eating the container is so common that the practice isn’t even remarked on: ice cream. (The bowl is conical.)
I absolutely love soup in a bread bowl. There is something very decadent and Henry VIII about pinching off and eating bits of the bowl as one eats the soup. Trenchers
You remind me that hot dogs in buns were created when customers did not return to the sausage vendor the gloves that he gave them to wear while eating the sausage. The buns don’t exactly replace a plate or bowl, but they are another edible container.
And now I am thinking of pasties and pies - the crust would be an edible container for a portable food.
Or for the lower rent version from one of my favorite seafood places:
Yes, you can. Primus - Candyman (Official Video) - YouTube
Oh, yes, with crawfish.
If you like cheese fondue, I suggest this as a pretty killer appetizer: bake a sourdough loaf with a round of brie pushed into the top. The sourdough surrounds the brie. By the time the sourdough is fully baked, the brie is exquisitely melted. Simply start cutting off pieces of sourdough from the outside, dip in the brie, and eat your way into the middle.
This is also done with brioche, which sounds better to me. I like baking bread, and sourdough has its place - but is often much overrated. I think the best baked Brie involves a thick coating of nuts (pecans are good) rather than bread - IMHO.
When you said classier-I thought you meant this:
