Best Dish and Glassware?

[Evelyn Hill]

We use mostly paper- much less grey water in the process!

[JCWDCW]

We use Corelle. The downside is the weight of Corelle dishes has occasionally pushed the flip up door over the sink open enough to spill the contents of the cupboard. Our Melamine never did that. Melamine is not heat proof or microwaveable. Corelle is good around heat and somewhat microwave safe. Some items heat up faster than the food contents in a Microwave, Others are OK
JCW

[badkat]

Since we are full-timers we used our best stainless and got some very cute melamine plates at Pier 1. I use my hand blown wine glass and have many glass serving dishes stored with old towels. Also if we don't feel like cleaning a lot of dishes there is the ol' stand by paper plates.

Have fun!

[Sunnysideup]

Corelle and I bought the same shelving used by "Silverbee" (look at her photo) to get more mileage out of the space. I have two large Dinner plates small bowls 4" diameter. That is what I use most. I also have the 6" cereal bowls which I rarely use. We have two of the large serving bowls (8 and 1/2") that we use for salads. I have the 8 and 1/2" plates which I rarely use. I have some small plates 7 and 1/2" that I got at the flea market which you should definitely check out as a source. I probably paid .25@. The other Corelle bowl we use all the time is 6 and 1/2" wide and 3" deep. And the other thing I use a lot is 8 and 1/2 paper plates. And there is a holder which is mounted under the upper cabinet. Very convenient. I have small plastic glasses and they are the drinking workhorses here. The other thing I would recommend is the Corning cups (2) that come with their own lids. Walmart has them. We like them for soup. Enough. I hope that helps!

[wildflower2]

Correlle and Tervus glassware, even use the small Tervus (with the Airstream flamingo) for coffee because of the insulating qualities. Can't stand plastic or paper.

[PKI]

I think the basket weave china went in Glimmer. It's packed in dish towels. However, we used paper plates almost exclusively. Makes for less dish washing, by far. Coffee goes in a pair of stainless steel insulated travel cups. We may move to ceramics as they are a bit more comfortable in the trailer. Glasses - we use the big solo plastic for cola and the wine goes in stemless plastic. We changed out the left over mix of spoons and forks with a set of Oneida stainless flatware. Feels nice to the hand and not too difficult to wash. Pat

[JACQUIE]

We also prefer Corelle & good wine glasses. We keep the Riedel wine glasses in their boxes above sofa; use a sheet of bubble wrap to keep things in place. The only breakage has been when our dog wagged his tail & sent a friends full wine glass flying!

[Piggy Bank]

Oh, as to flatware. I actually got silver-plate flatware at an estate sale. $5 for everything.

Makes it kind of fun!

[davidz71]

Another vote for Corelle.

[Cannonball]

Corelle. Although, I can state that a Corelle coffee mug, when dropped against the curb around the dump station inlet, will shatter. Badly.


Cannonball, Deep in the Heart of Texas!

WBCCI #4387, Air #84080

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[larryglarson]

We use Corelle and the Airstream plastic insulated glasses for the table, but have a lot of glass mixing bowls and other glass and have never had any breakage. I am surprised.

[Outdoors4me]

kacnps, let us know what you choose. There are a lot of good ideas on this thread.

One more advantage of Corelle: it's very thin and doesn't take up much room in the stack. Again, l like the square dishes because they fit well in the cabinet.

[Lily&Me]

I have to admit, tho I like my Corelle, it only comes out for company or when I am eating something that must be cut.

I keep a couple of beautiful, Chatham Pottery chowder bowls for soups and other spoon meals....worth the space they take up, and the weight.

I detest styrofoam, but do love my paper plates and the inexpensive, sturdy, French fry boats you can buy by the several hundred in restaurant supply stores, Sam's, etc.

They come in a couple of sizes, and are perfect for many things.

Cuts down on dishes, use of water, etc.


Maggie

[$hide]

Yes, the use of paper plates may save YOU water but in the long run the using disposable paper products uses more water due to the tremendous amount of water in the manufacturing process. Just a thought.

[Gearheart]

When I'm in a camp ground with full hookups I am not concerned about water and use real dishes. When off the grid the 30 gallons in my tank become PRECIOUS and far more important than whatever water was used to make paper 1000 miles away.

[HeadWest]

Heller dinnerware. Modern classic.

[Piggy Bank]

Maggie, if you could only choose 1, would it be paper plates or the french fry boats and why? They sound very handy.

[Bruce B]

We are currently using some Le Creuset stoneware. I personally detest plastic (as much as it makes sense, I simply hate the stuff). As far as water use, we are pretty good at wiping with a paper towel before using just a little water for cleaning. Years of sailing have taught us how to conserve...

[Paddledipper]

We tried using paper plates for a while but found they had the tendency to blow away when dining outside, sometimes with our food still on it. We bought Corelle (which we are fans of anyway) to use 90% of the time after that. They stack and pack well, are microwaveable and come in enough patterns that you can easily match your decor. We keep paper plates on hand and happily use them the rest of the time and they work fine.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by kacnps

We love to eat and drink well when on the road and would prefer to have nice plates and glassware, but also concerned about breakage and storage. Any suggestions?

Hello kacnps

Like many posters upthread, we use Corelle. I've never had a piece break in transit but have had them break when someone drops one on a hard, unyielding surface. It's a mess to clean up but not the end of the world.

I cut down a corrugated cardboard box to be the right size and cut corrugated dividers to fit it, and use that in one of the drawers below the dinette for storage of glassware. Each glass gets its individual compartment that way. Never had anything break, not even wine glasses.

In my other smaller camper we use melamine plates and bowls and plastic barware. With less room and the fact that we take it on rougher roads, it's a better tradeoff there. The main disadvantage of melamine is that it isn't microwave safe, but we don't have a microwave in that camper so it works out fine. Over a period of many dozens of meals the melamine will start showing some wear and have to be replaced while the Corelle will last more or less forever.

The "Corelle" coffee cups are ordinary porcelain. We've had pretty good luck with them though. In the smaller camper we use a mishmash of garage sale ceramic coffee cups. Each hangs from a hook with a keeper and so they'll swing around on the road but can't hit each other.

I've recently discovered that I really like the double-wall stainless steel coffee cups that REI sells, no handle, nice minimalist design, right size. Much more pleasant to drink from than a single wall cup especially an aluminum one. They do not nest well however. Nonetheless, I may incorporate those at some point.

We have also experimented with speckled enameled tin "graniteware" plates and cups. They travel well but the metal conducts heat better than we would like, and they are evocative of an early 1920s era that isn't our chosen decor.