The Bowl (Daily Prompt: Ingredients)

Good Afternoon:

I will keep this Daily Prompt simple.

• A bowl.
• A bowl of soup.
• A bowl of chicken soup.
• A bowl of chicken noodle soup.
• A bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup that your mother made for you when you were eight years and the flu left you bedridden for four days and thereby ruined your Christmas vacation.

White & Blue Series, 9 February 2014. The Bowls.

• A bowl.
• A bowl of chili.
• A bowl of red.
• A bowl of your uncle’s homemade 5-alarm beef and pork chili that once took Honorable Mention in the state championships, each cube almost exactly three-quarters of an inch along each edge, raising blisters on the roof of your mouth but that’s OK because your uncle also makes his own California-style Pale Ale and has won gold medals at the AHA national championships and has plenty on hand to douse the fire.

Let us all now pay homage to the humble bowl.

One of humanity’s earliest kitchen utensils, the bowl has become so ubiquitous, so universal that perhaps we do not appreciate how many of our happiest memories begin with the words “a bowl.” But that’s all right. I’m here to help you appreciate.

• A bowl of homemade popcorn.
• A bowl of buttered homemade popcorn.
• A bowl of lightly salted buttered homemade popcorn.
• A bowl of lightly salted buttered homemade popcorn in your lap on the sofa as your sweetheart curls up on your shoulder and you pop a popped kernel into each other’s mouth as you watch The Princess Bride for the 10th (or is it the 11th?) time.
• A bowl of lightly salted buttered homemade popcorn in your lap on the sofa as your sweetheart curls up on your shoulder and you pop a popped kernel into each other’s mouth as the two of you watch The Princess Bride for the 20th (or is it the 21st?) time and your two rugrats sit cross-legged on the rug in front of you engrossed in the flick.

The bowl is such a simple item, serving as nothing more than the receptacle of the daily meal and your memories.

• A bowl of pasta.
• A bowl of chuk or chook (“rice porridges” on most Chinese restaurant menus).
• A bowl of pozole.
• A bowl of cereal.
• A bowl of oatmeal.
• A bowl of stew.
• A bowl of pretzels.
• A bowl of ramen (how many of you just remembered something from your starving college student days?).
• A bowl of peanuts.
• A bowl of miniature candies on Hallowe’en.
• A bowl of ice cream.
• A bowl of your dad’s homemade chocolate ice cream.

Admit it: you just remembered something you didn’t realize you had thought you had forgotten.

Vonn Scott Bair