Tired of grain bowls? Pack a cup!
“Grain bowls” and “rice bowls” became very trendy in 2015. What’s the big deal? A grain bowl is just everything that is on your regular plate of food, poured into a bowl, so all the bits are touching. Think about it: salads are just lettuce bowls. Soup is a broth bowl. Bowls are a stunt! A delicious stunt. Edible bows are especially stunty, like bread bowls of chowder, and taco salads with a fried shell.
Rice bowls are nothing new. The Japanese dish donburi, which consists of simmered meat, fish, or vegetables served over rice in—you guessed it—a bowl, is one starting point. Chipotle’s option to have your burrito’s innards served in a bowl, with no pesky tortilla carbs, is another. An LA Times article about the “super trendy” grain bowls served at Sqirl (which, for the record, are extremely delicious) includes a slideshow and a how-to. It also has a zen koan: “A rice bowl can be as simple or as complex as one wants to make it.”
A caveat about putting your food into one vessel, glopping some sauce on it, and then spooning it up—it is terrifyingly efficient. You’re accelerating the whole “It’s-all-going-to-end-up-in-the-same-place” thing that people usually use as an argument for letting your peas and mashed potatoes touch. “But the touching can be good, good for the flavors!” you say, and I totally hear you. Everything is evenly distributed in your chopped salad and you don’t have to stab your fork around like a pogo stick. I bet the pieces of fish, meat, and vegetable in your grain bowl are also chopped into manageable bite-sizes, too! Saved you a chew. How convenient and not at all like eating slop from a trough! Just kidding, sorry. But kinda not.
Bowls are very 2015. This year, get vertical. Put your grains and proteins and vegetables into a tall cup or a jar, maybe a thermos. Maybe use a clear vessel, and layer the ingredients like sand art so everyone can see your handiwork. When you go on Spring Break to Cabo or NOLA, get a grain bowl by the yard. It doesn’t matter, no one cares. It’s all a stunt to distract us from the inevitability of death. Just keep chewing!
