# coffee bowl



## bristle

Could someone tell me if the handleless bowl that one occasionally sees used in french films (and I assume in french homes too) for drinking coffee has a special name or is it simply une tasse à café? ...many thanks.


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## Micia93

Welcome Bristle   :=)

when small, we call it "une tasse", when big, we call it "un bol"


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## bristle

Micia93 said:


> Welcome Bristle :=)
> 
> when small, we call it "une tasse", when big, we call it "un bol"


 
thanks Micia.  I suppose there's a wide range of sizes.

Are these cups without handles more or less popular than they used to be?  I only ask because I tried to buy some at a provincial gift shop and they only had cups with handles.

To me, it seems like a good idea for winter to warm one's hands but perhaps the handle takes pride of place for summer drinking?


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## wesetters

bristle said:


> thanks Micia. I suppose there's a wide range of sizes.
> 
> Are these cups without handles more or less popular than they used to be? I only ask because I tried to buy some at a provincial gift shop and they only had cups with handles.
> 
> To me, it seems like a good idea for winter to warm one's hands but perhaps the handle takes pride of place for summer drinking?


 I don't know anyone who drinks out of bowls.


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## Micia93

wesetters said:


> I don't know anyone who drinks out of bowls.


 
really ? 
all french drink their coffee / milk / chocolate / tea / cornflakes .... out of bowls for breakfast ! they don't have handles


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## wesetters

Micia93 said:


> really ?
> all french drink their coffee / milk / chocolate / tea / cornflakes .... out of bowls for breakfast ! they don't have handles


 All the ones I know/have lived with drink out of mugs...


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## Micia93

drinking out of a mug isn't very easy : you can't put your toast with marmelade in it !


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## Beun

I've got to agree with Micia, except that, in my head, a bowl has to be quite big. I think "une tasse", as you said, does have a handle.


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## Uncle Bob

Perhaps it is a question of when one purchased one's crockery. Up to the 70's I saw/used mainly bowls. (In those days cafés in Algeria, still with French customs,  served coffee in tumblers).
As Micia points out, trying to stuff a croissant/pain au chocolat/... into a mug isn't easy - and produces disobliging comments from a central european wife.


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## Micia93

Uncle Bob said:


> Perhaps it is a question of when one purchased one's crockery. Up to the 70's I saw/used mainly bowls. (In those days cafés in Algeria, still with French customs, served coffee in tumblers). bowls are still used, trust me ! I think there is a tendency to imitate the english way of life, which may explain that some people like to have their breakfast with a mug
> As Micia points out, trying to stuff a croissant/pain au chocolat/... into a mug isn't easy - and produces disobliging comments from a central european wife.
> haha ! exactly !
> what do you mean by "central european wife" ? a woman from central Europe ?


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## bristle

I'm intrigued by some of the conflict in the replies, there's evidently a demographic/social element to this.  I should say I'm informed mostly by watching french films which I frequently do in a sluggish but sustained effort to improve my poor french.  For the most part these are probably older films with a domestic slant so there's a bias in my viewing (does Luc Besson portray anyone drinking out of a bowl?).

The other day I bought a couple of croissants and decided I was going to dunk (tremper) them in my coffee - this was a first for me, we english don't often do that sort of thing to the best of my knowledge preferring usually to eat them dry with jam and butter (yes, extra butter!) with the coffee on the side - always a cup. I was pleasantly surprised by the eating/drinking sensation, a sort of soggy/crispiness which is unlike anything else I've experienced.  My search for a bol was triggered by the fact that I was dunking into a cup - this looked and felt completely wrong to me.  I think proper dunking requires both breadth of access and the absence of a handle so that the resulting soup of coffee/chocolcate/whatever and crumbs can be offered up to the mouth with both hands.

Vive la différence!


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## Micia93

yes, you describe it in a funny way Bristle ! we are so used to doing it, that we don't try to describe our feelings the way you do
anyway, there's no conflict in the replies, just different points of views and as you say :" vive la différence " !


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## wesetters

Micia93 said:


> drinking out of a mug isn't very easy : you can't put your toast with marmelade in it !


 I'll admit that the only one I lived with who regularly dunked his toast into his coffee tended to cut it into relatively thin strips.


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## bristle

wesetters said:


> I'll admit that the only one I lived with who regularly dunked his toast into his coffee tended to cut it into relatively thin strips.


 

..when I was a kid we used to do that into the yolk of lightly boiled eggs.  The strips were called soldiers...


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## wesetters

Not as thin as soldiers. I'd guess at about 5cm wide... :


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## Micia93

regarding the dimension, I agree that old bowls were huge ! I've inherated 2 or 3 from my grand-grand parents !
of course, they are now smaller, and if you ask for a breakfast in an hotel or a bar, the're even a bit smaller than the common ones sold in supermarkets


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## bristle

wesetters said:


> Not as thin as soldiers. I'd guess at about 5cm wide... :


 
..from the ranks of the officers, then. Probably a portly sergeant major.


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## bristle

..anyway, thanks to al for their insights - the search for my ideal bol continues...


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## Zoulllien

bristle said:


> ..when I was a kid we used to do that into the yolk of lightly boiled eggs.  The strips were called soldiers...


This is called "mouillette" in French. Thought you might like to know.


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## bristle

Zoulllien said:


> This is called "mouillette" in French. Thought you might like to know.


 

thanks Zoulllien, I'll pass that on to the junior members of the family also..


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## xiancee

I find this thread fascinating and revelaing a great deal about inter - generation issues and rich with cultural references.
Here (France, Centre) we have always had our morning beverage, be it coffee or cocoa or tea, in a "bol", large bowl with handles ! But this is due to the fact that we like our drink hot ! and when one of this bowls get broken or chipped, it is very difficult to find one as a replacement, only by visiting "vide greniers" or old fashioned shops!


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## Micia93

ha ! it's funny Xiancee
I'm also from the center of France but never saw such bowls !


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## xiancee

Micia93 said:


> ha ! it's funny Xiancee
> I'm also from the center of France but never saw such bowls !



As I told, is is difficult to find!
Perhaps here


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## iosonolobo

I had heard that the French serve their coffee in large bowls. I recently vacationed in France, and I intended to always order this way. Typically, the menus referred to the largest size as «grand» and I assumed that may be there was some secret to getting the real thing -- a bowl.

My experience was that whenever I ordered «un bol de café au lait», I would always receive a cup with a diameter of about 8 cm and a depth of about 5 or 6 cm, with a handle. This was apparently always the same as «un grand café au lait». This was my experience in the Paris area and in the south of France.

I was a little disappointed, but I wonder if the big bowl is a thing of the past. Or maybe the story of the «bol» is just like a fish story and the bowl got bigger every time the story was retold.


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## LGT

I remember staying with a French family, years ago, en route to a gite in Brittany - we were baffled to be given bowls at the breakfast table, and no cereal to put in them. We were equally confused by the presence of no cups or mugs despite the steaming jugs of coffee on the table. We only put two and two together years later, when I was studying French at university and had a bit of an epiphany re "les bols"...


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## bristle

Have just returned from a nearby LeClerc supermarket with a couple of bols which caught my eye, a traditional 'hand painted' look and selected in preference to a modern range in rather garish colours and an assortment with some christian names. (Warning: when only one or two items of a type remain examine them carefully for flaws - of the remaining two I purchased one has a little chip only noticed on arrival home and having already thrown away the reciept!)...anyway, they weren't expensive and I can daub on a spot of paint.  They're big enough to get both hands round with room to spare - 15cms in diameter and about 8 cms high - exactly the kind I've seen in the films I've watched.

I'm going to wait until the weekend before these are pressed into service when I shall buy my croissants at lunchtime and dunk away.  (A podcasting french language website I visited suggested the French don't eat croissants every day but reserve them for a treat at the weekend - is this true?)

And now the plot thickens.  A little legend painted over the design of this bowl reads 'P'tit Oéj'.  I've looked in my dictionary and tried google but found nothing.  Can someone translate please?


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## xiancee

Ok even though this should be in a new thread, "P'tit Oej" is in fact "P'tit Dej" and is a short for "petit déjeuner" = Breakfast!

And yes indeed croissants are a TREAT! and not eaten every day!


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## bristle

xiancee said:


> Ok even though this should be in a new thread, "P'tit Oej" is in fact "P'tit Dej" and is a short for "petit déjeuner" = Breakfast!
> 
> And yes indeed croissants are a TREAT! and not eaten every day!


 
<groan> yes, of course, what I thought was an 'O' could just about pass for a 'D', and I'm feeling pretty stupid (my french isn't that poor, honestly!)

I'll just have to console myself with a bowl of hot chocolate...in my new bowl.


 - thanks for the info!


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## Beun

I must say, bristle, I've enjoyed reading your 'bol' tale. Glad you found what you were looking for. You are now officially French


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## bristle

Beun said:


> I must say, bristle, I've enjoyed reading your 'bol' tale. Glad you found what you were looking for. You are now officially French


 

Many thanks Beun, that's a very generous and inclusive gesture - I'll do my best to merit it!

(sans aucun doute, je poserai aussi des questions sur la langue française...)


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## xiancee

bristle said:


> <groan> yes, of course, what I thought was an 'O' could just about pass for a 'D', and I'm feeling pretty stupid (my french isn't that poor, honestly!)
> 
> I'll just have to console myself with a bowl of hot chocolate...in my new bowl.
> 
> 
> - thanks for the info!



Try the "pain au chocolat" as well ! but it seem to be more than more than a treat!


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## bristle

xiancee said:


> Try the "pain au chocolat" as well ! but it seem to be more than more than a treat!


 

Ok, I've pencilled in the croissants for saturday and maybe the pain au chocolat for sunday.

I wonder, is the pain au chocolat dunkable (trempeable?) and if so does it dunk happily into coffee or should it be hot chocolate, or would the latter be considered as chocolate overkill?


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## franc 91

et ben moi, tous les matins je bois mon café dans un bol et tous les autres membres de la famille font pareil


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## xiancee

bristle said:


> Ok, I've pencilled in the croissants for saturday and maybe the pain au chocolat for sunday.
> 
> I wonder, is the pain au chocolat dunkable (trempeable?) and if so does it dunk happily into coffee or should it be hot chocolate, or would the latter be considered as chocolate overkill?



There is NO chocolate overkill, there is not enough of it on the planet!


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## Micia93

franc 91 said:


> et ben moi, tous les matins je bois mon café dans un bol et tous les autres membres de la famille font pareil


 
ben voilà ! comme la majorité des français !  (voir poste 5)


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## xiancee

"Le célèbre petit-déjeuner à  la française, communément appelé "continental" à l’étranger, et dans  lequel on retrouve l’indémodable combinaison Tartine, Beurre, Confiture  et Café se voit aujourd’hui peu à peu rattrapé par de nouveaux gestes  alimentaires. Sur l’ensemble des petits déjeuner pris quotidiennement en  France seul un tiers (34% précisément) peuvent être qualifiés de  "traditionnels". La montée en puissance de la viennoiserie et de la  pâtisserie industrielle (brioches, cake…) mais aussi des biscuits  constitue l’un des enseignements majeurs de cette première vague de *l’observatoire  des moments de consommation ConsoTrack Petit Déjeuner** d’Ipsos  Observer dont les résultats sont à présent disponibles."
D'après IPSOS!


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