European Dish Dilemma Solved

 

I didn’t want to do this.  I wanted to wow you all with a beautiful after picture.  But I just can’t yet.   

Remember last week when you were all helping me figure out what this piece of china from a popular European pattern was?

 

china-set-piece

 

Martin and I tallied your votes, and here’s where we ended up:

  • 2  votes –  toast holder
  • 2  votes – recipe card holder
  • 13 votes – napkin holder
  • 4 votes – business card holder
  • 7 votes – place card holder
  • 2 votes – coaster holder
  • 4 votes – letter holder*

    •  

    *some votes were for a possible way to use the piece now

    Martin kept saying, “See!  Napkin holder.”  Now with 17 of your votes in his favor, he became stubborn and resolute like most European men.  (Okay, so maybe all men can be that way!)  I just didn’t want him to be right.  In my defense, I could not get our paper napkins from the bakery or our cloth napkins to sit in this holder.  So I thought about all of your ideas for a long, long time.

     

    Some comments offered some great European wisdom:

  • Ivanhoe told me the name of these onion dishes in Czech is Cibulak.
  • My expat friend, Katie, found out the German name is Zwiebelmuster.
  • Julie said,  ”It is a place card holder. I have inherited 12 sets of china (this is what happens when you are the only grandchild on both sides of the family, and both sides have kosher meat, kosher dairy, passover meat, passover dairy), so I am well-versed in china.”
  • Rachel wrote, “The onion is actually a pomegranate, which has a lot of symbolism including ‘abundance’. The Europeans didn’t know what pomegranates were, so they called them onions.”

    •  

    So what’d we decide to do?  

    You all really got me thinking, and I realized the very best thing we could do with this piece.  Your ideas helped.  Thank you.  (Martin doesn’t know about my plan yet.)

    I’ve decided to take this piece of china:

    china-set-piece

    and put it behind these closed doors to Martin’s desk:

    man-cave

    with a picture of this:

    martin-y-baba(Martin and his loving Czech grandmother)