ABOUT WOMEN
Those fancy dishes serve us just fine, even left in the cupboard

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Most men are notorious pack rats — just take a peek into any carport or closet — but women aren't much better.

Our clutter tends to settle in the kitchen. Just like the guy who's convinced he needs that fancy Skil saw for that home improvement project he plans to get around to someday, women accumulate all manner of cookware and kitchen gadgets because we've been dying to try out that killer recipe we clipped from the newspaper a few years back, or because we're just waiting for the proper occasion to throw a really nice pupu party.

A portion of my kitchen clutter is stuff passed down from my mom that I just don't have the heart to throw away.

When I moved her out of her condominium a couple years ago, just months before she died, I had to sort through generations of dishes and cookware, some of it older than I was.

Going through the cupboards was like opening a time capsule from the swinging '60s and '70s, when neighbors and work colleagues took turns hosting old-fashioned cocktail parties, the kind nobody I know throws anymore. There were ice buckets with silver-plated tongs, brandy snifters, crystal decanters, high-ball, margarita and pilsner glasses, sangria pitchers, three kinds of wine goblets, shot glasses, and a martini shaker.

Another cupboard held silver and crystal serving trays, delicate glass bowls for serving shrimp cocktails over ice, a bright-yellow ceramic tray designed exclusively for deviled eggs, candy dishes, casseroles, several pairs of candlesticks, a monkey pod salad set and wooden bowls and trays.

In yet another cupboard where she kept three sets of dishes, there was a collection of Japanese ware for serving tempura and sashimi, sake cups, rice bowls and those little dishes for mixing Chinese mustard.

On a different shelf were stacked rustic-looking bowls she used for chili or her homemade French onion soup.

And all those coffee cups and saucers. (Have you ever noticed the abundance of cups and saucers at thrift stores and garage sales? Thanks to the proliferation of coffee mugs, no one drinks from dainty cups anymore.)

The cupboard above the built-in oven held her cherished fine crystal goblets and Noritake china carefully packed away in quilted bags, next to a stack of tattered cookbooks stuffed with handwritten recipes on index cards.

There was more stuff, lots more. I kept the good crystal and china, some of the retro monkey pod pieces, the bright-yellow deviled-egg tray, the recipe cards and a lace tablecloth — the only artifact she had saved from her mother's kitchen.

Now they're part of my kitchen collection, which tells a much different story.

I have my own set of silver and fine china, but any entertaining is done around a barbecue grill and drinks are served out of an ice-packed cooler.

It's not elegant, but it works for me.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.