POLL: Soup tureens: neccessity, novelty or nuisance?

We generally don't entertain, except for the very occasional holiday family thing, and for that we pull out the folding tables. Supper is generally eaten either at the computer or on the couch (love those bamboo trays!). What can I say - one must have priorities.

When we bought our house we set up a formal dining room with mahogany furniture and a china closet, and we later got an old pump organ that we use as a sort of sideboard. And our semi-fancy china is "Blue Danube" -- a Japanese variation on the old German "Blue Onion" design. Over the years I have collected many of the fancy pieces on eBay including a tureen with lid, underplate, and ladle. I love having it and I love making soup but even when I make soup for company I often decided to forego the tureen. And kind of kick myself for it, I would love to use it more, it is gorgeous (to my eyes anyway).

Frank

We use ours 3 or 4 times a year, mainly in the summer for gazpacho as part of a buffet. For keeping soup hot, our low-tech solution is to use metal warmers powered by candle that I brought home from London and that were at every Indian resto in town at one time.

I just went and checked. I have one tureen. It's in the same box it came in--a wedding gift in '95. Why on earth I moved across the country with it, I'm not sure.