Fishs Eddy

Occasion: Picking up some supplementary glasses and cutlery for the Diego Felix dinner!
Location: Broadway between 19th and 20th (fishseddy.com)

I love, Love, LOVE Fishs Eddy. It's cheap (I started shopping here when I was a student), functional (almost everything is sturdily made and goes in the dishwasher), whimsical and charming. I have pieces from lots of different collections, and my experience is that they mix and match very well.

My personal Fishs Eddy inventory:
- Lots of the now discontinued Cynthia Rowley line: plates with shoes along the rim, soup plates with underwear on them, and bowls with colorful people walking around.
- Three large alphabet bowls.
- Nursery rhyme water glasses. This trip completed my set - I started out with just two of the Little Red Riding Hood but now I have all four designs.
- Half a dozen of their dirt cheap and dishwasher-safe wineglasses. These come out every time I have people over, and have returned their original investment many times over.
- Four old-fashioned ice-cream cups. A housewarming gift from Karen.
- Two huge yellow serving platters. I bought these on clearance for about $2 each and have used them every single time I've entertained since. Love 'em.
- Two long, skinny platters for hors d'oeuvres.

For Karen and Josie's wedding, we New Yorkers put together a gift box of the NY Skyline collection. Fishs Eddy also stocks funky vintage china, stuff with old hotel logos, old airline flatware, stuff like that. If you're more of a minimalist, they have tons of stuff that's just plain white or clear glass. The 99¢ room in the back is a particular treasure trove for the basics.

This trip, I picked up an enormous alphabet platter on sale for $10 (same pattern as my bowls), some short water glasses for 99¢ each and extra knives, forks and spoons at the same price. I also couldn't resist a couple of glasses in the Strip Tea line. They were comparatively expensive at $6.50 each but getting to use a drinking glass featuring a guy pole dancing in buttless chaps is kinda priceless, isn't it?

Le Creuset

As an avid soup-maker, I LOVE my three Le Creuset Dutch ovens. I believe they're popular with the pros too - every chef on Food Network seems to have a few. Some thoughts below, if you happen to have some spare shelf space in your kitchen.

Pro: They're durable and well-made enough that you can probably leave them to your kids.

Con: They're not cheap.

Pro: They're enameled cast iron: the heavy cast iron regulates the heat, and the enamel makes its interior cooking surface non-reactive. These pots are very versatile - you can boil, stew, roast, deep-fry, and even bake in them. I mostly use them for soup, but my littlest one also came in handy during my holiday dulce de leche spree.

Con: They're really heavy, even when empty. It's a bit of a wrestle to wash them, and you have to be careful not to chip the enamel.

Pro: The bright colors just make me happy. (I have a large blue one, a medium green one, and a little yellow one.)