The other day Iris and I had some leftover noodles for lunch. This was something I cooked up in a last-minute “what’s for dinner?” panic that turned out pretty well: Chinese wheat noodles with a sauce of ground pork, hot bean paste, hoisin sauce, and baby bok choy from the farmers market.

We had plenty of leftovers, so I plunked a big portion of noodles into a bowl and popped it in the microwave. When it came out, I realized the bowl was too full to stir. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll just dump these noodles into a bigger bowl, and when I’m done heating them, I’ll put them back into the smaller bowl.” So I dumped the noodles into the large bowl with a carp printed on it, the one Iris calls the Fishbowl.

Of course, by the time the noodles were hot, I realized that there was no reason to transfer them back, so I just ate them out of the big bowl. And I think I enjoyed them a lot more than I would have from the small bowl. Iris had her usual small bowl and plate, but she did request some bites out of my bowl.

I’m not among the first billion people to figure this out, of course. Ramen and pho are served in large bowls, and there’s a restaurant chain called [Big Bowl](http://www.bigbowl.com/) which has spawned an excellent cookbook.

Now that I’ve made this stunningly obvious leap, I want big bowls for the whole family, big white ones that could work equally well for Italian and Asian noodles. The way this is going, we may need a bigger table.