Of all the annoying things in this world, trying to get those last elusive peas on your plate ranks among the top ten. Not to mention the terrible sound of a fork or spoon scraping around a bowl. If there wasn't so much room for your food to roll/slide/slither around in, then you wouldn't have to focus all of your attention on trying to figure out how to corner your food. So why not a shrinking bowl? You fill it up when it's normal size, and as you eat it gradually shrinks, causing it to always be full. As you can probably see, this idea is totally half baked because i have no idea how this would work. Any ideas on the mechanics of this appreciated.
-- Elk, Mar 31 2007

Or maybe just pick bowl up and tip it...?
-- DrCurry, Mar 31 2007


...or eat them with your fingers.
-- xandram, Mar 31 2007


Give the last crumbs to the dog.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Mar 31 2007


[Elk] Can you not ask the nurse to puree everything for you?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 31 2007


Some sort of material with abnormally high thermal expansion could work. Heat up the bowl in the microwave, then as it cools with time, it shrinks. Easier to store too. It wouldn't work for cereal or ice cream though...
-- Hunter79764, Mar 31 2007


How about a bread bowl...you eat it as you eat your soup, and wow it gets smaller
-- tatmkr, Apr 02 2007


Elusive peas can be cunningly trapped by cornering them between a knife and a fork. The knife can then be employed to herd the peas onto the fork for shovelling into the mouth, or the terrified, trapped peas could simply be stabbed by the sharpened prong-tips on the fork to force them screaming into your mouth. Mind your tongue on the points.
-- Defiler, Apr 02 2007


Just put a funnel shape on one side of the plate and the peas will be unable to escape its gravity.
-- phundug, Apr 02 2007


How about a thin rubber skin stretched around 1/2 of a Hoberman sphere? The skin would need to be anchored to the vertices on the inside of the bowl, so that it would conform to the bowl's concavity. I'm not sure if a 1/2 Hoberman sphere would be stable, or if it would just collapse.

P.S.:
I eat my peas with honey,
I've done it all my life.
It makes my peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on my knife.
-- lankybits, Apr 02 2007


i hate peas
-- the extreme baker, Apr 02 2007


just while its shrinking don't put your hand in
-- crash, Apr 03 2007


just while its shrinking don't put your hand in
-- crash, Apr 03 2007


Aw, come on, [the extreme baker], give peas a chance.
-- imaginality, Apr 03 2007


I find it rather annoying when people are unwilling to simply use their fingers to help capture the last few peas or whatever. Mashed potatoes, maybe, but anything that isn't sticky or creamy should be picked up with a spoon against the fingers. Unless you live in Buckingham Palace.
-- Smurfsahoy, Apr 04 2007



random, halfbakery