Linen napkins, paper napkins, or paper towels for home dining?

The Late Night Gourmet

The Late Night Gourmet

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Go to eat at a fine restaurant, and you expect linen napkins. You might even have the server place the napkin on your lap for you (a strange practice, in my mind, but I'm not about to embarrass the server for doing it). But, paper napkins are expected at simpler dining establishments, and for take-out/take-away.

But what about eating at home? I have some linen napkins, but I don't feel like washing them every day to keep up with my eating habits. I can understand using paper towels in lieu of proper napkins: they do the job, and they're always available in my kitchen. But, for some weird reason, my kids will get a paper towel to have with their meal even if we have a take-out meal. There are napkins right there in the bag, but they still choose paper towels.

This means we end up with a lot of extra paper napkins...which I stash away, and use myself for dining at home.Likewise, I bring my surplus napkins to work to have with my lunch.

I know...this is probably the least interesting cooking-related question ever asked on this site. But, I'm still wondering what other people do.
 
I don't have any napkins (paper or linen). In another life I used to have linen napkins and napkin rings. Now, if anything is needed its a paper towel. But mostly we don't need them. I suppose we don't eat a lot of 'hand held' messy food.

Napkins are also used to dab the mouth, I suppose...
 
We use paper napkins but not very often. We have a set of linen napkins for dinner gatherings. My Mum gave them to us as she never uses them any more. Our friends are always quite amused as they think its a bit old school.
 
Interesting question ..

1) Linen Napkins with napkin rings: Special occasions and sometimes at the weekends ..

2) Paper towels: Breakfast .. Appetisers mid morning before lunch if we are home and go to terrace, regardless of temperatures .. We have an electric pole Mushroom Heater so we sit out in winter too ..

3) Napkins: Since, we have several packages from our warehouse of hospitality ítems, of solid colored napkins, we use these for dinner and lunch .. They create a lovely table setting or counter which we had put in when we reformed our kitchen ..

We are both not home that much however, when we are, this is what is norm ..
 
morning glory said:
My mind boggled! :laugh: Then I realised what it was.
Click to expand...

@morning glory

This is what they are called here, Mushroom Heaters. They are a pole with an overhead heating system. They are frequently used in open dining terraces throughout Spain in the Winter time.

The smoking laws, are prohibited in side any public building including bars and restaurants.

This open area, smoking is permitted .. So, to utilise this space better, the restaurateurs and bar owners have installed these heating systems which are portable as well .. And wait service is of course available .. These terraces, as we call open air dining are packed regardless of weather .. Many have covered partially 3 sides of the space to prevent winds or rains from preventing business ..

Very common here ..

Have a nice day ..
 
20170921_041624.jpg


These are my "summer" napkins. They are made from cotton, which is what all my cloth napkins are made from. I've just washed my autumn prints; they are air drying in the basement and will replace the lighter colored ones once they're dry. Later, after Thanksgiving, I'll be switching out the rest of these for my Christmas patterns. By mid- to late-January, back to these...and the cycle begins again.

20170921_042018.jpg


The towels on the left side of the basket are used exclusively for drying all of my produce. I rinse all of my lettuces too, so I find it more efficient to use cotton towels than scads and scads of paper towels.

We also have two plastic shoe boxes: one that holds the towels for hand wiping, and the second for towels used for drying dishes (not everything goes into my dishwasher). I have separate patterned ones to make sure that the dish towels and the hand towels don't get mixed up.

I do use paper towels, but mostly for things like draining bacon or wiping a very greasy pan so as to not rinse the grease down the drain. I do have some paper napkins we pack with our snacks when we travel. Otherwise, it's cloth in my kitchen.
 
Lynne Guinne said:
View attachment 10510

These are my "summer" napkins. They are made from cotton, which is what all my cloth napkins are made from. I've just washed my autumn prints; they are air drying in the basement and will replace the lighter colored ones once they're dry. Later, after Thanksgiving, I'll be switching out the rest of these for my Christmas patterns. By mid- to late-January, back to these...and the cycle begins again.

View attachment 10511

The towels on the left side of the basket are used exclusively for drying all of my produce. I rinse all of my lettuces too, so I find it more efficient to use cotton towels than scads and scads of paper towels.

We also have two plastic shoe boxes: one that holds the towels for hand wiping, and the second for towels used for drying dishes (not everything goes into my dishwasher). I have separate patterned ones to make sure that the dish towels and the hand towels don't get mixed up.

I do use paper towels, but mostly for things like draining bacon or wiping a very greasy pan so as to not rinse the grease down the drain. I do have some paper napkins we pack with our snacks when we travel. Otherwise, it's cloth in my kitchen.
Click to expand...

:eek: - I feel quite napkin naked! :laugh: I have not a single one.
 
At home we use kitchen towels.

However, in the majority of restaurants hereabouts toilet rolls are used. The cardboard is removed from the centre and the paper is extracted from the inside of the roll. The majority are plastic but this is a fancy one.

elephant-pattern-toilet-roll-holder.jpg
 
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