Spoon Number Thirty-One was swapped at Yum Yum Bangkok on Ninth Street:
Now I should specify that Miss Dish and I went to Yum Yum Number 1. Just down the street you'll run into Yum Yum III:
And across the street from III is Yum Yum Too:
What's going on with these Ninth Street Yum Yums? It seems that they must be linked... but isn't it odd that they all have different websites? I've even heard rumors of a fourth Yum Yum in the area!
Well it was at Yum Yum Bangkok Number 1 that Miss Dish and I swapped Spoon Number 31:
A little research shows this spoon to be from Winco's Toulouse series:
Which appears to be virtually identical to the Qualite Fanfare series that we saw in Spoon 12. How spoon companies come up with these names is a mystery. Fanfare to one may be Toulouse to another; and with such similar spoons are they just copying one another's designs? And isn't Toulouse a strange name for a flatware series? Well why don't you take a look at this:
Yes our resource The Virtual Absinthe Museum indicates that this design above is believed by some to be from a series of absinthe spoons designed by famed artist Toulouse Loutrec himself!
And what is an "absinthe spoon"? Well, taking from Wikipedia verbatim:
A perforated or slotted spoon is used to dissolve a sugar cube in a glass of absinthe, usually to sweeten the drink and counteract its mild bitterness. The bowl of the spoon is normally flat, with a notch in the handle where it rests on the rim of the glass. Originating circa the 1860s, absinthe spoons were often stamped with brand names or logos as advertising, much like modern alcohol paraphernalia. Sometimes they were sold as tourist items; for example, some might be shaped like the Eiffel tower, for example the spoon Eiffel Tower #7, which was made for the inauguration of the building in the year 1889.
So now we can clearly see the slotted openings in the Toulouse Loutrec spoon above, design cues which have been carried over to the Winco Toulouse and Qualite Fanfare series.
