TV Dinner

I've been looking for a nice plastic segmented tv dinner tray. Can't find one. It's surprisingly hard to find anything like it on the Internet. I found a guy on eBay who's selling a 1960s era Swanson tv dinner box with an empty aluminum tray for about $70. He'll ship it for $12. Also on eBay: some school lunch trays -- the next best thing to tv dinner trays. I could get a carton of 24 teal plastic trays, complete with the long narrow utensil compartment for around the price of that empty Swanson box.

And then there's the Japanese bento box -- another variation on the theme, and also found on eBay. I'm wondering if anyone is selling the old airline food trays.

After some thought, I relaized that I have a nice Swedish stainless steel tray with three compartment that I found for $8 at an antique store in Minneapolis. It's pictured above. I filled it with a Scandinavian meal: Swedish meatballs, lefse, lingonberries, pickled herring, smoked salmon, and green beans (for color). I served myself dinner in the Danish style -- with a candle and a shot of aquavit.

Then I sat myself down to watch I, Robot, which features the silverware I'm using. It was designed by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen in 1956 and it often makes appearances in movies that are set in the future. Stanley Kubrick put the set in 2001, and he had the characters eating tv dinners, too. I do not, however, have the right and left-handed spoons.

I noticed the silverware in I, Robot as I was using it at home. Nice coincidence.

I'm still looking for some cheap segmented trays -- plastic or metal.