Taking this post as a platform to rally against cutlery that isn't fashioned from a single piece of metal but has a useless metal or plastic handle. When you take them out of the dishwasher, a pool of warm, stagnant , vaguely soap-smelling water will pour out onto your wrist and wet your sleeve and my week is ruined.
For the record, I haven't experienced this in years but I carry the trauma.
Mine is a butter knife. I had a poor quality and overpriced meal at a restaurant and stole it in revenge. When I got home and started using it I realised that every single thing about that restaurant would always be atrocious and nothing would ever make it OK to eat there.
That's bizarrely specific yet accurate. For me it's a spoon, but only because I somehow lost every single fork I own and had to buy a new, matching set.
It's a proportions thing. There's a very specific size and shape of fork that I like, and it shouldn't have decorations on it. Just stamped sheet steel.
For me it's one of the two sets my parents use. One set is smooth, shiny, and nice to hold. The other has lots of detail which looks neat, but is unenjoyable to hold. So I avoid them whenever I can.
I have 2 different sized spoons that don't match the rest. I can't use either of them, even if it's the only utensil I need. I also have no idea why I don't just get rid of them instead of making sad panda face every time I accidentally grab one of them...
I don't have a single metal fork in my drawer because I have some kinda weird issue where metal cutlery touching each other or my teeth makes me want to die :(
Does it count if by 28 I have one fork I like and the rest I only tolerate?
My preferred fork is a plain one, not unlike fourth from left while all the others are more textured than any of those present here. I'm used to them from having forks like that all my life but I like the simple one most.
A couple of years ago I threw out all my old basic cutlery (forks, spoons, butter knives etc.) and bought a whole new matched set of good quality. It cost less than I imagined. Never had a single ounce of regret, I love having a nice matched set and not having to dig through to get out a good pair for dinner.
The old stuff got donated to a local club, who were happy to have it in their big pot of cutlery.
i have a single fork that has 3 prongs that I think I got from a thrift store and i just hate using it cuz the tines are too far apart. Yet I've kept it for a decade
I have a compulsion... At every restaurant I go to, I inspect their fork. Specifically, I check to see if the tines are aligned. If they aren't, the first thing I do is start bending them so that they are aligned. I do it subconsciously if I'm by myself. But in polite company, often I cover my compulsion by making some sort of joke about being a food blogger or similar.
Haha it's true. I've always had hand me downs and I finally got the first time bought a set. It's pretty glorious. Side note, definitely hammy downs in my head)
Mine are a whole category of forks and spoons. I want my forks and spoons to have a completely flat underside with rounded corners. The underside should not be concave because it makes the edges of the fork or spoon too sharp and dig into my finger bones too much. A convex underside puts too much weight onto the center of the surface making it uncomfortable for my middle finger then as well. Oh, and they have to be completely smooth with no texture because I don't like rough textures rubbing against my fingers while I eat.
In my previous house we had utensil fairies who willfully would hide all the forks or spoons around the house to thwart our use of cutlery for eating. They fixated on one or the other, so our draw would be flush with forks but lacking in spoons or vice versa.
Eventually I just gave up and started supplying new infusions of new flatware. As the internet matured (and with the help of girlfriends in the restaurant industry) I'd find restaurant suppliers who'd set me up with just spoons or just forks, rather than full dining sets.
After seventeen years of this, I left, with the war for cutlery ongoing.
4th fork from the left - I have 1, this is my favorite fork
Middle fork- I have a handful
2nd to last fork on the right - I have a handful, decent forks.
Not pictured - that piece of garbage that I have no idea where it came from, that's somehow simultaneously too small to fit in with the other big forks, and too big to fit in with the small forks. And to top it off, its shape makes it terrible at twirling spaghetti. I seriously don't know why I still have that piece of junk.
Mine are two very different steak knives. One's got a plastic handle and really fine serration on the blade and it is terrible at cutting steak. The other is effectively a fucking hacksaw with a wooden handle bolted around the tang and it is a horror to behold. They're for when we need a knife and don't want to involve the good cutlery.
I've been using a lot of disposable items. I also require it from the neckbeards who live downstairs, because it never gets washed otherwise. I've had them throw tantrums about how wasteful it is, but I've been buying paper plates and compostable plastic utensils that can be thrown in a compost pile outside.
This isn't me with a specific utensil, but for things like soup/cereal bowls, cups, measuring cups, and pott and pans all go in a specific area for lack of space reasons. I hate a singular pot because we have a set that fits together nicely and then there's the pot that can't fit with the others but fits perfectly in the smallest pan we have. It's not a big deal, but it's the soul reason I hate it (besides when my dad puts away dishes and puts that pot with the others).