Although all its dishes are served from a communal "hot table", this handsome freehouse is emphatically not a carvery.
Like fish pie, it should be served from a huge, ovenproof dish (make much more than you need, you will be back for seconds and thirds), and ladled out in great, steaming clods with, of course, the crunchy topping facing upwards.
The owner and her family serve from a deli case of dishes like Asian salad with grilled chicken breast on rice noodles with sesame ginger dressing, or a smoked-salmon wrap with chive cream cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and greens.
A ham dinner with potatoes au gratin was presented canteen-style as guests lined up to be served from steaming chafing dishes.
In cities like Nha Trang, on Vietnam's Central Coast, this dish is served from pushcarts as an afternoon snack.
The summertime Spruce Street Harbor Park on the Delaware River finds a mini beer garden and all manner of dishes served from shipping containers repurposed as kitchens.
All the dishes served from stalls and shopfronts are indigenous to the north-western provinces: it's a heady cuisine of Chinese-style cooking and Middle Eastern spices.
The term once innocently referred to serving food on individual plates, as opposed to letting people serve themselves from serving dishes.
Traditional Swedish specialties like herring dishes will now be served from late afternoon through evening in the bar and lounge.
Under the half-closed eyes of stone Buddhas, waiters in brown serve dishes from a frequently changing menu that might include miso-glazed black cod, stir-fried lobster with Chinese noodles and other Orient-inspired dishes.
I have a picture of my father, the Jewish Viennese bank accountant, a six footer and already ill, never able to remember to serve from the left and remove the dishes from the right.
