Non-metal spoons for dining?
Hoping this fits, because... well, it is about eating.
I swear my mouth is more sensitive to physically hot temperatures than other people's. I burn the roof of my mouth with pizza multiple times a year while others with me can eat it just fine, and I have burnt my tongue on metal spoons just as often. Just last week my mom asked if I was going to eat my soup because I'd been sitting at the table for 5-10 minutes, and I was waiting for it to cool down because the spoon had already burnt my tongue. I even use a disposable plastic spoon for eating ramen, but obviously that's not good for the long-term.
So we tried to look for silicone spoons to use for eating... except apparently they might not exist? I can find silicone cooking ware, baby spoons, and some really hideous spoons that have a weird shape I automatically loathe, but not a single regular-shaped spoon for eating. Cursory research suggests some other non-metal silverware sets exist made of materials besides silicone, but I have no idea where to begin.
So, can anyone recommend some spoons that aren't metal and made for dining?
Seconding the Chinese ceramic soup spoons (example from Amazon: https://a.co/d/aa3Vwcn) - they don't hold heat the way European metal soup spoons do, they're easier to blow on to cool them, and they don't add off flavors when sitting in the bowl. They're better for fishing out chunky vegetables or pieces of tofu/meat.
They actually hold heat better than metal spoons do (higher heat capacity), but they don't conduct it as well so it feels cooler to the touch despite being the same temperature (lower thermal conductivity).
Perhaps not suitable for fine dining, but camping cutlery, perhaps? You can get plastic, but I think aluminium might be worth a try? It doesn't store any heat, so if the soup is cool enough to eat, the spoon will be the same temp
Oh man, depending on if it meets your mouth feel needs, I think I have the answer: The Long Spoon!
I bought one in 2017 and it has to be one of my top 5 purchases of all time. I love that spoon. It reaches into awkward packages. It never gets hot. It is surprisingly abrasion resistent for silicon. We got it for a long bike packing trip and no joke of the $1000s we spent getting ready for it, the long spoon and my bike were by far and away the best purchases! Huge, huge endorsement.
I have a bamboo set I used to use for the office. Easy to maintain, and lasted a good long while.
There’s wooden spoons. Personal sized ones, not the cooking spoons.
Chinese spoons are ceramic (and cheaper ones are some kind of plastic). So you could try that. Is shaped differently to western spoons, though.
What about ceramic/plastic Chinese spoons?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_spoon
I don't have your heat tolerance issues, but I still use my Chinese spoons fairly often when eating soups, stews, and puddings (e.g. Douhua) because they can hold far more liquid in them than Western style ones, and yet despite that they are still way better for avoiding accidentally dribbling on yourself too.
Won't the soup burn your mouth even when using a less thermally conductive spoon?
Not OP but I run into this same problem. Somehow the soup cools down but the metal spoon will retain that heat and continue issuing small scalds. My presumption is that it's because I tend to aim for metal utensils that are decent quality stainless steel, and they hold the heat better than most things. My solution is usually to add cold cheese shreds from the fridge, and/or cold sour cream, dish dependent. But some dishes simply do not work well with cheese, and thus I have to wait 10-20 minutes for them to cool off enough, and even still the spoon's been known to scald my lips and tongue.
Look into picnic and camping utensils. Many are made of nylon.