At that time, there were very few single-use plastics-plastic items, like spoons and forks, designed to be used just once, then thrown away.

那个时候，几乎没有一次性塑料——塑料制品，例如勺子和叉子，被设计只使用一次，然后就扔掉。

" Are we to go without spoons and forks then" ?

“那我们就不用勺子和叉子了吗” ？

Remember " dish" has those two meanings – here it means the actual plate and spoons and forks etc. I say at the end that I realized that cooking isn't the hard part.

记住“菜”有这两个意思——在这里它指的是实际的盘子、勺子和叉子等。我在最后说我意识到烹饪并不是最难的部分。