chafing dish

Robert B.Parkerの小説を4冊続けて読んだので地元の図書館にあるParkerの作品は "Resolution" を残すだけとなりました。Parkerの作品は英文自体は平易で俗語は多く出てきますが一般的には難しい語彙は少ないので非常に読み易いのですが、内容はお粗末で、2流、いや3流の探偵小説と思います。さすがに飽きて来たので、たまたまNHKの朝ドラの主人公がO.Henryの作品を読んでいたのを見て、O.Henryの49 Storiesを読むことにしました。O.Henryの短編は高校の英語の副読本で幾つか読んだ記憶があります。

最初にとりあげる表現はO.Henryの短編でも特に有名な 'The Last Leaf' からです。

So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth avenue, and became a "colony."

"chafing dish" は何かの食器でしょうか？　辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: A metal pan with an outer pan of hot water, used for keeping food warm.: ‘If hot food must sit out for longer than two hours, use warming trays, slow cookers or chafing dishes to keep the food hot.’

・Merriam-Webster: a utensil for cooking or keeping food warm at the table: And yet the chafing dish has the genteel task of keeping food warm.

・Wikipedia: A chafing dish is a metal cooking or serving pan on a stand with an alcohol burner holding chafing fuel below it. It is used for cooking at table, notably in Gueridon service, or as a food warmer for keeping dishes at a buffet warm.
Note Gueridon service: In the restaurant industry, gueridon service or tableside service is the cooking or finishing of foods by a waiter at the diner's table, typically from a special serving cart called a guéridon trolley.