For Father’s Day, my mom snapped up something for my dad that she happened across on the bargain table at Canadian Tire. I had never heard of it, neither had my sister, and neither had my dad. It was a collection of dishes made by a company called Orikaso.
Dishes? These came in a package that looked more like my mom had wrapped up a package of address label sheets for a laser printer.
Orikaso dishes are made of polypropylene, and they’re flat. Like, flat flat. They’re like a millimetre thick — or less! — and they’re creased in an intricate pattern so you can fold them into usable shapes.
Here’s a video of the mug, in action:
Isn’t that cool?! The package my mom found includes two mugs, two square dishes and two round bowls. They’re designed for lightweight camping, but once you get the knack of folding them (it was a riot to figure it out, and it’s fun and satisfying to tuck the tabs in and put it together) they’re easy to use.
Plus, when flat, they can also be used as a cutting board. And they’re non-stick and couldn’t be any easier to clean.
The package shows about a hundred different uses for them — you can leave some of the folds open and use the dish to hold a coffee filter, for example.
We had some worries that repeated folding will cause the dishes to eventually fall apart, but this site, which sells them, says that “Polypropylene is practically the only plastic that can be folded without breakage, in fact the more you fold it the more durable it becomes along the hinge.”
At $4 a dish or so, I never would have picked these up for myself — they look kind of flimsy at first glance. But now that I’ve held them in my hands and played with them, I’m a fan. You could use these forever.
(My mom says she got a ridiculous deal on the set, so maybe it’s worth checking out the clearance section of your local Canadian Tire?)
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