Gear Junkie

A set of Guyot Designs’ (www.guyotdesigns.com) Squishy Bowls—a bowl and a cup—go for $15 from REI.com. They cradle camp food on a smooth, food-grade silicone palette that cleans easy with some scrubbing in a stream, or with your tongue: Just turn the bowl inside out and lick clean.

Backpackers can fold, cram and stuff these silicon bowls in the bottom of their rucksack. They weigh almost nothing and pop back to retain their shape like magic.

Guyot’s bowls seem fragile at first. But the company promises resistance to heat up to 400 degrees. I poured boiling water in one to test, and no ill effects ensued.

The set from REI—Guyot’s web site is currently out of stock—includes a 6 fl. oz. cup and a 16 fl. oz. bowl; the cup and bowl nest together and weigh a mere 5 ounces as a set.

I tried these bowls out earlier this week while cooking up some Cache Lake camp food. For dishes ranging from noodles to chocolate pudding, the little Guyot bowls offer a great alternative to eating out of a pie tin (I used to do that!) or scrapping communally from the camp pot.