The bamboo dish drainer I had been fond of for quite some time finally gave in and had to retire. Having been not so happy with the fact that the tray for the dish drainer tends to stain the counter, I decided to take advantage of this situation and see what it's like to dry dishes without a drainer. First I placed them on a dry towel on a kitchen counter since I saw my German friends do that in Berlin. This method worked for a day or so, but I realized that the odor of wet towel reverted and permeated the dishes. No more towel method. So if down is no good, what about up? I simply placed the dishes with their open sides up on the counter and hoped that they would be dry. No more odor. However, the dishes didn't dry in one day. It usually took about two to three days for an any given dish to be dry. Wow, I thought, this is a very primitive way of drying dishes. The ultimate method of natural dryer. My appreciation for a dry dish increased triple since it meant that I can put it away or use it. I've also started minimizing the number of dishes I use every day. Having been inspired by the solid blue dish drainers which dried countless dishes day after day at CESTA, I finally purchased a simple small dish drainer with a tray. About twenty minutes after I piled up the wet dishes, they were completely dry showing their beautiful shining faces without a drop of tears.

What an incredible invention.