OTOTO The Nessie Family Kitchen Accessory Set

Kitchen drawers begin with excellent intentions and end with a bent whisk, two mysterious plastic clips and a potato masher that has apparently retired without telling anyone. OTOTO The Nessie Family approaches this domestic archaeology with three named accessories and a creature-based theme, because apparently a plain colander was no longer enough for modern civilisation.

The selected OTOTO listing identifies this as a pack of three: a tea infuser, soup ladle and colander. That clarity matters more than it ought to. Novelty kitchen things are often sold with the sort of vague exuberance usually reserved for party hats; here, at least, the contents are stated plainly before the whimsy starts splashing about.

We think this earns a place as the lighter, more characterful option in a kitchen selection. It is not trying to win an argument about culinary seriousness. It exists for the person whose cooking space could tolerate one small visual joke, or whose gift cupboard has become a bleak archive of candles and emergency socks.

There is a limit, naturally. The Nessie theme is the point, not an accidental side effect. Anyone after a hushed, matching kitchen aesthetic may regard three little lake monsters as an escalation. Fair enough. The rest of us can at least admire the commitment to making a tea infuser, soup ladle and colander look as though they have formed a family unit.