Unique Pot Breathes Vitality Back into Korean Food
[www.ntdtv.com 2010-11-10 12:03]
Ulsan is a boom town growing rapidly around the ship building industry. But a little inland, away from the steelwork, we come to a traditional village that is home to one of Korea’s oldest industries – pottery.
The onggi pot was designed as a breathable container for preserving vegetables in all seasons. The Onggi Festival in Ulsan is celebrating its many virtues.
[Jeon Chung Ryeal, Vice Mayor, Ulsan]:
“The onggi is different from normal ceramics. It uses a different soil, manufacturing technique, permeability and character. The onggi is a breathable pot that has small air pores. So it must be used to ensure the high quality of fermented food.”
The most common dishes used in the onggi are fermented soy bean paste and spicy preserved cabbage, called kimchi.
The expo demonstrates the superiority of air permeability in food preservation. Here a master of fermented soy bean paste is making it for a crowd.
[Lee Sunghi, Preserving Expert]:
“If you use a plastic container for soybean paste, it can’t remove the foul odor and also cannot take aerobic microorganisms. Also kimchi produces carbon dioxide gas during fermentation. This gas cannot escape in the plastic container and makes a bitter taste in the food. So the onggi pot is the best container for soybean paste and kimchi.”
We also caught up with the Korean onggi master potter who made onggi for an exhibition at the Smithsonian National History Museum in Washington D.C..
[Jeong Younseok, Master Onggi Potter]:
“I have made onggi since I was 16 years old, and now I’m 70. My family has made onggi pots for 7 generations. But even with this experience, I have had painful experiences making onggi pots. Sometimes when I made a mistake over half the onggi pots in the kiln were unusable.”
Foreign teachers working in Ulsan also get into the spirit, by making fermented kimchi to use with the onggi pot.
[Yuri Foreman, English Teacher]:
“It’s a lot of fun I`ve never made kimchi before.”
With the advent of modernization in Korea in the 1990’s, the onggi pot was largely replaced by plastic containers and refrigeration.
But 20 years on, the tradition hasn’t died out completely, and is making a comeback with the growing popularity of natural or “slow food”.
The onggi expo hopes to emerge as a source of ancient wisdom for safe, clean and natural food.
The annual expo is finished but the onggi pot kilns keep burning on, creating more of these remarkable pots.
NTD news, Ulsan, South Korea.