21st Ichon Ceramic Festival

[Domestic Goddess]

Today was the opening of the 21st Ichon Ceramic Festival, held in Ichon city, about an hour away from Seoul. This festival is held every 2 years in Seolbong Park and brings together the best ceramic artists from all over Korea and the world.

Hubby decided to bring the whole family over and see various ceramic exhibits. So we took the cab (we're about 30 minutes away) and met up with one of hubby's co-teachers, Cyndi.

(There's my little ones - Billy and Jai, Cyndi and Hunny) at the entrance of the park.

This huge tower of ceramic bells greets the visitors as they come into the park.

A gallery artist/owner poses proudly in front of his celadon wares....

Close-up of one of his work.

I really like this still-art piece.

These are chopstick and spoon rests. I bought this as a souvenir for my mom.

Stone pots for cooking rice and stews (jjiges).

More scenes to come....

[Domestic Goddess]

There were set exhibits like these...

Traditional korean characters in rough clay...

The fish on the huge platter caught my eye in this stall but the phallic statues (near the top of the guys head) made me chuckle.

Glazed hand piece.

There were also a lot of hands-on activities for the whole family. Such as...

Traditional ceramic doll-making...

Pottery-throwing....

And decoration...

One surprise exhibit was for a resort/spa which features doctor fish therapy. Guests get to soak in pools filled with "doctor fish" (cleaner fish) that nibble dlicately all the rough/dead skin cells from your body. Here's Billy letting the fish clean his fingers.

Back to ceramics... this exhibit features pieces that look like old wood...

With a snazzy stool to boot...

Coming up... snacks!

[Domestic Goddess]

Feeling peckish... we strolled and tried to look what we can nibble on while browsing the exhibits.

This guy sells coconut water... I cringed at this seeing that he is selling old coconut, not young ones (like in the Philippines). A tiny coconut cost about $3.

A nifty way to keep the drinks cool...

Another korean way that has me perplexed.... corn that has been boiled and then grilled. Eh?

Cotton candy in a cup, anyone?

Corned dogs and nekkid dogs... I had me some of the latter...

And for Sheena, her Sundae sausages...

Billy decided to get Strawberry dippin dots ice cream in a baseball cap cup.

Next... performances and more FOOD!

[Peter Green]

Nice shots, DG,

Most of my favourite serving pieces are Korean. Not only do they look great, but they've stood up through many years of service.

Yoonhi says the corn makes sense. Like pork for bbq, it's been cooked through, and the grilling is just to finish it.

Cheers,

Peter

[Domestic Goddess]

We came upon a performance area in the middle of the fairgrounds where live performances were held.

They had opera singers....

A string quartet (these guys were really good!)

And something that brought a smile to hubby's face... korean belly dancers.

All the shaking and belly gyrations has made us even more hungry, we decided to look for a more substantial belly filler. Fortunately we were near the food kiosk pavillions and here were our choices...

Beef Ribs Bulgogi...

Spicy Heajangguk (Beef Blood) Stew...

Vegetable Pajeon (Scallion pancake)

Made fresh before your eyes...

But I knew that I wanted the Ichon Ssalbap buffet meal. So we headed inside and grabbed a plate....

Loaded up on spicy pork... Fatty pork belly simmered in gochujang sauce with leeks and onions.

Spicy fish chunks... also simmered in gochujang sauce. I guess this was a favorite...

Crispy fish fillets with fried mandu dumplings...

Some bulgogi beef with veggies, hmmm this one's a bit soupy...

Japchae noodles. Potato starch glass noodles with spinach, woodear mushrooms, onions and carrots...

Various leafy greens to wrap up your meats... we grabbed a plateful of sesame leaves, lettuce, some purple lettuce leaves and those spiky ones...

A very comforting miso soup with daikon radish chunks and porky bits...

Now we come up to the banchans (side dishes) From the top: simmered mugwort, napa kimchi, braised spinach and radish kimchi slivers...

From this set we have sesame leaves marinated in miso sauce, more kimchi, anchovy in soy sauce, and fesh lettuce in red pepper sauce...

And two more red sauce ban chans - the greens I am not familiar with but the soybean sprouts are my favorite!

We feasted on these happily for an hour and then set off to see more exhibits...

A lovely tune floated to our ears and we found this traditional korean ceramic flutes...

Salt cellar pigs....

Ceramic leafy wind chimes....

And we come up to the close of my report.... since it is the year of the pig, lemme end with this stall selling these cute ceramic pig statues...

This ceramic exhibit is a weeklong affair. I hope y'all enjoy my report as much as I enjoyed sharing our day with you.

Doddie

[andiesenji]

Terrific tour Doddie. It hit all the spots to which I would have gravitated, had I been there.

Your photography skills are getting better all the time.

[Soup]

Excellent post. Loved the photos. Am a fan of celadon but I wish I had picked up more functional peices last time (e.g., stone and clay pots). I love the clay pots for stews, braise and soups. And there are these granite bowls that make great rice with NooRungee (the crusty rice that sticks to the bottom). They were just too heavy to bring back.

[Domestic Goddess]

Thanks Andie and Soup! I'm thinking about going back this week and snap some more pics... And eat more korean food!

[SheenaGreena]

mmm yummy. everything looks good except for the "soupy bulgogi" it looks like every bulgogi served at korean buffets here in the us - yuck!

I love that fresh lettuce salad. My mother makes a great version in the summer time with fresh lettuce, watercress, mugwort, and a few other greens that she grows in her garden. Its really refreshing and makes a good side salad with grilled kalbi, rice, and some macaroni salad.

Thanks for the soondae shot - nothing is better than a steaming bowl of blood sausage covered in plastic wrap to keep it moist. I'm so jealous!

about the corn....korean corn is horrible. It tastes like corn that you would throw to pigs and horses. It gets really sticky too and sticks to your teeth when you eat it. Also koreans eat corn one kernal at a time and they pick each one off with their fingers. There is nothing I dread more than seeing the corn man run up the highway to the side of the bus selling his stinky steamed corn. I'll take the dried squid man anyday

[JasonTrue]

I can't believe I missed the Icheon pottery festival by one day I went to it about 4 years ago, but it was in the fall that year, so I had just assumed I had no chance...

Hiromi and I just grabbed some "amai amai" corn from a yatai at Hirosaki park, Aomori prefecture and pronounced it "very sweet"... I tasted it and thought, really? This is so ordinary... Then I realized that the corn I usually buy from Sosio's in the summertime, or even most average grocery stores, has been hybridized to the point of extreme sweetness and outdoes even the sweetest corn in Japan, and presumably Korea.

However, I often crave the soy-sauce grilled corn sold all over the place during festivals and in street-food heavy areas in Japan... I noticed it in Korea, too, but for whatever reason was always too full to indulge, and it was usually sold in pairs, already wrapped in plastic, and presumably fairly close to room-temperature.

about the corn....korean corn is horrible.  It tastes like corn that you would throw to pigs and horses.  It gets really sticky too and sticks to your teeth when you eat it.  Also koreans eat corn one kernal at a time and they pick each one off with their fingers.  There is nothing I dread more than seeing the corn man run up the highway to the side of the bus selling his stinky steamed corn.  I'll take the dried squid man anyday

←