Kimchi fridge: top marriage item.

South Korean families have no reason to get into a pickle over the freshness of their favourite food, kimchi (or pickled cabbage). They are flocking to buy the latest household device, a high tech, bespoke kimchi refrigerator.

For thousands of years, kimchi has been fermented in earthenware jars, awaiting the time when it is good enough to grace the tables of Koreans to enjoy this traditional side dish. The new kimchi refrigerator brings a whole new dimension to the process of ensuring the food is both crisp and properly pickled at the same time.

The kimchi fridge cancels out the inconvenience of using a standard refrigerator by providing greater space, while also maintaining the temperature when Kimchi is able to ripen.

The new technology makes use of the Internet, so that users can download the most suitable climatic conditions for seasoning a broad range of kimchi, while at the same time storing meats, vegetables and fresh fruit.

Kimchi followers say the food is better than when using traditional methods, and sales of the fridges are up.

In 2001, kimchi refrigerator sales exceeded those of traditional fridges, according to Yoon Jong-eun, managing director and CEO of market leader, Mando Climate Control.

The recommended retail price for kimchi fridges stand at US$680, testimony to the advances of electronically-controlled refrigeration.

Yoon says the market sold over one million of these refrigerators in 2001. His estimation is based on personal experience, since he chewed his way through 600 heads of pickled cabbage to come up with the perfect design for the fridge.

"Around 60% of the 15 million South Korean households will own kimchi fridges in the next five years," Yoon says. That compares with 18% which owns a kimchi refrigerator today. The device is also ranked top among the items Korean women would most like to own when they get married.

from Iris Chung, Seoul Consultant