Clay Pots Essay

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When Granddad and Grandmom were young, clay pots were still very popular, though they were fragile. People back then might not have been heavy-handed because some clay pots could be used for more than ten years, if they were handled gently with a dipper made of coconut shell. Because a coconut shell is so light and smooth that it would not pierce through the bottom of the pot, though some people were a little heavy-handed. The adults absolutely would not let us use a brass dipper with a clay pot. They were not compatible. If you were careless, the bottom of the pot would be easily pierced through. Granddad and Grandmom told me that when they were born, the midwives put their umbilical cord in a little clay pot and bury it near the root of a tree, maybe a coconut tree. This was to make the children grow up like trees. Clay pots were also used in cooking and making desserts. They had a wonderful smell of clay which boosted the appetite. Grandmom told me that there was an old man living in the time when brass and aluminum pots from abroad were already brought to Thailand. Everybody used them because they did not have to be careful about piercing holes in the bottom of the pot. At worst, they got dented. But this old man had to have food cooking in a clay pot until the day he died. He had a little clay pot especially for himself because he had got used to the smell of clay. He said that the smell boosted his appetite. “Pla grim kai tao” (white and brown rice flour strings in coconut cream) and Krongkrang (lumps of rice flour in coconut cream) were also made in clay pots because the smell made these desserts more delicious and many other sweets. The bitter Thai traditional medicines that Grandmom hated and had to force herself to take were also boiled in clay pots. When traditional pharmacists gave out medicines, they also had to be boiled in clay pots, whether big
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