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2018 JB LIFE! Magazine Winter Edition

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Kimjang: Making Kimchi<br />

Words by Su hyun Jin<br />

Family Style<br />

For those living in Korea, kimjang, making kimchi is one<br />

cultural experience that everyone must try. For kimjang,<br />

Koreans start making kimchi before the first day of<br />

winter, because some of the ingredients are impossible to<br />

come by during the winter season.<br />

Two Saturdays ago, my Korean brother and a relative went<br />

twenty minutes away to gather cabbages. They came<br />

back with 9-10 baskets loaded with bright, green<br />

colored cabbages! To make kimchi, you need to<br />

gather the ingredients a few days ahead of time.<br />

Some of the ingredients include chili pepper powder or paste, fermented seafood, and<br />

salt. Before kimjang, you need to prepare the sauce as well as wash the cabbages<br />

and let them sit out to dry for at least a day. If you make kimchi while the cabbage<br />

is still too wet, it won’t taste as delicious and the seasoning won’t stick as well.<br />

Making kimchi family style provides a warm and cozy environment where<br />

family members can spend time to catch up with each other and talk<br />

about things like work and their daily lives. Not only that; they also<br />

get to tease each other!<br />

I went to my Korean brother's home last Sunday. This was my<br />

first time making kimchi and I have to admit, it was fun and<br />

interesting. To make the kimchi, you have to layer each<br />

leaf of the cabbage with the sauce. You don't want to<br />

put too much on though because it will be very spicy<br />

for those who aren't used to eating spicy food and<br />

the kimchi can also be very salty!<br />

<br />

One funny thing is that while I was making my first kimchi, I only layered one side of<br />

the cabbage leaf with sauce. I didn't layer the back side. Therefore, my kimchi still<br />

looked yellow and white. My brother's dad teased me and asked, "Are you making<br />

baek kimchi?" (white kimchi). After that, we all laughed at his joke.<br />

Back in the day, families used to put the kimchi in big traditional pots<br />

and bury them in the yard to preserve it. But nowadays, in many Korean<br />

homes, they have special refrigerators that can store kimchi and keep<br />

it well preserved throughout the winter! There's no need to have to<br />

go into a backyard and spend time digging up all that dirt and<br />

then burying the containers!<br />

Overall in my nine years in Korea, making kimchi “family<br />

style” is one of the best experiences I will never forget.<br />

<br />

26 Jeonbuk Life <strong>Magazine</strong> / <strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2018</strong> • Issue 13

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