Pink Rubber Gloves and Cabbage
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Pink Rubber Gloves and Cabbage
By Juhee Lee
Making kimchi can be a humble process, sometimes involving pink rubber gloves and a kiddie pool filled with cabbage. In Korea, each household’s kimchi is almost a collective signature of family heritage, resulting from inexact recipes and personal flair. It begins every fall, with washing and soaking a large quantity of cabbage in salt water. Ingredients such as chili pepper, ginger, green onion, fermented fish, and garlic are combined to make a hefty amount of sauce. Then, the cabbage is covered in the sauce and packed neatly into containers to be fermented. Some of the end product is usually gifted to neighbors and friends.
Both the history and fermentation of kimchi involve time.
With roots all the way back to the Three Kingdoms Period (57 BCE to 668 CE), the dish comes, of course, from a need to preserve food. According to The Korea Society, kimchi in its first iterations may have looked similar to today’s dongchimi, a pickled radish served in its salty and refreshing brine.
By the early Joseon period (1392-1897), the available spices for kimchi were black pepper, sichuan pepper, and ginger. It was not until the arrival of napa cabbage from China in the 15th century and the chili pepper from Mexico in the 16th century that kimchi began to take shape in its most familiar modern fiery-red form. These newcomers, along with the original star ingredients, came together at last to gain popularity as cabbage kimchi in the late 19th century.
Kimchi is so crucial to the Korean identity that kimjang, the kimchi-making process, was deemed an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO in 2013.
Today, the variety of kimchi spans a range of familial and regional identities: nabak kimchi (water kimchi), oi sobagi (cucumber kimchi), gat kimchi (mustard leaf kimchi), and yeolmu kimchi (young summer radish kimchi) to name a few. It is an unavoidable staple of Korean food served in the form of pancakes, stews, soups, fried rice, and more.
The Korean government has been working very hard the last few years to gain an international following for kimchi. It’s working, but it’d be even more fun if we all learned how to make it ourselves. 🇰🇷
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