However, something that I did not expect to experience happened on the last few days of my vacation. Yong and Irene told me that that their mother ( in-law ) is going to be busy during Sunday as it is Kimjang [ 김장 ] day for them.
Kimjang [ 김장 ] refer to the traditional process of preparation and preservation of kimchi during winter.
Kimchi [ 김치 ] is a kind of traditional fermented side dish made of vegetables with different kinds of seasonings and is often being described as spicy and sour. There are many different varieties of Kimchi [ 김치 ] made from napa cabbage ( kind of Chinese cabbage ), radish, cucumber as the main ingredient.
Kimchi [ 김치 ] is made fresh from seasonal vegetables during summer, but during winter, people need to prepare large amount of Kimchi [ 김치 ] so as to provide nutrition throughout winter.
Kimjang [ 김장 ] can lasted for 2 to 3 days with the help from many people. The amount of cabbages prepared will depend on the number of people in the household.
Kimjang [ 김장 ] can be a tough and tiring process thus lots of people prefer to get ready-make Kimchi [ 김치 ] from the market rather than spending the time to make their own Kimchi [ 김치 ]. However, due to the fact the Yong's mum is a lady with traditional thinking so I can get to experience and view the process too. And Yong's mum is so nice to change the day of Kimjang [ 김장 ] to Saturday as I will be meeting up with my friend on Sunday.
Look at the amount of napa cabbage needed for Kimjang [ 김장 ]
Nowadays, things can get more simple as you can get salted napa cabbage from the market and you can save the time and shorten the process of kimchi making. The soaking and seasoning of the cabbage can take hours and allowing the cabbage to sit in order to ensure that the salt is absorbed evenly can take another few hours. Usually, people will choose to go through this process the day before and the actual kimchi making will take place the next day.
With salted cabbage ( cabbage that have already go through the process of soa, season and sitting in ) selling on the market, people get to save a lot of time and trouble.
Other vegetables needed
The process of Kimjang [ 김장 ] is really not easy as I thought. From the shows that I had watched on TV, they did not show much on the process, so I did not expected the amount of effort and work required. Yong's mum woke up really early ( guess about 4-5am ), so as to prepare the stock used.
The stock is made with a kind of shrimp sauce [ 새우젓 ] and kim [ 김 ] ( seaweed ) and boiled for some time ( think it can even take hours since Yong's mummy gonna wake up that early ).
Shrimp sauce [ 새우젓 ] and Kim [ 김 ]
A friend of Yong's mum came at about 9-10am and I heard from Yong's mum that her friend is really good in cooking especially cooking of Korean food. Her friend will be the main 'chef' for the Kimjang [ 김장 ] process while the rest of the people are the helpers. Her friend sat down and started the really long process of cutting the vegetables.
Look at the skill of her cutting
Thin and even strips of radish
After about 1 - 2 hours of cutting, all the vegetables are finally evenly cut and all ready for the next step.
Red chili flakes [ 고추가루 ] being added to the radish. The amount of chili flakes added depends on the degree of spiciness that you want. If you are the kind that can't really take food that is too spicy, you can reduce the amount of chili flakes.
Ensuring the chili flakes [ 고추가루 ] is well-mixed with the radish
Stock is added to the mixture
Shrimp sauce [ 새우젓 ] being added
Kim [ 김 ] being added
Porridge-like substance added
I was told that this so called porridge-like substance is made from rice and they served the purpose of making the mixture to be 'sticky' so that they will 'stick' to the napa cabbage later on.
Spring onion added to the chili paste mixture
Fish sauce being added
Chili paste all ready to be 'apply' to the napa cabbage
After going through some many rounds of adding ( of ingredients ) and mixing, the chili paste is finally ready to be 'apply' on the napa cabbage.
The napa cabbage are usually cut into half so that it is easier to apply the chili paste on it.
Applying the chili paste onto the cabbage
I thought that you just have to apply the chili paste onto the cabbage and that's all but I'm wrong. There is a certain way to apply the chili paste. You have to 'separate' a few leaves of the cabbage ( without tearing them out ) and these few leaves are used to wrap around the cabbage and it was said that to keep and seal the taste in the cabbage.
Kimchi are all ready
Oysters
Some families will add oysters to the mixture of chili paste but in this case, Yong's mum taught me to eat the oyster with the kimchi that is just freshly made. The crunchy taste, the spiciness and the sweetness of the kimchi totally blend with the oyster and the oyster add sweetness to the kimchi. I'm the kind of people who don't like to eat raw food but I can totally accept this particular way of eating the oyster and not finding and raw feeling from the oyster at all.
The kimchi are then kept and placed in a container with good seal. Usually they will not filled the kimchi right to the brim as the kimchi will produce liquid while fermenting and it might overflow.
The kimchi will be leave out in room temperature for a day or two for proper fermentation. And they will be kept in the refrigerator after that.
Korean family usually have 2 refrigerator in their homes, one for normal food stuff while one is just purely for storing of kimchi.
Lunch for the day
We had our lunch with the fresh kimchi and soup cooked by Yong's mum. Although the lunch was simple, but it's really tasty....Missing the food right now...Really love the soup...
Extra Information about Kimjang [ 김장 ] :
The practice of Kimjang [ 김장 ] reestablish Korean identity and strengthens family cooperation. Kimjang [ 김장 ] encourages sharing and exchanging and helps to strenghten family ties, as each famil has their own method of Kimchi [ 김치 ] preparation and therefore, every family's unique method and flavors will be passed from generation to generation. Newly added family members will have to learn and must be willing to adapt and the customs of their new family.
Thus, Kimjang [ 김장 ] serves as an remainder for many Koreans that the human communities need to live in harmony with the nature.
Kimjang [ 김장 ] was added to the world's intangible heritage list by UNESCO.
The listing allow Korea to not only preserve the yearly household tradition and the community spirit that goes with it but also allowing Korea to promote Kimchi [ 김치 ] globally.
Although there are lesser families who are willing to spend the time to continue the tradition due to the fact that most people are getting busy with their lifestyle, however, there are still families who are willing to continue this traditional and they deserved to be praised and recognized for their effort in maintaining the traditional.
Really enjoyed myself experiencing Kimjang [ 김장 ] and learning about things that I had never seen before. The whole experience was really wonderful and I really hope that I will have the chance to do it again..Till then, I will just keep the memory in my mind and recapping about the process when winter is approaching. =P
Hope that this article helps you in understanding more about the making of Kimchi [ 김치].
And I officially declared that my vacation has come to an end...but I'm sure that I will be visiting Korea again in the near future and exploring other cities and culture of Korea. Till then, gonna catch up with the articles on public holidays in Korea and the reviews of the accommodation that I had stayed in Korea.
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