One thing that Japanese tourists find pleasantly puzzling is that kimchi is offered for free at all the restaurants in Korea. Why is such good food offered as a free side dish? One possible answer is that kimchi, despite the reduced intake due to a Westernised lifestyle, remains the essential and universal side dish for Koreans.
Kimchi was not for gourmets. It never was. From kings to beggars on the street, kimchi was - and still is - a universal food that represents Korean culture in general and a unique dietary pattern in particular.
Pregnant mothers in Korea, for instance, were allowed to eat cubed radish kimchi only with softened flavour and in precise rectangular shapes. This tradition implies that the well-proportioned shape of kimchi was believed to have a positive impact on unborn babies.
Pulmuone Kimchi Museum in Samseong-dong is an ideal place where visitors can learn how kimchi has secured its universal status at the very root of Korean culture and society.
In the 500-square-metre space, numerous documents about the history of kimchi-making are displayed together with earthenware jars collected from across the nation and the samples of a variety of kimchi indigenous to regions with detailed captions in both Korean and English.
"The museum hosts about 60,000 visitors per year, and the peak season is between October and November, when a lot of Korean students come here to learn how kimchi is made," said Shin Su-sie, curator of the museum in an interview with The Korea Herald.
Shin said the museum runs various programmes for not only Koreans but also foreign visitors. "We have separate monthly programmes for foreign tourists, or expats living in Korea, introducing kimchi-making techniques and related tips," she said.
The museum, established in 1986, has been serving as a representative place where people can learn about kimchi, including its history, cultural background and varieties in different regions.
One positive development, Shin said, is that the government-led campaign for globalising Korean food, along with foreigners' renewed attention to kimchi as a healthy food, is resulting in more kimchi-related programs and museums in local areas.
The red-hot interest in kimchi and its positive effects on the human body has spread beyond Asia in recent years. But for Koreans, kimchi is simply an essential side dish for nearly every meal. When and how did this peculiar dietary pattern start?
Even though the exact origin of kimchi is arguable at best, the existing documents testify to the early emergence of the fermented vegetable culture. A Goryeo period scholar Lee Kyu-bo (1168-1241), in one of his books, referred to the pickling of homegrown radishes and other ingredients in brine for use in winter, suggesting the practice of eating fermented vegetables had started much earlier, probably before the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392).
The practice of eating fermented vegetables faced a turning point during the Goryeo Dynasty when people were strongly encouraged to eat vegetables rather than meat under Buddhist principles, then the official state religion.
However, it was not until a Japanese invasion (1592-98) when the spicy red kimchi was introduced. Scholars generally agree that the import of red pepper from Japan prompted the development of today's kimchi. This is largely based on a book written in 1613 by renowned scholar Lee Su-kwang, in which he mentioned the existence of Japanese mustard, which is believed to be red pepper.
During the middle of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the spicy taste of kimchi, thanks mainly to red pepper, came to vary with the introduction of much more sophisticated techniques along with the addition of other ingredients.
Among the additional condiments, fish paste or jeotgal serves an interesting purpose if mixed in with kimchi. The savoury ingredient is made from fermented anchovies, baby shrimp, oysters, small swordfish or shellfish - whatever is available in different areas. Jeotgal, in a sense, illustrates the unique local cultures and diet patterns reflecting regional differences.
Jeotgal smells strong but if mixed with hot pepper, the smell mysteriously disappears, and today's scientists have discovered that capsaicin from kimchi's red pepper prevents the oils in the jeotgal seasoning from turning stale.
The inclusion of jeotgal and other local foodstuff into kimchi is related to Korean lifestyle in which they used to get much-needed calories and vitamins from the very mixture of the various ingredients used for kimchi.
One conventional yardstick with which to identify as many as 200 variants of kimchi is how much salt is used and what kind of jeotgal is added. Kimchi from the central Gyeonggi area has a simple and light flavor. Chungcheong province kimchi, meanwhile, has a relatively high proportion of jeotgal, resulting in a stronger and savoury aftertaste. Kimchi from southwestern regions is known as a hot and stimulating kind. Mountainous Gangwon Province kimchi has such unusual elements as squid or walleye pollack. Also of note, if garlic is missing, it's definitely from Buddhist temples.
This variety of kimchi often poses a question: What is kimchi?
Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish seasoned with mainly red pepper, garlic, ginger and salted fish. Also on the list for kimchi-making are various vitamins, abundant fibres, minerals and anti-cancer substances. All these things can be obtained with surprisingly few calories - approximately 33 calories per cup.
Kimchi also represents the cooperative spirit of Koreans. During the kimchi-making season, or gimjang, around late November or early December, Korean mothers used to help each other in turns mainly because the amount of kimchi for the then extended family was too burdensome (often over 100 Chinese cabbages were needed), not to mention the manpower needed for preparing all sorts of condiments and various ingredients.
With the rapid introduction of Western food, coupled with changes in apartment-oriented housing, today's Koreans prefer buying bottled and plastic-packed kimchi at the supermarket.
"The intake of kimchi is definitely going down among Koreans," said Shin. "However, it is still impossible for Koreans to live without kimchi. Where else can you find people who request kimchi as a side dish even when they eat pizza?"
Pulmuone Kimchi Museum is on the underground second floor of COEX Mall in southern Seoul. For further information, visit its homepage at www.kimchimuseum.or.kr or call (02) 6002-6456.
