What is Kimjang?
1. What Is Kimjang?
Kimjang(or Gimjang, 김장) is a Korean old tradition of making a big amount of kimchi for eating during long cold winter. In Korea basically vegetables for kimchi, such as cabbage, radish, green onion, can’t grow well in the natural environment of cold winter. Although these days we can get the fresh ingredients easily even in winter thanks to greenhouses and other high tech farming and logic system, we still have this tradition.
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| A family doing kimjang. |
Making a big amount of kimchi at once is not just for preserving and eating it for a long time, also for sharing it with family and neighbors. So it is a big annual event for most of households and many local communities in Korea. Some communities do kimjang for charity. They donate kimjang kimchi to vulnerable groups in the society. That is why kimjang is very meaningful in many aspects.
Normally kimjang is done between late November and early December. It depends on the region and the weather condition. In the north of South Korea it starts earlier, because winter comes earlier. Me and my whole family lives in Seoul and Gyeonggi, so we gathered and did kimjang on 27th November. In the season, interestingly Koreans greet each other saying “Have you done kimjang?” And the answer is like “Yeah, last week” or “Not yet”. And then you can ask, “How many?” As for us, we did kimjang with 200 cabbages, so I would say “We did 200 pogi.” Pogi is used when you count cabbages or kimchi. We were all eight people from four households. By the way, 22nd November is Kimchi’s Day, Korean government designated.
To do kimjang, first, it is needed that cabbages are salted overnight, and then seasoning and other process is done next day. So the whole process takes two days basically. But these days cabbage farmers, markets and retail sellers supply completely salted cabbages, so that it can be finished in one day. Haenam, the region in Jeollanam-do, on the southern coast of Korea, is famous for producing cabbages for kimjang. If you order boxes of salted cabbages and other ingredients for kimjang from a farmer or a wholesaler by internet, you can get your order by next day no matter where you live in South Korea. So fast and so convenient.
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| A suyuk bossam table set after kimjang. |
In the kimjang season, many goods relating kimjang are sold well such as big sized containers, rubber gloves. And we Koreans never miss to eat suyuk(수육, steamed pork) with freshly made kimchi after finishing kimjang. To eat a piece of suyuk, fresh raw oyster and kimjang kimchi together. We call it bossam(보쌈). It is so delicious. So sales of pork are sharply increased in the kimjang season too. Many bossam restaurants are in Korea. You can have bossam at those restaurants without doing kimjang.
2. Kimjang as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Kimjang was designated as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2013. Kimjang and kimchi itself is Koreans’ identity. In this modern era, we don’t need to store lots of kimchi for winter any more because of technology and the shrunken size of family, but still kimjang is a very important tradition in Korean society. Even Korean communities in other countries follow the tradition. Each region, each family has its own way to make kimchi. However the basic recipe has been maintained, even though the different customs from different families have been mixed and fused by marriages for thousands years. The main methods and the principles remain the same. This is why UNESCO listed Kimjang as the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Other Korean traditions on the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage are ssireum(씨름, the traditional Korean wrestling), Yeondeunghoe(연등회, the lantern lighting festival of Korean buddhism), juldarigi(줄다리기, the tugging game), Arirang(아리랑, the Korean folk song), etc. Recently talchum(탈춤, the Korean traditional mask dance) was added.
3. Nutrients of Kimchi
Kimchi is globally well known for having good nutrients. Generally fermented food is good for health, because lactobacillus, aka lactic acid bacteria, are made in the food. Kimchi is rich in lactic acid bacteria like cheese and yogurt. Other than lactic acid bacteria, there are many other good microorganisms inside fermented kimchi. Those microorganisms make kimchi sour, which is good to make your mouse feel fresh when you eat oily food. Also they make Kimchi’s unique strong odor like cheese. To Koreans the odor is that raises appetite.
Kimchi is also well known for being helpful to diet and strengthening immunity. Literally at the beginning of the pandemic, it was viral online that kimchi is helpful to prevent people from being infected the virus, believing it or not.
Some of main ingredients of kimchi are seafood like oyster and salted tiny shrimps. In some regions of Korea big pieces of fish are put in kimchi. But kimchi in Buddhist temples are made with 100 per cent vegetables. So if you are a vegan, you can eat the Buddhist temple’s kimchi without worrying. And some people make vegan kimchi for some reasons, like to avoid an allergy to seafood or not to be against their principles as a vegan. You can find easily vegan kimchi recipes on internet. Garlic is one of kimchi’s main ingredients. Most Koreans love garlic so much. Although garlic is globally well known as a super food, if you don’t like garlic, you can make kimchi with no or less garlic. Try to search the recipe on internet.
4. Varieties of Kimchi
When it comes to kimchi, you can picture cabbage kimchi commonly. We call it baechu kimchi(배추김치). Baechu means a cabbage. But there are so many kinds of kimchi. Actually Koreans can make kimchi with any kind of vegetable, I believe.
The most common thing is cabbage kimchi. There are several types of cabbage kimchi depending on the basic way to make and ingredients. Even we have white cabbage kimchi, called baekkimchi, which is made without powdered red pepper. And the second common kimchi is radish kimchi I think, and there are so many kinds of radish kimchi too, including chonggak kimchi, kkakdugi and dongchimi.
When we do kimjang, after finishing to make kimchi with all prepared cabbages, we make another kimchi with the remaining ingredients like radish kimchi or green onion kimchi. So literally there is no waste.
5. How to Store Kimjang Kimchi
In the past time, kimchi was put into a big jar, called hangari(항아리) in Korean, and this kimchi jar was buried in the ground to keep the temperature. These days you can barely see a kimchi jar buried in the ground. Now we have the kimchi fridge, which is a fridge to store a big amount of kimchi maintaining the temperature for the best taste.
As you know that Koreans love kimchi, a kimchi fridge is big as like an ordinary fridge. But it is not just for storing kimchi. You can also keep other food like meat, fruits, vegetables and even wine and beer into a kimchi fridge altogether with different temperatures. This home appliance is very brilliant.
In the kimjang season, Samsung, LG and Winia, the representative Korean kimchi fridge brands promote competitively their new models.
6. Where to Experience Making Kimchi
For foreigners who have interests in kimchi, there is a kimchi museum called Museum Kimchikan in Insadong, Seoul. Insadong, the street of Korean culture, art and tradition, is very close to Gyeongbokgung, the biggest Korean royal palace.
Museum Kimchikan is operated by Pulmuone, the Korean food company, and CNN said it is one of the worlds’ 11 top food museums. They offer exhibitions with a free English audio guide and one-day classes including making kimchi. You can make kimchi there following instructions and bring it your place. You have to make a reservation via their website to do that.
The location is 300 meters away from Exit No. 6 of Anguk Subway Station on Line No. 3 of Seoul Metro. The address is 35-4 Insadong-gil, Jongro-gu, Seoul.
Its opening hours is 10:00 to 18:00(Last admission 17:30). Off day is every Monday, New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year’s Holidays, Chuseok Holidays and Christmas.
Admission fee is 5,000 won per an adult(4,000 won for a group of 20 people or more), 3,000 won per a kid between age of 8 and 18(2,000 won for a group of 20 people or more), and 2,000 won per a kid between 36 months and 7 years(1,000 won for a group of 20 people or more).
Written and posted by Jamie