Kimchi makers face daunting mission for globalization: removing spicy odor
.jpg?w=728)
Kimchi chocolate, left, and kimchi juice are some of the kimchi variations that broke the traditional image of kimchi to target broader consumers outside Korea.
By Ko Dong-hwan
While the Korean government and citizens may take pride in kimchi and wish to globalize the traditional Korean side dish, it will not happen unless its unique spicy odor is removed, according to experts.
Scientists at the World Institute of Kimchi near Gwangju are trying to develop kimchi’s good bacteria (especially the lactic acid that gives kimchi its probiotic qualities) and reduce its odor, according to the Washington Post.
A scientist said getting the smell out of kimchi was difficult because “the smell is linked to the flavor of the kimchi.”
“Most Western people don’t like the smell of kimchi because we use of lot of garlic and ginger, and that produces a lot of sulfur compounds,” the scientist said.
While the experts are working on the problem, housewives in Korea have shared tips on how to do it.
Some say they use baking soda, vinegar and citric acid to remove the smell from jars that contained the food. Others suggest ground coffee leftover, onions, sugar water or flour.
But not all Koreans support the kimchi globalization project.
“Why is the Korean government trying to globalize kimchi, which foreigners find hard to deal with and to them the concept of a side dish has not existed at all?” asked a netizen.
“Was it because of those elders who disregard the different perspectives from outside Korea and just want to shove the food in their mouths, saying ‘Just eat it, it’s good for you’?
“I bet whoever came up with the globalization project never had a foreign friend. Why didn’t they instead promote something foreigners find easy to enjoy, like kalbi or bibimbop?”
Some netizens condemned the Korean product “kimchi chocolate,” which they said “makes Korea rather a laughing stock than globalizing the food.”
The Korean government launched the kimchi project in 2005 to promote the food through exhibitions, producing promotional pamphlets in many languages and supporting academic forums overseas.
A newspaper editorial on June 9 suggested that about 10,000 housewives in Korea from 158 cities and towns should hold a central government-funded kimchi festival and invite people from across the world “to remind them that Korea owns kimchi.”
In 2008, the Lee Myung-bak administration ambitiously announced it would make Korean foods one of the world’s top five and infused 160 billion won ($140 million).
The result? Kimchi exports declined 22 percent in three years and a “ddeokbboki research lab” was shut down in one year.
What have stood out as signature Korean foods outside Korea were not kimchi or ddeokbooki or bibimbop, but rather cup rice or kalbi taco. Kimchi juice, made by an American health food manufacturer and introduced earlier this month on Amazon, were sold out for the first few days.
“Just because the foods are good or healthy for Koreans, that doesn’t mean that foreigners should like them,” a Korean food contents development committee official told KBS.