If you love kimchi

In 2021, Mehnoor Mohsin, a graduate student at the capital's East West University, took a step toward her passion for cooking.

Since childhood, she has loved food and cooking different cuisines. In 2019, she made kimbap, a Korean rice dish, for the first time, which received appreciation from her friends. Later, she made other Korean and Japanese dishes like kimchi, tteokbokki, japchae, etc. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, when her henna art business was going through a rough patch, Mehnoor started her food page 'Kimchi Apa' in January 2021. 

"All I knew was that people loved my Kimchi, and orders came pouring in without me realising that I could not even cook this much food by myself," Mehnoor said. 

After kimchi is made and fermented, it must be stored in airtight boxes; otherwise, the pungent smell may spread inside your fridge. Photo: Collected

What surprised Mehnoor was that people in Bangladesh loved the pungent taste of this Korean dish. "I released that with the popularity of K-pop, K-drama, and Korean beauty products; in short, the influence of Korean culture had made their food popular among our young generation," she said. 

And Mehnoor is probably right. Currently, there are five to six social media pages in Bangladesh which sell kimchi, along with other Korean and Asian dishes. Besides Kimchi Apa, Kimchi Bari, Kimchi Bhai, and Kimchi Ghar are a few of the notable Facebook pages that started their business from 2020 and onwards, and they have thousands of likes and followers. 

But before we delve further into Mehnoor's story about making kimchi and the dish's popularity in Bangladesh, let us first see what kimchi is. 

Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish (banchan) made of salted and fermented vegetables, usually napa cabbage or Korean radish. According to the Kimchi makers in Bangladesh, it is quite similar to the traditional pickles of Bangladesh, with the distinction being that Bangladeshi pickles are made with fruits, whereas Kimchi is preferably made with vegetables.

Apart from the vegetable itself, the primary ingredients of kimchi are salt, chilli powder (Korean Gochugaru), rice flour, shrimp paste, and fish sauce. Napa cabbage, radish, beetroot, cucumber, bok choy, green onion, and mushrooms can also be fermented to make kimchi. 

Kimchi is sold for Tk800 to Tk1,300 per kilogram, depending on the vegetable used, fermentation time, and process.

Korean Napa cabbage makes the best Kimchi

"I tried making it with our traditional leafy cabbage, but it doesn't taste as good as the Napa cabbage kimchi. And that is why winter is the best time to buy this item, as in this season, Korean napa cabbage is available in our local markets," Mehnoor said.

November to February is the best time to make and store kimchi.   

In addition, winter radish and spring onions make good kimchi, as they have a pungent taste that gradually enhances with the spices. 

"Traditionally, shrimp paste and fish sauce are used. However, I avoid adding those in my kimchi paste so that the vegetarians can also have it," Md Babu, owner of Kimchi Bari said. 

Photo: Beetroot Kimchi from Kimchi Bari

You can include dried shrimp in your kimchi if you want to avoid adding raw shrimp. Fry them in a dry pan and crush them before adding them to your kimchi spice paste.        

Crunch-test: The ultimate Kimchi testing scale

From the very moment of making a batch, you can have kimchi as it is or as a side dish for your rice. Photo: Collected

The first step of making kimchi is marinating the vegetable in salt brine for seven to eight hours so that the moisture from the vegetables comes out. This way, the vegetable stays crunchy even after a long time. 

After the brining process, the spice paste is applied to the vegetables and it is left to ferment for a day. "From the very moment of making a batch, you can have kimchi as it is or as a side dish for your rice," Mehnoor said. 

After kimchi is made and fermented, it must be stored in airtight boxes; otherwise, the pungent smell may spread inside your fridge. 

While fresh kimchi can be consumed as a side dish, aged kimchi is extremely pungent and sour, which is why it is better to cook it as a stew or add it while cooking ramen and other curry dishes. "Adding aged kimchi while cooking gives a different flavour to your dish," Babu added.   

"Apart from the spicy ones, there is a sweet variation called the Moo kimchi. It is basically fresh vegetables stored in salt and sugar mixed with vinegar. This one tastes amazing with biriyani and khichuri," Mehnoor said.

If you want to make your own batch of kimchi 

"You need a lot of space and big bowls," Mehnoor explained. "There was a time when I had orders of Tk7,000 a day. Back then, I was based in Old Dhaka, so making enough space was a big challenge for me. To solve this issue, I took batch orders for a week and announced that I would be delivering food for a particular day of the week," she said.

Later, Mehnoor shifted to Aftabnagar, where she had a designated large space for laying her brined cabbage and squeezing salt water from it. 

"If you are fast enough, you can process 12-15 cabbages a day for making kimchi. It takes an entire day's labour, and you cannot feel your waist at night. But I think if you love making something, you can go through this," she said.