Kim Sung Hoon
Posted on 09/19/2012 3:26:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Best I can tell, the former South Korean minister of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries is trying to convince me that fermented cabbage could be sold at Sephora as a regenerative skin-care product.
“I’m 73 years old,” says Sung-Hoon Kim, standing under the Gwangju World Kimchi Culture Festival tent in Bull Run Regional Park last Friday in Centreville. “Do you see any wrinkles on me?”
As I inspect his round, friendly, bespectacled face, I have to admit that I don’t. Well into his eighth decade on Earth, Kim has no crow’s feet around his eyes and no apparent worry lines across his forehead — although his brow is semi-concealed by a ball cap, so the jury’s still out there. Kim comes right out and calls kimchi an “anti-aging” food, then points to three nearby women in colorful hanbok dresses. He says they’re all kimchi masters. Their skin is flawlessly smooth.
“Don’t ask their ages,” Kim warns me.
Kim’s skin-care pitch is part of his mission here in Northern Virginia. He’s the chairman of the 19th annual Gwangju World Kimchi Culture Festival, which made its first-ever foray outside of South Korea over the weekend to promote the country’s national dish of spicy fermented vegetables (there are hundreds of varieties) as part of the larger, 10th annual Korus Festival, organized by the Korean American Association of the Metropolitan Washington Area.
No doubt indulging America’s nearly neurotic desire to outrun death — and look good while doing so — Kim arrived here to sell us on kimchi’s health benefits. Its high-fiber, low-fat properties. Its good bacteria to help with digestion. Its vitamins A, B and C. Frankly, all of this is gravy to me. Kimchi had me at spicy fermented cabbage.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It think that aversion is pretty common. A Korean co-worker could clear out the lunch room within 2 minutes of putting her kimchee in the microwave.
A Korean guy was in a class with me in grad school and during the first semester his wife had not arrived and he had to eat American dorm food. She arrived between semesters (apparently with a 55 gallon barrel of the good stuff in tow) and when he walked into class there were nearly visible garlic fumes coming off his clothes.
I love the stuff myself but unless both you and your significant other and colleagues are too, the radiant aroma can be a little overpowering. My wife hates that I keep a big jar of Kimchee in the fridge but there are no decent Korean restaurants in our area and every once in awhile I need my fix.
I swear it would be easier to drink ammonia than to put kimchee in my mouth, it’s just evil smelling, lol.
A jar of kimchee and a six pack of beer, and I'm a danger to the environment.
The First lady has threatened me with calling the EPA.
5.56mm
/johnny
I eat kinchi daily.
Home-made, and multiple varieties, too!
My friend told me that in Korea, a good wife should be able to make 23 versions of kimchi. I don’t know if that’s true or not.
I say this in all truthfulness. While stationed in Korea many moons ago one could be at one end of a hooch and a person who had been out on the town and eating authentic Korean kimchee could come in the door at the other end and the odor would reach the first person immediately. It could be that pungent.
It took me about 15 months to try the foul smelling stuff. Was beyond famished one night waiting for food to arrive so I tried it. Loved it since the first bite.
Never learned Korean spelling but if I barked this out in my broken Korean it produced amazing results: "Mekchu Nege!" And have you ever had anything better than Kalbi?
As far as the thread and age lines, think what heavy smokers look like in the States. Then consider the amount of cigs consumed over there. Ought to be enough proof for Mr. Kim's theory right there.
The Med Mafia goons don’t want to hear a word about real disease prevention.
They’ll outlaw all real food and make deadly drugs madatory if they can.
You can just make ordinary sauerkraut. As long as it is never heated, it is just as healthy as kimchi.
Yea, I use to buy it at Walmart too, no longer there. Spent 18 months in the ROK and I ate kimchee everyday. My wife did not like it because I smelled like garlic. It definitely cleans out your system, especially the hot version.
i cook a lot and my house always smells like garlic. king soopers and safeway in denver sell jars but the king sooper isn’t hot. i grossed out an army aviator who was getting tutored one saturday morning by my wife. i sat down at the other end of the dining room table with a breakfast of leftover fried rice, fried scrapple, and kimchi. love the stuff.
Albertson’s here in LA/TX stocks it. I generally have some with lunch or dinner everyday.
Kim Sung Hoon
<fried scrapple
Hmmm, scrapple! I used to love it as a kid, but haven’t had it in decades. I don’t think you can buy it outside of the east coast.
That's sufficient to make you energy independent...
That is probably true. (Probably not too many Amish/Mennonite/Pennsylvania Dutch out in the center of the country. However, you can try your hand at making your own...
Or you can import some from Pennsylvania (actually the company is in Delaware ;-)
Not sure if true, either, but I see different varieties of kimchi all the time. Red kimchi (cabbage), white kimchi, cucumber kimchi, radish kimchi, etc, etc.
I remember seeing those little packages of scrapple in my grandmother’s fridge. Happy memories!
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