Add a flavour punch and probiotics with kimchi

During the start of the covid-19 pandemic, when the world outside felt uncertain and scary, I took comfort in a bunch of Korean home vloggers on YouTube.

- NANDITA IYER

During the start of the covid-19 pandemic, when the world outside felt uncertain and scary, I took comfort in a bunch of Korean home vloggers on YouTube. These creators filmed their daily lives with top-notch aesthetics and gentle music, all while doing mundane chores like cleaning their house, doing dishes, watering plants and folding laundry. The most exciting part for me was watching them prepare over a dozen banchan (side dishes) to go with perfectly steamed rice or large batches of kimchi to last them several months. Their homes were serene, their routines grounding and their food delectable, especially the kimchi. It was an antidote to my anxiety.

During the same period, I also devoured every episode of the food K-drama Let's Eat (possibly the only K-drama I've watched as avidly). It is a charming show about an even more charming Goo Dae-young, a food-loving and food-blogging insurance salesman who eats at a different restaurant every day. What hooked me wasn't just the food (though the dramatic zoom-ins of sizzling jjimdak—or braised chicken—and bubbling stews were cinematic genius), it was his dramatic, almost poetic monologues describing whatever he ate.

Inspired by the above, I found myself craving the tang, crunch and complexity of a well-fermented kimchi. I started experimenting in my own kitchen, first a quick cucumber kimchi, then a radish kimchi and eventually braving the more traditional napa cabbage version. While it seems complicated, once you get past the washing, chopping, salting and mixing, it's surprisingly doable.