We've made our own Kimchi in Brussels since October 2018.
When I first arrived in Belgium I let it lapse — I was afraid it would only measure the distance from home. But I wanted to show my husband what Kimchi really tastes like. Adapting to a new type of cabbage and other local ingredients, it took a good number of batches to find the salt and the timing again.
I hope you enjoy it. You can eat it with rice, or find your own way with it~
There are many things to do with Kimchi.
호랑이 담배 피우던 시절에
Knowledge travels across continents and generations. I arrrived in Belgium from Korea in 2017. We opened IYAGI a year later, when we were 24 y.o., in Rue Longue Vie. It's a humble street, one of the rare places we could afford to renovate.
As a child, I spent hours in the kitchen with my mother and grand-mothers. Korean conservatism left a bitter image of anything related to cooking. For women of my generation, it can often feel like a burden, which is why less and less Koreans cook their own food.
But my appetite was stronger than any ideology and I ended up learning from these long hours watching and observing what would later become my profession.
Telling a story (iyagi : story in Korean) requires time - something that Korean society lacks. In all transparency, I am not a perfect example on how to properly "take time", often looking at optimisation and efficiency like the ultimate goal. But Kimchi wouldn't give me a choice, and slowly, I am getting there.
