It’s just past kimjang right now–the time when many traditional Korean households bury a supply of spiced cabbage in the backyard to help sustain them through the winter. Kwang and Yang Lee, owners of Ravenswood’s Chicago Kimchee, aka Korea Kimchee (and briefly the Kimchi Museum), are supervising their two employees as they plunge their rubber-gloved arms elbow deep into a lavalike mixture of powdered red pepper, ginger, garlic, sugar, shrimp paste, fish sauce, and MSG.
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The Lees have raised three kids on cabbage. Kwang Lee was a military man in South Korea–a lieutenant colonel–and a black belt in tae kwon do. After 22 years he retired and became an architect, but by 1986 the Lees had had enough of the tumultuous South Korean political situation. Kwang brought his family to Chicago, where his older brother owned a hot dog stand, and found work with a produce wholesaler on Fulton Street. Within a year he’d bought out the owner and had begun to expand, eventually moving up near Lawrence and Pulaski so he could be closer to the Korean community. When business took a downward turn, Kwang left produce for the kimchi trade, purchasing Chicago Kimchee from its founder in 1990. The Lees moved to a gray-brick industrial space next to the Brown Line and prospered enough that their son, Jay, felt comfortable leaving to join the U.S. air force, where he served as a military policeman.
A recent column in the Korea Herald announced that there are about 187 varieties of kimchi. “Koreans started inventing new kimchi because of their egos,” theorized the writer. “They wanted to have a new kimchi for their own province, city, county, village, etc. and wanted to brag about it to the rest of the country.” Generally kimchi from North Korea is lighter, less salty, and juicier, while South Korean kimchi is made more often with salted fish sauce and is heavier and spicier. Different recipes use different cuts of vegetables–radish tops, say, or whole cabbage heads stuffed with spices. Kimchi also differs by season. In the old days, when the kimjang kimchi had soured, people developed recipes using the spring’s young vegetables and went lighter on the chilies and garlic.
The rate at which fermentation occurs changes according to temperature; naturally, it happens faster in the summer and slower in the winter, which partly accounts for recipes that change with the season. At room temperature fermentation starts within 24 hours. In a refrigerator it occurs in two or three days. When households make their own kimchi they can time its production and consumption according to their preferences. Some commercial producers try to curb the process with preservatives, which increase shelf life but inhibit fermentation. When it’s mass-produced, kimchi can’t be all things to all people.
“I came back from the service and said, ‘What the hell is that?’” says Jay. “My dad didn’t have any clue.” Sightseers were shooed away, told there was no kimchi museum or that the museum was “closed.” The sign stayed up for a few years, but Jay says no one ever got a tour.
