Hyesan residents are making their kimchi with soy milk rather than chili powder seasoning this kimjang season, Daily NK has learned.
Kimjang is the Korean tradition of preparing kimchi for winter.
“Some families in Hyesan have recently begun making kimjang kimchi for winter,” a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “However, due to hardship this year, they aren’t using chili powder seasoning in the kimchi. Instead, they use soymilk they make from ground fermented beans, which requires little money.”
The kimjang season begins in mid-October in North Korea, where it gets colder faster than in the South. Kimchi made during the kimjang is so important that people call it “food for half the year,” but with economic difficulties worsening after the COVID-19 pandemic, many families gave up on preparing kimchi for the winter.
However, the source said people have restarted making kimchi this year, no matter what it takes.
“After abandoning the kimjang for the winter during the COVID-19 crisis, people learned how important kimchi is,” he said. “So this year, many people will make at least a little kimchi, regardless of the tough times.”
During their year-end general reviews this year, state agency heads are expected to face evaluation of how much cabbage and radish they provided to workers. As a result, agencies and enterprises are working to scoop up from farms as much cabbage and radish for the kimjang as they can, regardless of the quality. Some enterprises have already supplied the cabbage and radish to their workers, according to the source.
“Most of the families currently making kimchi have designated workplaces and can do so because they’ve received from work cabbage and radish for the kimjang. However, when families have a tough time putting even two meals a day on the table, preparing the chili powder seasoning and salt needed for the kimjang is inevitably a burden.”
In these circumstances, word has been spreading that “making kimchi using soymilk from ground beans yields a pungent flavor even without the chili powder seasoning” and that people “kill two birds with one stone by making kimchi with soymilk — they can save money and still eat kimchi.”
People trying to make kimchi this way are preparing soymilk by soaking beans in water, grounding them up, boiling the mixture, and then letting it cool.
The source told Daily NK that one woman in Hyesan said that her husband received cabbage and radish from work this year, but they had planned to preserve it in salt water and eat it pickled in winter since they could not afford the seasonings.
“However, after hearing that kimchi tastes good if you put it in soymilk, we prepared beans to make kimchi this year,” the woman said, according to the source.
A kilogram of dried, fermented soybeans costs KPW 4,100 in Hyesan Market, while a kilogram of whole chili peppers costs between KPW 23,000 to KPW 30,000, and chili powder costs between KPW 27,000 and KPW 35,000. Cabbage for the kimjang costs KPW 1,000 to KPW 1,500 a kilogram, and radish costs KPW 1,000, but with the autumn harvest still ongoing, prices will likely fall even further.
“People facing economic hardship find it burdensome to buy chili powder, garlic, fermented shrimp and other ingredients,” the source said. “Since even hardpressed people can make kimchi if they use soymilk, which is much cheaper than chili powder, more and more people are making winter kimchi with soymilk.
“Household dependents and elderly households who receive no supplies of cabbage or radish can’t even think of making kimchi this year,” he added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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