Kimjang
Kimjang
When I arrived early at the cafe we had agreed to meet at, Lee Min-ho, who had gotten there much earlier and was waiting for me,
was slumped over the table, his head resting on it, completely exhausted.
What on earth did he do at night to always come to school looking like that?
Was he working some night job really hard?
"Why are you like that from the morning?"
Jeong Hwan-yi, who normally would have just chuckled and not bothered to ask,
strangely struck up a conversation with Lee Min-ho today.
Come to think of it, he seemed a bit more worn out than usual..
Could he have been dumped?
But Lee Min-ho's reply was beyond anything I could have imagined.
"...My family did kimjang yesterday."
"Keuh... Is it already that season?"
"Lee Min-ho.. worn out from house chores?"
"I'm quite the filial son at home, you know?"
It wasn't entirely believable, but seeing him completely wiped out from housework,
he must have been helping his parents more than one would think.
"When Lee Min-ho's family does kimjang, they make 1000 heads of cabbage at a time."
"O..One thousand heads?"
"Don't even ask. When we finished and I straightened my back, the sky looked yellow."
I'd only ever made a couple of heads of kimchi at home, or joined in when the whole orphanage did kimjang together.
Even then, with over ten people pitching in, we didn't even get close to 500 heads—maybe 150?
At that, Lee Min-ho suddenly seemed worthy of respect.
One thousand heads...
"Since your family has already done it, my family will probably do it soon."
"But your family does it on a small scale, right?"
"Well, yeah. At most, we'll do maybe 100 heads?"
Lee Min-ho and Jeong Hwan-yi gulped down the coffee they had set aside and turned to me, who was sitting there staring blankly at them.
"Seong-hwan, doesn't your household do kimjang?"
"Well... since A-ra Noona likes kimchi, I should do it, but."
"But with your stamina, you'd collapse in no time."
"Hey, I've done kimjang before, you know?"
No matter how physically weak I was,
I didn't collapse just from cooking.
Surely... I wouldn't collapse.
"Don't be stubborn—should we help you?"
"Yeah, A-ra-nim is busy, so you'd have to do it alone, right?"
"That's true, but...."
"How upset would A-ra-nim be if you collapsed while moving cabbages?"
"Right, families do it together, but you're on your own?"
Both of them told me to leave it to them and started showing off their muscles.
By women's standards, it would have been laughable,
but from my perspective as a fellow guy, they couldn't have been more reliable.
"Since we're on the subject, let's just go to the store today and buy the ingredients."
"Today? Cabbages need to be salted and drained, you know."
Because cabbages need to be salted to wilt them first,
it takes quite a bit of time.
They say two-thirds of kimjang is just wilting the cabbages.
"These days, stores sell pre-salted cabbages and even the seasoning."
"If you buy all that, is there even a point to doing kimjang...?"
"Nowadays they mix the seasoning with your requested ingredients. So you can get a base mix and just add whatever else you want."
To think there was such a method...
I'd have to call the orphanage later and pass on this honey tip.
After depositing the kimjang budget into Mom's account separately.
"How many heads are you going to make?"
"Hmm... wouldn't 20 heads be enough?"
"Even 15 would be plenty, I bet."
"Let's go with that then."
Even though A-ra ate a lot of rice, she didn't eat a lot of kimchi.
She just thought of it as one of the side dishes.
Hmm... she really liked chonggak radish, though.
Maybe she just preferred that kind?
"By the way, Lee Min-ho, you're going to help too?"
"Of course."
He frowned as if asking why I was even bringing up such an obvious thing.
Considering the guy who'd been half-dead from exhaustion just moments before was saying he'd help with kimjang, it was understandable.
"Won't it be hard?"
"Hey, 15 heads won't even take an hour."
"It only takes that long...?"
I felt like I'd spent an hour just seasoning one bundle of chonggak radish by myself.
Maybe because Lee Min-ho was a veteran who had tackled a thousand heads, he chuckled, saying 15 heads was nothing.
Well, I was grateful for the help,
so it was better to quietly accept their kindness.
"Still, it'll be easier since you have a car, Seong-hwan."
"Without it, it would've been a hassle. My car has a small trunk."
I nodded automatically.
My beloved car, the Porsche Cayenne, had a fairly spacious trunk.
It could probably fit about four A-ras, right?
That's why you should drive a car with a large trunk.
*
We bought everything we needed from the store and came up to the apartment.
Thankfully, the female desk staff at the apartment
—since we looked like we were struggling— lent us something like a cart.
They'd talked big about their muscles, but being muscular didn't seem to make any difference after all.
"Whoa... they really do sell pre-salted cabbages and everything."
"In a capitalist market, they sell just about anything."
"Except for households like Lee Min-ho's, doesn't everyone buy theirs these days?"
Since they sold cabbages in 20kg units, and the kimjang seasoning was sold mixed to order,
the work had been cut down a lot.
The only additional things we bought were a large rubber basin, several big containers for the kimchi, green onions, radish, ripe persimmons, apples, and pears.
All of these were ingredients to add to the seasoning.
It was a pity they were out of chonggak radish, but regular radish is also really delicious, so it would be fine.
"First, let's blend all the ingredients in the mixer."
"Got it."
While Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho poured the seasoning into the big rubber basin and opened the salted cabbages,
I started blending the apples, pears, and ripe persimmons in a large mixer.
Following Lee Min-ho's honey tip, I added some Sprite when blending the ingredients because he said it gives a fizzy kick and makes delicious seasoning;
not only did the ingredients blend well, but the fizzy smell and carbonation seemed to make it even smoother.
Where the hell did he learn this?
"If it's all blended, pour it in here."
Following the kimjang master's advice, I poured all the blended ingredients into the seasoning filling the large rubber basin.
And using the large spatula we had bought earlier, I stirred the seasoning to mix it well.
"Don't we need to add things like salted shrimp?"
"It's all already in there."
"For that, it sure is cheap..."
It felt like it had only cost about 30,000 won.
At this price, even people who normally just buy their kimchi might set aside some time
to try making their own kimchi, right?
"Phew... It's all mixed. Lee Min-ho, how are the cabbages?"
"Ready to go. We just need to put on rubber gloves and mix it in."
We set down the kimchi containers we had washed clean with hot water,
and started putting on the red rubber gloves.
"Seong-hwan, do you know why we wear red rubber gloves for kimjang?"
"Hmm... is it because of the seasoning color?"
"That's part of it, but people used to judge the mixing ratio of seasoning by its color. You'd keep it mild until the seasoning you were mixing
looked similar to the color of the rubber gloves."
"You really know all kinds of random stuff."
"You're a cooking Qtuber and you didn't even know that?"
For some reason, the two who were so serious about kimjang laughed out loud, asking how I didn't know that.
Was I the weird one for not knowing?
Seemed like they were the weird ones for knowing it, though...
*
"It really took less than an hour..."
"If you'd done this by yourself, you probably wouldn't have finished even if you'd spent all day, right?"
I couldn't help but nod at Lee Min-ho's words.
Mixing 15 heads of cabbage hadn't taken much time at all,
and while we were putting the kimchi into containers and then into the refrigerator, the cleanup was also finished quickly,
taking not even a full hour.
Not only that, we had time left over and even organized the kimchi refrigerator.
"Seriously, without you guys, I don't know what kind of ridiculous struggle I would've gone through alone..."
"You're thankful, right?"
"Tremendously. Enough to want to give you an RV."
"No need for money. If you're grateful, make us some boiled pork."
Boiled pork, huh... If you take a bite of boiled pork with fresh kimjang kimchi on top,
there's no snack more delicious.
But we probably didn't have any meat at home.
I'd have to go down quickly and buy some.
"Boiled pork? Should I go buy some Iberico pork?"
"Don't make a fuss. We bought some pork belly at the store earlier."
I hadn't noticed when Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho had bought it,
but they took out a slab of pork belly and some pork neck.
It was cut perfectly for boiling as bossam, and the neck was sliced thinly.
"What about the neck?"
"Grill it for us."
"It's too much..."
"Just boil half of the bossam meat and grill half of the neck. Use the rest for dinner."
"Ah, that works then."
It hadn't been long since our last meat party, but on the day we made kimchi,
we had to eat kimchi with boiled pork.
To think I hadn't thought to buy meat while doing kimjang...
It seems my instincts had dulled somewhat.
Imagining A-ra's face if she heard we'd made kimchi but didn't buy meat...
made my heart twinge preemptively.
For our cute wife's sake, I had to make sure we had meat.
*
"By the way, we're going to the ski resort next week, right?"
Somehow, we had even cooked rice and doenjang jjigae, and I spoke to the two who were enjoying it.
I'd heard we were going toward Jeolla Province, but they hadn't explained the details yet.
"We've already rented the condo, the lift tickets, and all the equipment."
"Really? Is there anything to pack?"
"Just pack clothes, underwear, and that kind of stuff."
Lee Min-ho said everything else could be solved with money and gulped down his cola, looking refreshed.
Well, it's not like we didn't have money.
"Still, they say it's better to buy your own things like goggles."
"Then, want to go check out an outlet mall that has a bunch of specialty stores tomorrow?"
"There's a place like that?"
"Places that sell sports gear are naturally clustered together."
"Might as well go then."
I nodded at Jeong Hwan-yi's suggestion.
A sports equipment store..
***
"Why is this kimchi so delicious?"
"I-It's good, right? I made it today."
A-ra kept reaching for the kimchi, saying it was really delicious.
It was made with seasoning bought from the store and mixed with some ingredients, but I had the pride of a man who cooks,
and my pride wouldn't let me meekly admit I'd made it with something store-bought.
So in the end, I told a lie
mixed with half the truth.
"When this ripens, you have to make braised mackerel with it."
"Okay. Is it that good?"
"The chonggak radish you usually make is delicious, and this is really tasty too. Should I say it has a hint of persimmon in the seasoning?"
"Actually, I blended in some ripe persimmons."
"I see... Next time, make it with oysters."
"Anytime."
Though the next kimjang wouldn't be until next year.
Watching A-ra enjoy it so much, I just gave a bitter smile.