Kimchi: Korean food goes global
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kimchi, the tangy fermented vegetable dish, is now being made and sold around the world.
South Korea’s kimchi export value has risen dramatically in the past few years, going far beyond Asia. And it's consumed by not only overseas Koreans but by the locals too.
While kimchi remains a distinctly Korean dish, in recent years, those with little to no connection to the country have been producing and selling kimchi.
What is behind the rise?
In this edition, David Cann looks into the growing popularity of the dish; speaking to kimchi experts, traders and producers.
Presented and produced by David Cann.
(Picture: Kimchi being made at a traditional market in Seoul, South Korea. Credit: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Global Story is your new daily deep dive into one big news story, |
| 0:05.8 | and it's coming soon Monday to Friday from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:10.6 | Search for the Global Story, wherever you get your BBC podcasts, to find out more. |
| 0:23.9 | Hello and Anongohnasimika. |
| 0:28.1 | I'm David Ken, and today I want to talk about my home country's national dish, |
| 0:35.7 | kimchi, tangy and often spicy fermented vegetables ever present in tables and kitchens across Korea. |
| 0:42.2 | Kimchi is simply inseparable from the lives of Koreans. |
| 0:44.8 | They eat it from birth throughout their lives. |
| 0:50.5 | In the recent years, however, kimchi has gained popularity beyond Korea and Korean communities, |
| 0:53.9 | capturing the palette of the curious and the health conscious alike. I didn't believe it at the time, but all the data that we'd shown showed a massive upsurge in sales, |
| 1:00.0 | whether it's through our own retail or through other retailers. Wow. |
| 1:04.0 | I don't think I meet anybody that doesn't know what kimchi is. |
| 1:07.0 | Whilst us Korea may hold a gold standard of kimchi, with thousands of tons of it being shipped out every year, others are getting in on the action with their little local twists. |
| 1:16.9 | So I've kind of adapted to the way, you know, people's taste buds in the UK, but also in the way that I like it. |
| 1:23.5 | So what is behind kimchi's global popularity? And is there such a thing as an authentic |
| 1:28.3 | kimchi? We'll also talk about its history and perhaps my family recipe too. That's all coming up in today's episode of Business Daily. |
| 1:41.3 | Today I'm in my kitchen with my mother who's visiting me from South Korea. |
| 1:45.0 | Hello, thank you. |
| 1:47.0 | And we are going to be making classic becichu kimchi or cabbage kimchi. |
| 1:52.0 | So for the ingredients we have the cabbage, |
| 1:59.0 | some spring onion, and of course the garlic. |
| 2:03.6 | And everything else, including gochukkowl, which is a Korean chili powder, and a lot of salt. |
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