Research on the birth (起源) and names (語源) of foods such as kimchi is important to understand traditional food culture. kimchi, an ‘add flavored, fermented, pickled, vegetable food’ was initially prepared with the simple purpose of increasing storage capabilities, but later, through a complex process of change, morphological diversification occurred. In addition to the basic name of ‘kimchi’, each variety has its unique name and history. This study was conducted through qualitative research using various research methods, such as oral records and interviews, as well as investigation of data from literature, including ancient literature, modern cookbooks, newspapers, magazines, papers, and videos. The study sought to investigate the context and the meaning of the name Chonggak kimchi. In addition, it is a compilation of how the name spread through the ages and evolved to its current name. The name Chonggak kimchi did not exist during the Joseon Dynasty and Japanese occupation and first appeared in the records in the late 1950s. Nevertheless, the original name of ‘Altarimu kimchi’ evolved and finally became a part of the standard Korean language (標準語) in 1988. In the process of the name spreading and becoming popular, the movie “Chonggak kimchi (1964),” starring Shin, S.I., and Eom, A.R. played a significant role. It was also confirmed that this was a meaningful and valuable case of contentization of traditional food culture, regardless of the intention behind the same.

The purpose of this study is to optimize the composition of the medium for turmeric fermentation and to select competent turmeric fermentation strains using bacterial isolates from kimchi. Initially, 30 isolates from kimchi were cultured in 5% (w/v) yeast extract and 1% (w/v) maltodextrin to determine viability. As a result, eight strains showed a tendency to maintain viability until the fifth day of fermentation. Subsequently, the eight isolates were fermented in an optimum medium for turmeric fermentation, 5% (w/v) yeast extract, 1% (w/v) maltodextrin, and 5% (w/v) turmeric for seven days to determine the viable cell count and antioxidant capacity. The antioxidant capacities of turmeric fermented by the eight isolates were similar or higher than turmeric fermented by Lactococcus lactis KCTC 2013, while maintaining high viable cell counts of both the eight isolates and L. lactis KCTC 2013 until the seventh day of fermentation. The antioxidant capacities of the selected five strains during fermentation might increase possibly due to the biological conversion of active compounds in turmeric by fermentation. Consequently, a total of five strains of the isolates showing higher antioxidant capacity (4.81±0.19-5.81±0.04 VCE/mL) than fermentation day 0 were selected for fermentation of turmeric.

This study aims to establish a strategy for selling kimchi to satisfy the needs and wants of European consumers through survey, FGI, and IDI. All survey participants were Europeans and were selected on the basis of their kimchi awareness. For the quantitative survey, 246 participants 15 years or older were selected; for FGI, 33 participants aged between 20 and 49 were selected; and for IDI, eight chefs were selected. The survey included four steps of ‘Awareness-First try-Needs-Future consumption’. The participants got to know kimchi through the Internet; for example, by visiting Korea and Hallyu, and suggested positive comments, including ‘fancy’ and ‘exotic.’ While satisfaction with kimchi sharply decreased due to taste and appearance in the first try of kimchi, it is important to provide the best first-try experience. It also showed that important needs for kimchi are ‘hot sensation’ , ‘crunchiness’ and ‘presentation’. They gave a negative answer to combination with traditional cuisines of their own country, but provided positive comments for benchmarking the use of traditional pickled foods. This study suggests that it may be necessary to implement a two-track strategy by the traditional kimchi as a ‘strategic product’ and localized kimchi as a ‘key product’.

The modernization process of Korea, which can be considered westernization, has influenced Korean folk culture. In this process the kimchi culture could be destroyed. However the kimchi culture has survived very well to date. This study was conducted to investigate the cause of this survival of the kimchi culture. To accomplish this, the enormous influence of modernization on kimchi culture and the cause of its successful survival was investigated in the middle region of the Korean peninsula. We think that the kimchi culture can survive because of the inherent system and structure. Kimchi is composed of vegetables, salt, seasoning, and salted seafood (jeotgal), which are systemized. We also described the kimchi ethnography in this region to study the regional characteristics. The eastern coast uses a different method to salt the cabbage during the production of Kimchi, namely it uses seawater to accomplish this. Additionally, pollak broth is used instead of jeotgal. However nowadays the regional uniqueness of kimchi culture has greatly disappeared in large part, and Korean kimchi is standardized in this region.