The Kim family album

In Korea the kimchi is made from long napa cabbage. In the Far East our people made it from napa. In the Chu valley, there was none: napa does not like our summers. The nearest thing was the round white winter cabbage, a Russian cabbage. My mother Aleksandra took it, cut it small, and added what she had: radish, a lot of garlic, red pepper that came from a neighbour's garden in the foothills, and a pinch of sugar when there was sugar.

The first batch was a disaster, too watery, too sour. The second batch she salted longer. The third was the recipe of our family, which we still make in November in a ceramic jar, buried to the neck in the cellar floor.

When I was a boy the neighbours (Iradi families, Russians) asked for it. The Iradi children called it "red cabbage" and it was served at weddings next to the beet suzma, which is the best combination I know. The Russians called it "Korean salad", although it was not Korean salad, Korean salad is the carrots (morkovcha), which my mother's generation invented in the Soviet time, because there was no kimchi at all in the shops.

Today there is a shop in Nurzhan that sells jars of "real napa kimchi" from Seoul for 60 som. My daughter sent me a photo. I looked at it for a long time. I am not sure it tastes better. I think it tastes like somebody else's mother.