It is the winter kimchi-making season now in the DPRK. It is a traditional Korean custom to make winter kimchi which the locals call the half share of the total food for the season. Every winter every Korean household prepares the savoury national dish according to their local and family practices. The Koreans eat kimchi all the year round, especially 300-400g each every day in winter. Housewives apply themselves to the preparation of the dish. They get ready bok choy with good hearts, watery radishes and such seasonings as powdered red pepper, garlic, ginger, pickled and raw fish and other subsidiary ingredients. “From olden times, the Koreans have gathered in a neighbour’s house in the winter kimchi-making season to help each other with pickling and washing bok choy, preparing seasonings and filling kimchi pots,” said Han Kyong Hwa, head of a neighbourhood unit in Jonsung-dong, Moranbong District, Pyongyang. “Such a custom has been carried on and is also practised in our neighbourhood unit.” According to her, the neighbours exchange experience in making appetizing kimchi at such time and the taste of the food depends on the skill of housewives. “They have a competition to see who makes the tastiest kimchi this season,” she added. After pickling and washing the vegetable, they made seasonings for stuffing. Kim Myong Suk who moved to Pyongyang from North Hamgyong Province in spring made the seasonings deep red with pepper powder and sliced walleye pollack and flatfish, while her next-door neighbour added pickled anchovies and spicy fruits of prickly ash. After making seasonings according to their family traditions, the housewives put the stuffings between the leaves of halved bok choy heads and piled them inside the sterilized pots. They then put the outer leaves of the vegetable on the piles in order not to let in air. After a few days, they would pour in the water which has almost the same salty taste as the pickled vegetable and place a stone on each pot lest the vegetables should float in the kimchi juice. A newly married woman put bundles of perilla branches sparsely in her pot, saying her mother would do so to give some extra flavour to kimchi. In addition, they made other kinds of kimchi according to the taste of their family members, such as cubed radish kimchi, wrapped-up kimchi and leaf-mustard kimchi. After finishing kimchi making they had a pleasant time sampling each other’s seasonings. Mouth-watering at first sight with the delicate taste of fermentation and refreshing spices, the different kinds of kimchi would build up appetites of their family members throughout the winter. Kimchi-making techniques are frequently introduced on different TV channels these days to elevate the mood of the kimchi-making season. By Pang Un Ju PT