Chungcheong
충청도
The plainest of them all, deliberately. Salt does the work and the crunch is the point.
- Seasoning
- Plain
- Known for
- 석박지 · 나박김치
- Provinces
- Chungcheongbuk, Chungcheongnam, Daejeon, Sejong
Chungcheong kimchi is plain on purpose. Salt does most of the work, chilli stays light, and the texture — the snap of the cabbage rib — is what the cook is protecting.
The logic is that kimchi sits beside everything else on the table and should not shout over it. Southerners visiting have been known to ask why there is so little in the jar.
Kkakdugi is said to have been cut here first, in Gongju.