Kimchi Without the Stench? Korean Woman Has It Down

Kim Soon-ja eats kimchi everywhere she goes, but she’s noticed that outside of Korea, people tend to wrinkle their noses. South Korea’s beloved fermented cabbage dish is among the world’s smelliest foods, the Los Angeles Times notes—so Kim took it upon herself to invent a freeze-dried kimchi that retains the dish’s taste, but not its odor.

Kim, 56, knows her kimchi: The owner of a Seoul food-supply company was named the country’s first kimchi master thanks to her prowess at making it. Some say her now-patented freeze-dried kimchi isn’t the same without its trademark stink, but Kim’s undeterred. She intends to expand the process, using it to create snacks like dried kimchi dipped in chocolate. “Crispy but yummy!” she boasts. (More kimchi stories.)