When Jihyun “Kimmy” Kim reflects on her childhood in Korea, her mind lands on the everyday rhythm of a family dining table. “There would be rice, my mother’s doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) or miyeokguk (seaweed soup), and kimchi would always be there. As a child, I hardly noticed it because it was so normal," she recalled during a recent interview with The Korea Times. Growing up in Korea, kimchi was simply part of everyday life — always present, rarely discussed and taken entirely for granted. Yet when Kim relocated to the United Kingdom in 2008 following her marriage, that quiet background fixture suddenly became a lens through which she viewed her distance from home. “I never really planned to start a kimchi business. It happened quite naturally after living in the U.K. ... In a way, I had to leave Korea to really appreciate something that had always been part of my life.” Kimchi misconceptions Living abroad exposed a striking disconnect between the cultural institution Kim knew and the way Western diners understood it. Overseas, kimchi was frequently reduced to a t