There’s a saying that life begins at 40, but for veteran actress Jin Yinji, that magic number is 70ish. At 71, the Korea-born Jin jie snagged a Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes win at the 2018 Star Awards, her first award in more than three decades in showbiz. Now, she’s making her foray into business at the ripe old age of 74. The septuagenarian recently started Gold Kimchi, a month-old online biz selling freshly-made kimchi with her Korean daughter-in-law Cloe Han from their Thomson Road home. Their banchan (Korean side dishes) repertoire includes three types of kimchi — cabbage, radish and cucumber — as well as two types of fried anchovy. 8days.sg visited the three-storey semi-D home (where Yinji lives with her hubby, son, daughter-in-law and two grandkids) for a taste and a chat. We saw basins of vegetables draining in the outdoor ‘wet’ kitchen and huge bowls of red chilli paste fermenting in the indoor ‘dry’ one. Scattered around their dining area and fridges — nine to be exact — were more ingredients and containers of kimchi in various stages of fermentation.

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Yinji tells us she never wanted to go into the F&B scene, let alone start one in her 70s. “With my personality, I know I am not suited to run a business ’cos I will just give away all the food. But my daughter-in-law wanted to start this kimchi business so I decided to support her. Plus, I think her kimchi is really good,” she says.

Even for bubbly Cloe, 37, who describes herself as your typical full-time homemaker, making kimchi was just something she enjoyed and never thought to pursue beyond a hobby. In fact, the mother of two boys, who used to run a boutique in Seoul, tells us in halting English that she originally toyed with the idea of starting an online store selling Korean cosmetics, but the pandemic hit before she could get around to doing it.

Like many Singaporeans, Cloe found herself spending a lot more time in the kitchen during the Circuit Breaker, cooking up a storm and making kimchi for friends after demand for the piquant, fermented vegetables blew up. “A lot of people liked it. Mother also said my kimchi is very nice and that I should share it with more people, so I researched different recipes and ingredients for almost three months before we started selling it,” shares Cloe, who has been living in Singapore for the past nine years.

“She practically turned into a cooking god. Look at the food she cooked,” Jin jie chimes in, showing us photos of Cloe’s bakes and impressive dinner spreads. “How not to put on weight? I piled on 6kg during the Circuit Breaker and had to go on diet ’cos I was going to begin filming [upcoming long-form drama titled Recipe of Life]. Thankfully, I am now back to my original weight of 64kg.”

Unlike store-bought kimchi, which tends to be overly fermented, and as a result, super sour, limp and acidic, Gold Kimchi specialises in freshly-made kimchi, which is crunchy. They are made using Cloe’s “Seoul-style” recipes the traditional way in small batches to ensure freshness and take about two days from start to finish.

“I tweaked my recipes slightly so it is less fishy. Koreans like kimchi with more fish sauce, while Singaporeans like kimchi that is crunchy and less sour. But if you like it sour, then you can you can let the kimchi age for a few days in the fridge before eating,” says Cloe. Aged sour kimchi is great for cooking stews or fried rice as it gives the dish more depth of flavour, while fresh kimchi is best enjoyed as a side dish. The kimchi is best eaten three to five days old. While she recommends that customers consume the kimchi within two weeks, it can be kept for months in the fridge.

So far, the pair has invested a total of around $7,000 to start Gold Kimchi and Cloe has turned their home into her production kitchen.

Cloe is the one who makes the kimchi. She starts her day shopping for ingredients at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market, where she hand-picks vegetables and fruits for her kimchi, and then preps the day’s orders by chopping and brining the various vegetables, before working on the chilli paste, and then mixing the kimchi in the evening.

Though the process is tedious, the 37-year-old insists on doing everything herself. “She is very particular,” says Yinji, who claims to have “retired from the kitchen”. She adds: “I let her do whatever she wants and try not to interfere. She measures all the ingredients with a weighing scale and uses a timer when she cooks. And her ingredients are the best, even the salt, soya sauce and pears she uses are from Korea. This is why I want to support her. She doesn’t cut corners or skimp on ingredients just to save costs. I really take my hat off to her.

As the kimchi is done in small batches, only limited quantities are made each day. Cloe’s husband, Petric Lee, 45, who works in the family’s antique furniture business, takes care of the deliveries, while Yinji helps with the taste testing and to spread the word. “I just promote our kimchi on social media and give them to my celebrity friends and media to try. It is a form of marketing for the business and we are happy when they share about it on social media. But now with the pandemic, it is difficult for us to meet up and I am busy with filming too,” she says.

As with most new businesses, sales was slow and not without its challenges when they first started out in September. “I was so worried that every morning, the first thing I did when I woke up was to ask my son if there were any orders,” laughs Yinji. And then there were customers who asked if we could make the kimchi less spicy or salty for them. But this is our recipe and taste, so we turned them down.”

Now the business has a steady stream of orders and sales are “better-than-expected”. “We are seeing repeat orders and there was one customer that bought 100 tubs of kimchi,” shares Cloe excitedly. Although she sees potential in the business, she has no intention of expanding it as her family is still her priority. “If I expand too much, I will have to invest in a commercial kitchen, and that is not what I want. I still want to manage the business at home, so I can spend time with my boys [aged five and two],” she says.

Besides kimchi, Cloe also hopes to share her love for Korean food with Singaporeans via private dining or cooking classes in their kitchen. “I would love to have customers come to our place where I will show them how to cook three or four Korean dishes and they can sit down and enjoy the meal after that. Such classes are very popular in Korea. But I can’t speak Mandarin and my English isn’t good so I would need mother to help me,” says Cloe.

Is her family fine with opening up their home to strangers?

“I am the boss of this house,” says Yinji. “If I say it’s okay, it’s okay.”

This is the most common variety of kimchi — no wonder it’s Gold Kimchi’s best-seller. Bite-sized napa cabbage pieces are brined and rinsed, before they are left to ferment in an aromatic paste of chilli powder, garlic, ginger, green onions, fish sauce, fermented shrimp and other “special ingredients”. The veggies boast a delightful crunch not found in the supermarket variety. Though our two-day-old jar is only lightly fermented, the flavours are intense and pack a fiery punch that’s spicier and less tangy than the store-bought stuff. Want it tarter? ‘Age’ it and eat within two weeks to a month. This is the spiciest in Gold Kimchi’s range.

Unlike cabbage kimchi, you cannot eat this diced radish kimchi too fresh and we learned it the hard way. Our radish kimchi tasted a tad raw and bitter when we first brought it home, but after a day in the fridge, it developed a nice mellow balance of sour, salty and spicy flavours. Juicy and crisp with a marinade that includes pureed Korean pear, this is a great accompaniment to ramyeon.

Cucumber kimchi is the most time-consuming of the three varieties of kimchi offered. First, Japanese cucumbers are sliced length-wise and the seeds, which release a lot of water, are removed to prevent the kimchi from getting mushy over time. This is more lightly seasoned that the other two but very crisp, succulent and refreshing. Cloe recommends eating it up in about two weeks for maximum freshness.

Besides kimchi, there is also banchan (side dishes) like stir-fried anchovies. Small anchovies are first dry-fried to remove the fishy smell, then tossed with toasted sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, garlic, and coated with homemade slightly sweet soy sauce glaze. Very addictive.

Similarly, the anchovies are first toasted, but instead of the soy sauce concoction, they are coated in a savoury, piquant glaze made with gochujang (chilli bean paste), chilli powder and fruit syrup. We like the spicy kick, but this one is a bit too fishy and salty.

Delicious artisanal kimchi. It’s pricier than the store-bought stuff, but if you like your kimchi fresh and not eye-wateringly sour, it’s worth the splurge. Too bad Yinji and Cloe have no intention of expanding the biz, but we can’t wait to try their cooking classes-cum-private dining service when it launches.

Whatsapp orders to 88122949 or via their online form. Islandwide delivery for a flat fee of $5; free delivery for orders above $45. https://www.instagram.com/goldkimchi_sg/

Photos: Alvin Teo

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