Kimchi Sales Surge in the US
The Washington Post is reporting that sales for Korean kimchi have risen by 20% due to the Avian Flu scare:
Ho Jin Lee, president of Kim Chee Pride Inc. of Maspeth, N.Y., which supplies kimchi on the East Coast, said sales jumped 20 percent this year.
A sudden new joie d’epice in the American diet?
Try avian flu.
Blame it on the Internet, the anxiety of life in the 21st century, or a volatile combination of the two, but publication of a minor study by a South Korean academic last spring has apparently triggered a minor run on kimchi, a daily staple of the Korean diet that the bland-of-palate are likely to avoid like a global pandemic.
Which presents a potentially difficult choice given the work of Kang Sa-Ouk of Seoul National University, who took 13 chickens infected with avian flu virus and a couple of other diseases, fed them kimchi juice and found that 11 of the birds recovered.
After the stem cell scandal from Seoul National University does anyone trust what a scientist from Korea especially another scientist from Seoul National University has to say? I was suspicious of this “scientific study” when it first came out and now after the Dr. Hwang fiasco I am even more suspicious. Since it has to deal with kimchi I doubt there will be anyone in Korea willing to investigate this and start the 2006 kimchi scandal. Kimchi is one thing you don’t mess with in Korea, no matter how outrageous this study may be.
