Except for this: both places served plenty of complimentary kimchi. A Korean meal is simply incomplete without that side dish.
Which helps you understand why people in South Korea are panicking about the kimchi shortage. The price of Napa cabbage, the main ingredient in the fiery, earthy dish, is skyrocketing there, prompting consumers to hoard the stuff and restaurants to do the unthinkable: charge for refills.
As panic sets in, a black market in kimchee is springing up and the Korean government is absorbing costs and relaxing tariff restrictions in order to get affordable Napa cabbage back on the shelves, trying to alleviate the effects of a poor Korean crop that led to a 400 percent price spike. But Koreans are wary about buying from abroad, especially from the Chinese, which is likely where most of the replacement cabbage would come from.
Still, because the thought of a dinner without kimchi is unbearable to most Koreans, they may not have a choice but to buy foreign vegetables -- or risk an identity crisis.
