ARTISTS INSPIRED BY CULTURAL CABBAGE; KIMCHI, A KOREAN STAPLE, SERVES AS FOCUS OF EXHIBIT ON IDEAS AND IDEALS OF DIVERSITY.

Byline: Heesun Wee Daily News Staff Writer

Pssst. I have a confession to make: I'm Korean-American, and I don't like kimchi.

The cabbage dish's very qualities that make it a unique, pungent symbol of Korean culture - the spiciness and sourness - turn me off. Bleh.

Don't get me wrong. I'm fond of many Korean foods. I can picture my late grandmother in the kitchen, artfully preparing my favorites - white rice with chunks of peeled russet potatoes, corn and peas; doeng-jang, a spicy stew brimming with green serrano chiles, slivers of lean red meat and cubes of tofu and potatoes; and small, round, flat pastries made of rice flour and sprinkled with sugar on top.

I used to rush home from school, wondering what my grandmother had cooked that day. Little did I know then that my grandmother's specialties - my favorites - would become scarce as she succumbed to old age.

The power of food to evoke vivid memories, experiences and oral histories of our families and cultures is a quality not lost on 60 artists from across the country who are featured in ``Kimchi Xtravaganza!'' a gallery exhibition that explores the cultural significance of food. The exhibit is scheduled to reopen today at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Using everything from storytelling to multimedia installations, the artists celebrate and analyze kimchi and other ethnic foods and their roles in various cultures.

``We purposefully set out from the beginning of the exhibition to make it a really multicultural response to kimchi; not just Koreans eat it,'' said Yong Soon Min, the exhibit's creator. ``Those who may have never had it, they could have fun responding to other foods of other ethnicities,'' Min added.

Indeed. One piece by a Chinese-American artist, ``Kimchi-Chanel,'' is a giant duplication of a Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle stuffed with kimchi, a play on the odoriferous dish.

Another piece, ``You Are What You Eat,'' is a 10-by-15-foot wall installation of 1,000 spoons with squiggly handles. From a distance, the installation, by a Korean-American artist, looks like a wall of sperm, a nod to kimchi's alleged effects on a man's virility.

Whether highlighting folklore, or poking fun at ethnic food's qualities, the show re-emphasizes the notion that, for many, food is an entry point to exploring a culture.

This is especially true in greater Los Angeles, where authentic ethnic food is just down the freeway. And you can usually hit several cultures with one parking job - Korean groceries, Italian pasta, Mexican tacos and American doughnuts, all in one mini-mall.

``Food is the primary way to consume culture,'' said John Song, a Long Beach-based Korean-American artist and writer, featured in the exhibit. ``The majority culture experiences minority cultures through food.''

Kimchi comfort

Song has lucid memories about kimchi and his first foray into Korean cooking when he was finishing high school. His mother casually pulled him aside and taught him how to make kimchi chi-geh so he would remember home and wouldn't starve in college.

Later, especially on chillier winter days at the University of California, Berkeley, Song simmered kimchi, tofu, pork and green onions in water to make the hearty, comforting dish. ``I tried not to stink everyone out; I would do it during off-hours,'' he recalled with a laugh.

Song, 29, still cooks Korean dishes and used his knowledge of Korean food for ``Lost and Found,'' an interactive piece he created with three other artists.

In the piece, visitors are encouraged to write about an experience of loss and place the piece of paper inside a large, empty kimchi jar. At another nearby kimchi jar, visitors are urged to pluck a piece of paper describing another person's loss. One of the goals of the piece, Song explained, was to focus on the notion of remembering and sharing loss and thus preserving personal family memories and histories, the way kimchi is stored and preserved in jars.

Terri Cohn's personal history with kimchi began in family-owned Asian restaurants in the Bay Area, where she grew up and still lives. That's where the Jewish artist first encountered the Korean cabbage dish.

``I loved it (kimchi). I like spicy foods,'' Cohn said.

The side dish wasn't too foreign to Cohn's tongue. Jewish and Korean cuisines both use the venerable cabbage in many of their meals. The most common kind of kimchi is made with cabbage that resembles a head of Romaine lettuce. In Jewish cooking, cabbage often is stuffed with meat or cheese. Cohn's grandmother filled cabbage with both ingredients, and Cohn eagerly inhaled the culinary creations.

So when exhibit staff asked Cohn to submit a piece, she naturally chose to focus on cabbage and its ubiquitous presence in Jewish food and culture. ``Tales From the Cabbage Patch'' is an installation that includes a jar of Brussels sprouts, which resemble miniature cabbage heads, set on a table draped with a tablecloth covered with phrases about cabbage and its role in Jewish culture.

``My grandmother from Odessa always said cabbage is the secret of beauty,'' one of Cohn's family and friends offered. ``We always had sweet and sour cabbage rolls when Aunt Bea came to visit,'' reads another contribution to the tablecloth comments.

A relative living in Hawaii, populous with ethnic Koreans, introduced artist Leda Ramos and her family to kimchi in the 1970s. ``Kimchi was a side dish,'' recalled Ramos, who grew up in Los Angeles and still lives in town.

And it was kimchi's red chiles, in particular, that drew Ramos' Salvadoran family to kimchi again and again. Chiles are a major part of South American cooking, as they are in Korean food.

This similarity in Korean and South American foods persuaded Ramos and colleague Alessandra Moctezuma to focus on chiles for their exhibit piece, ``Kimchile.'' The installation examines the melding of cultures with the help of Los Angeles' multiethnic storefronts.

``The blurring between cultures is happening between foods. L.A. is so much like that,'' Ramos said.

Storytelling and kimchi

The exhibit's exploration of food and culture will spill beyond the walls of the Korean American Museum. Exhibit creator Min and anthropologist Soo-Young Chin are taking their project ``Memory Matters'' to the market - literally.

Using jars of kimchi as their vehicle, Min and Chin are documenting the oral histories of Los Angeles-area Korean-Americans who grew up in Communist North Korea. The seven stories will be printed on labels and affixed to glass jars containing the pickled cabbage. The special jars will be sold in Los Angeles-area grocery stores.

``The older generation is an incredible resource for this (Korean) history. ... They're just in our back yard, so to speak. ... We have to tap into them and find out this incredible information about what life was like'' before the end of World War II, when the peninsula was divided into the Communist north and democratic south, Min said.

In one story called ``Pumpkin Flower,'' the narrator recalls her mother and her work with the Korean independence movement during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The occupation concluded with the end of World War II in 1945. The Japanese eventually captured the mother, who was thrown in a bonfire.

``When they brought me to my mother, I was horrified at the fluid oozing from my mother's wounds. I wanted to soothe her pain. The only thing I could see were the pumpkin flowers that were in bloom, so I used them to absorb the fluid,'' the narrator says.

In addition to family histories, all the narrators ruminate on kimchi. ``My favorite is bossam kimchi,'' the narrator of ``Pumpkin Flower'' says later. ``We put apples, cabbage, chestnuts and all sorts of things in bossam kimchi and wrap it up together. It's delicious.''

When simultaneously creating ``Memory Matters'' and the overall exhibit, Min said she reflected on her own diverse, culinary experiences. Growing up in Monterey, Min's childhood dinner table incorporated kimchi, other Korean dishes and American-born staples such as Shake 'n Bake chicken, Chef Boyardee spaghetti and Campbell's minestrone soup.

An exhibit on kimchi and other ethnic foods, Min said, ``was a fertile area ripe for comedy and commentary.''

Today's reopening of ``Kimchi Xtravaganza!'' is part of Los Angeles County's Arts Open House. For more information on free arts events around town today, call the 24-hour hotline, [phone], Ext. 5.

Three recipes rich in culture

Following are three recipes using foods that are important to artists of three cultures - kimchi, cabbage and chile. Two of the three artists participating in Kimchi Xtravaganza! even shared their own family recipes.

KIMCHI CHI-GEH (KIMCHI SOUP)

2 cups kimchi (about 16 ounces)

Water

4 ounces pork, cut into small strips OR chunks (any pork bones can be added for additional flavor)

1/2 of a 14-ounce package of tofu, cubed

1 bunch green onions, coarsely chopped

Place kimchi in a large pot. If kimchi juice seems too strong or pungent, drain off part or all of the juice. Add about 1 1/2 cups water or enough to just cover kimchi. Bring to a boil and add pork. Cook on medium to medium-low heat for at least 10 to 15 minutes, boiling down soup to taste. (Many people like to boil the soup for a longer period of time, boiling down the liquid and adding more water to create a stronger flavor.) Add cubed tofu. When soup boils again, add green onions and serve piping hot. Makes 3 to 4 servings.

NOTE: Pork can be replaced with a few dried anchovies. A mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 chicken broth can be used instead of plain water. ``Finally, another popular (though often denied) alternative is to use Spam instead of pork,'' John Song said.

For extra flavor, pork can be marinated in a mixture of 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 clove garlic, crushed, 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon red chili paste (found in Asian markets) and ground black pepper. Mix ingredients, including pork, in a small bowl, marinating meat 5 to 10 minutes.

From John Song and his mother Kelley Booja Song

CABBAGE PLETZLACH

1 small to medium cabbage, cored and cut into 1/2-inch strips

Salt

1/2 large onion, minced

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 cups uncooked broad egg noodles 

Pepper

Water

In a large bowl, sprinkle cabbage with 1 teaspoon salt. Toss, then let stand 45 minutes. Squeeze to remove excess moisture.

In a large, heavy skillet, cook onions in 4 tablespoons butter over moderately low heat, stirring 5 minutes or until softened.

Add cabbage, sugar and pepper, mixing well. Cover. Cook over low heat 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is tender. Remove cover and cook cook, stirring, until cabbage is golden.

Cook noodles in boiling water 6 minutes or until al dente. Drain well, then add to cabbage along with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Toss over low heat until butter is melted. Mix in salt and pepper to taste.

From Terri Cohn and her mother Velma Cohn. Originally published in ``Gourmet'' magazine in 1984

JALAPENO DINNER MUFFINS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, cut into cubes

3/4 cup cold milk

2 tablespoons drained, chopped canned jalapeno chilies

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cayenne pepper, baking powder and salt until well mixed. Add margarine cubes to the flour mixture and work together with your fingers until it looks like coarse cornmeal. Add milk and the jalapenos and stir mixture just until mixed. Do not beat or mix until smooth.

Fill greased muffin pans about 3/4 full. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven until just browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve piping hot. These scone-like muffins get rather hard when leftover and do not warm up well, so don't make more than you plan to serve. Makes 12 large or 24 small muffins.

From ``Red Hot Peppers'' by Jean Andrews (Macmillan; $25)

The exhibit: ``Kimchi Xtravanganza!''

Where: Korean American Museum, at its new location inside the Wiltern Theatre building, 3780 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 220, Los Angeles.

When: Reopening today and continuing 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; through Jan. 10.

Special program: A presentation on ``Memory Matters,'' part of the exhibit, is scheduled for 2 to 3 p.m. today only.

Admission: Donations at the door will be accepted.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

Photo: (1) Linking the Korean cabbage dish - and Korean culture - with foods and customs of other countries is the driving force behind the ``Kimchi Xtravaganza!'' exhibition.

(2) ``Kimchi-Chanel,'' by Zhang Hongtu, emphasizes the food's smell.

(3) Among contributors is John Song, who offers his recipe for Kimchi Chi-Geh, or Kimchi Soup.

Phil McCarten/Daily News

Box: Three recipes rich in culture (See Text)