Anise kimchi with unique flavour, sour taste and reddish colour is one of kimchi foods favoured by the Korean people from olden times.
The following happened at a camping site in August 1940 during the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
Kim Il Sung, Commander of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, got up early in the morning and climbed a mountain. After a while, he came back with anise plucked by himself and gave it to the head of cooks to make kimchi.
The word kimchi brought water to the mouth of the KPRA soldiers as it had been so long since they had tasted kimchi. But they were overwhelmed by anxiety rather than pleasure.
Kim Il Sung asked the head of cooks if he knew how to make kimchi with anise. He said no. Other soldiers did not know it either.
Kim Il Sung smiled and said he would teach them how to make kimchi with anise. He asked a soldier to boil salt water in a canteen and began to clean anise. The head cook asked him to trim anise with a knife. Kim Il Sung told him that anise should be cut with hands to preserve its unique taste.
Then he put the anise in the boiling salt water in the canteen and covered it.
When they opened the canteen after a while, the soldiers shouted cheers of delight at the sight of tempting anise with purple colour and unique flavour.
The cheers represented their thanks and admiration for Kim Il Sung who always cared about the problem of their food and taught them how to cook the national foods with profound knowledge during the anti-Japanese war.