In 2008, my mother had cancer. During surgery and treatment, I thought deeply about how to cure it and not to relapse. The answer was immunity. The Korean food we eat every day was the key to enhancing our immunity. I realized that well fermented kimchi, soybean paste and Joseon soy sauce are the shields that protect our bodies.
That fall, I saw a video of salted anchovies made in an unsanitary environment on TV news. My hair was cringe-worthy. Salted anchovies are essential for kimchi and flavorful food. However, my mother was afraid that bad food was the cause of cancer and decided what to eat from now on.
In the spring of 2009, my mother made salted anchovies herself in a jar. After it was fermented well, I sat the water in the jar and stirred it the old way. It was a savory and savory stir-fry. When I handed it out to my friends, I was excited about the reaction that it was very delicious, and the amount of salted anchovies gradually increased. The amount of salted anchovies gradually increased from 60 kg in the first year to 150 kg in the following year.
At that time, we talked a lot about salted anchovies with my mother. The topic of conversation naturally flowed to 'boiled fish sauce'. Since ancient times, salted anchovies have been boiled, and then filtered to make clear fish sauce. I used this instead of Joseon soy sauce. That's the fish sauce we're talking about these days. Then, I wondered what it would taste like to put fermented soybean paste and Joseon soy sauce in a liquid made by boiling water with salted anchovies. It was the beginning of a journey to find food talks and taste between my daughter and my mother.
The experiment was started in 2011 by making a few fermented soybeans with 40 kg of beans. Such experiments led to patents. In 2015, Patent No. 10-1536433 applied for 「How to manufacture fish soy sauce and fish paste using anchovies and meju」 and 'Fish soy sauce and fish paste produced thereby'. And in December 2015, JinafnC was established.
