You know you've walked into a Korean person's home when a garlicky, almost offensive smell attacks your nostrils. That is the odor of kimchi, the staple dish of my mother's people, "which ranks among odoriferous global foods such as Limburger cheese and China's 'stinky tofu.'"

So it might be good news that a South Korean woman has developed a new kind of freeze-dried pickled cabbage that won't smell.

The ambitious curly-haired woman had already been named by the South Korean Food Ministry in 2007 as the nation's first kimchi master, a designation that honors her mastery of the dish. Working with a team of food experts, she set to work to come up with a new type of freeze-dried pickled cabbage that doesn't smell even after water is added, appealing to both foreigners and the fussiest Korean eaters.

Kim [Soon-Ja] says she is the first to create freeze-dried kimchi and has secured a patent.

"When it soaks in water either hot or cold for a few minutes, it will become just like ordinary kimchi," says Kim, the owner of Han Sung Food in suburban Seoul.

Read the rest of this article at LATimes.com.