Park Hyun-Soo didn’t look like a man on chemotherapy. Forty-one

and with a full head of black hair, he can hike the socks off anyone,
but he prefers to take his time. I met him after a basic country lunch
of eight kinds of kimchi and a plate of neatly sliced homemade tofu.
Eating the tofu was a little like biting into air and earth at the same
time, a barely solid cloud of undemanding goodness. The kimchi, on
the other hand, had a flavor as subtle as a firecracker. Each slice of
cabbage, sesame leaf, radish and mystery veggie had been rubbed and
soaked in hot chiles, garlic and anchovy paste. I went light on the
kimchi but I’d eaten too much tofu. If Korean food is all about
balancing flavors, I was clearly lopsided, as Americans tend to be. We