February, my husband finally came home for good. He's been working in Manila to support us. We've had a lot of fights about him settling here in the province so he could be with us. Now that we are welcoming our second kid, we both agreed to settle here. We were so hopeful we'd both get a job here in Tuguegarao City. Little did we know that the pandemic would worsen and we would be under quarantine. Not just us, but all of us were affected by the ECQ that the whole country experienced.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much savings. We felt so troubled on how to proceed if we used up all that we have. Milk and diaper of our daughter is taking much of our savings. We are living with his parents so we didn't worry much about food but we were also paying bills to help them.

My husband luckily got a Field Technician job but due to the pandemic, he can't report to work. "No work, no pay" is the trend right? So we resorted to Online selling! He's a great cook. Prior to his resignation last February, he's already thought of making kimchi and selling it here in the city. I didn't think it would be a good business because I ain't eating spicy food. But I supported him and last May we gave it a go. He had a few trials, watched videos on how to make it and had few free taste to our friends and relatives to check if it's good. People were saying it's good but I didn't like the color at first. I searched online for competitors and the color "red" became a big deal to me. We fought about the stupid color (hahaha). Yes, we had a long fight overnight just because of the color. Then he found a Korean Chef vlogger. The next day, he made adjustments and I took note of it. He didn't entirely copy that recipe.

Viola! The taste was better this time, the color now's red, and we changed the shape of tub. We worked thoroughly for it to be perfect. Even though we were busy with our toddler daughter and our coming son (I was 7 month preggy that time), we made sure to make kimchi consistently delicious and clean. We called it Kuya Bentong's Kimchi. We didn't expect it to hit the market more than we expected. We've earned a lot of "suki" who are now buying kimchi from us consistently. We also had customers who say it really tastes like a Korean's dish, some say it was way better than those that are served on buffet restaurants of Korean dishes, and some chose our kimchi over their usual kimchi vendor. 

We were and we still are very blessed! We cater not only Tuguegarao City but a lot of nearby towns. Though it has been a bit of a problem since we are under quarantine, we are still making it and deliveries are thru our Partner Riders. Kuya Bentong's Kimchi is now our sole source of income, though we are still looking for a stable job.

Like our daughter usually say, we also are saying "THANK YOU KIMCHI!"