Kimchi - The National Food

Some readers will have already had some experiences with Kimchi. The taste is either unforgettably stupendously wonderful, or really bad. I've heard very few neutral on Kimchi's taste.

You'll find kimchi at every meal...

Kimchi is on the lower left side; it's reddish/orange.

A real short definition of Kimchi is "Spicy pickled cabbage" and definitions are quick to add that it is the national food or dish of Korea. A closer look shows more texture:

Thanks to http://www.myhealthguide.carlyucaangay.com/health-food-how-to-make-kimchi.html

There are many kinds of kimchi, from the refreshing summer dish called "Water Kimchi" which is thin-soup like, and may even contain apple slices, to the heavy-on-the-anchovy variety. Some make it very spicy hot. Every family has its favorite style, and often it is made at home. Because of its very intense smell, one that WILL leak from whatever airtight container you have it in, many families have a dedicated Kimchi refrigerator.

See international Pop Music star from Korea: PSY selling Samsung kimchi refrigerators; it's worth the watch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgxgql7T2dc.

In this convenience society, you can buy it already made for about around five dollars a pound, give or take. Or you can make it yourself. Home-made, it takes weeks to make a batch from beginning to end. But, since Kimchi is fermented, it keeps awhile without artificial preservatives.

One website (http://gastronomyblog.com/2010/11/13/how-to-make-kimchi/) has these ingredients for regular Kimchi: 

• 2 heads Napa cabbage
• 2 cups sea salt
• 8 cups water

For kimchi marinade

• 1 cup sweet rice powder
• 5 cups water
• 1 cup coarse Taeyangcho red chili pepper powder
• 5 ounces garlic
• 10 ounces Asian pear, peeled and quartered
• 9 ounces onions, peeled and quartered
• 1 ounce ginger, peeled
• 4 ounces Fresno chilies
• 2 pounds radish, julienned
• 4 ounces minari
• 4 ounces red mustard greens
• 4 ounces Korean chives
• 4 ounces green onions
• 1/4 cup Korean anchovy fish sauce
• 3/4 cup Korean salted shrimp sauce
• 4 ounces fresh shrimp, chopped
• 4 ounces Korean salted shrimp

This month I am a student in a 4-hour-per-day Korean class, one that includes two field trips. A couple of days ago, we went to a Kimchi-making activity. It was a highly abbreviated Kimchi-making session, in which all the advance preparation was already done, and all we had to do was the final mixing.

Enjoy the pictures. (In this room, the main language is Japanese; there were two men, one from Australia and one from ... well you know.)

That's mine, on the right.

One of my teachers is on the right.

FYI, I have found a mild form of this very kind of Kimchi at Ingles!! If you are in Asheville, you can find GOOD home-made Kimchi at Kim's Oriental Food and Gifts, 5 Regents Park Blvd., near the separation of Patton Avenue from I-240, Asheville. Let them know I sent you! 

Bon appetit!
Marc