I love kimchi! Just thinking about it makes me salivate!
The one thing I love about Korean meals are the “banchan” or side dishes they serve on little plates to accompany your meals. There are always so many varieties, and I enjoy being surprised by new discoveries. From fresh vegetables to cooked seafood and meats and of course, the essential banchan, kimchi!
I love kimchi, all sorts, especially those made from radish (kkakdugi 깍두기), ponytail radish (chonggak총각김치) and the traditional napa cabbage (tongbaechu통배추김치). Every time I think of that fermented, vinegarish, spicy taste, my mouth waters! Yums!
Do you know that kimchi is like Korea’s national dish, eaten at every meal? The Koreans claim that it keeps them in the pink of health. It wards off diseases such as cancer and SARS and keep them slim! That’s why they eat so much of these super-spicy, vitamin loaded stuff! Forty pounds per person per year according to some statistics I saw somewhere!
This spicy hot deliciousness is used in everything from soups kimchijjigae (김치찌개) to pancakes kimchijeon 김치전 and even as toppings on western pizzas and in burgers.
Kimchi can be made throughout the year with different seasons calling for different main ingredients. More are made in November and December to cater to the winter months when fresh foods are short in supply in the olden days. Now, with modern refrigeration, including specialised kimchi fridges and hot houses, life’s a little different.
In the past, the ladies of the family will be responsible for making kimchi and usually it is a neighbourly activity. All the neighborhood housewives will gather to make them together – kind of like a social gathering. And everyone has their own home recipe! Once made, they will be stored in huge earthen pots and kept either underground or in a cool, shaded place for the fermentation to take place. The fermentation is what gives this delicious side dish its vinergary taste even though no vinegar is added.
I have seen these huge earthen pots in Park Sihoo-ssi’s ancestral home – quite a number of them sitting in his garden by the pond. Maybe in the olden days, his grandmother and their neighbors gathered to make kimchi together and gossiped about the latest happenings in their country side? Their pots appear old. I wonder if they are still being used to this day and if the family still practices the tradition of making their very own style of kimchi. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a taste of Buyeo kimchi, and if we can be so very lucky, that of the Park family’s own unique recipe 🙂
Kimchi while being a woman’s domain in the past, might no longer be. Remember our very handy houseman, Kang Injun in Park Sihoo-ssi’s movie “Scent”? He makes a mean kimchi! So handy to have in the kitchen! He believes strongly how good kimchi would ferment and cement a loving relationship. And advised Julie to mend her relationship with her boyfriend and share that kimchi of love.
Hmmm…kimchi of love! A good concept! Park Sihoo-ssi, how about sharing some? And with your special someone?
泡菜是我的菜!
我爱泡菜!只要想到它,我就会流口水!
在韩国的美食当中,我非常喜欢他们的“班禅banchan”或小菜,会用一小盘,一小盘的端着给妳伴饭。总是有很多种类的新鲜蔬菜,烹制过的海鲜和肉类,当然,最重要的就是泡菜!
泡菜是我的菜!非常喜欢品尝各种泡菜,特别是那些萝卜(kkakdugi깍두기),马尾辫萝卜(chonggak총각김치)和传统的大白菜(tongbaechu통배추김치)制成的。每当想到那发酵,醋溜溜,辛辣辣的口味,我的口水都快流出来了! 好吃!
妳知道吗,泡菜就像韩国的国菜,每顿饭的必需品!韩国人声称,它对身体健康有益,可以辟疾病,如癌症和传染性非典型肺炎,也可以减肥!这就是为什么他们大量的吃这超级辣,维生素高的泡菜!每人每年平均吃40磅的泡菜量!
辣泡菜可以用于一切烹饪料理,从辣泡菜汤kimchijjigae(김치찌개),泡菜煎饼kimchijeon김치전,甚至作为西式比萨饼的材料和夹入汉堡包。
泡菜可以一年四季在不同的季节制作,用不同的主要材料成分,虽然十一月和十二月的月份较普便,为了迎合冬季,新鲜的食物供不应求的时候。现在,随着现代冷藏技术(甚至有泡菜冰箱)和热房的发展,日子过得有点不一样了。
在过去,家里的妇女们会负责制作泡菜,通常是一个睦邻活动,所有的邻居主妇们聚集在一起,像一个社交聚会。泡菜一旦做出,就储存在巨大的陶罐,保持在地下储藏或在阴凉的地方让它发酵。发酵会产生酸溜溜的美味,即使没有添加醋。
看到施厚君的祖籍有好几个巨大的陶罐在花园里的池塘边坐着。我相信,在昔日,他的祖母和他们的邻居会聚集,一起做泡菜,一起聊天八卦在他们的邻里最新发生的事情。他们的陶罐看起来好旧,不知道现在是否仍在使用,家里是否还有自己制做泡菜的传统。如果有,希望有机会可以品尝到扶余朴家独特家传的泡菜秘方 🙂
在过去,泡菜虽然是女性的领域,可能现在不再是了。 记得施厚君在电影“香气”里的康仁俊吗?那位顾家的暖男,厨房高手? 泡菜可是他的拿手好菜哦! 他相信酿着的泡菜可以把爱拉得更密切, 并建议朱莉与她的男朋友和好,分享爱的泡菜。
嗯…爱的泡菜! 一个好的概念! 施厚君,分享一些爱的泡菜呗? 和你特别的那位走得更密切一些!
Photo Credits – Many thanks! imbc.co.kr, Weibo, Twitter, maangchi.com, namu.mirror.wiki/w/백김치, Sihoo note, onegreenplanet
11 Comments
Very informative article on Kimchi! And to think that those soon going to PSH fan meet in Jeju will get to eat lots of it. I love it too and many in my lady friends group as well such that we have recently got together to learn how to make it. All ingredients can be local but not the chilli paste – it must be original from Korea otherwise it won’t turn out good. Now that kimchi is also heavily promoted for its many health benefits there is a huge following for this famous Korean banchan in my country. When I visited Korea in 2011 the tour guide informed during a Kimchi making demonstration there is a dedicated Kimchi making day where the Govt traditionally gives a contribution to each household towards defraying costs of the ingredients. Believe it’s a day in November( is it today or tomorrow?). Not sure if it’s a public holiday or even the man in the house is encouraged to take leave on kimchi making day to help out in the process and enjoy time with the family. If it’s confirmed today or tomorrow then it also marks the period of few days I was in Barossa in 2015 and first introduced to this very fine and excellent Korean actor named Park Si Hoo!
Thanks for all the information too 🙂 I didn’t know there is an official Kimchi Day! Checked it out on the web just now – it is 22 Nov! New thing I learnt today 🙂
Sweet memories Dorothy, your account of both the 2011 Korean trip and now we all learnt Nov 22 is kimchi making day. And yes last year this time I was heavily doing fan recruitment job, locked Dorothy up in my house and bombard her with QOR dvd, weather helped my course as it was high 30s or near 40s so hot that we didn’t want to leave our house, so what better to do than bombarding my guest with QOR especially right at that time nothing else interests me more than QOR. Glad I gave it a shot even I knew it was a long shot as Dorothy is a very busy corporate lady who has no time for Korean drama, as she said she avoided them due to lack of time and afraid of being hooked. By hook or by crook I got her hooked, kekeke.
Love kimchi, soft and sweet! To find happiness in food is a kind of optimism! Spicy, let people in fine fig production process, people, to narrow the distance! Many of the benefits, giving, a kind of food, are of great significance! Taogang, also has the characteristic very much, that is how much of the pickled cabbage, can be installed in the inside? South Korea’s details, impressive! Shi Houjun, home dress, but also the warmth of love!
Since I’ve started to watch K. dramas, I’ve been very interested in K. cuisine. And I’ve even learned and prepared some of them, but not kimchi. Fortunately sometime ago a Korean-Japanese Shop was opened in Bucharest, displaying these two country traditional dishes, K. kimchi too. So my dream has come true to taste this K. dish, so much appreciated in Korea, as Dorothy says, having an official Kimchi Day. Very laudable for K. people to promote their dish over the world, to be recognized as their traditional original one. Thanks Nance and Dorothy for sharing useful information about K. kimchi. Bon appetit!
Kimchi is delicious! I’d like to enjoy the yearly kimchi festival at least for one time.^^
Next time when you’ll visit Korea I wish you to be there , on Nov .22 , to enjoy Kimchi Day!
I an already wondering which time of the year I would go next time, Stefania! Many things I want to experience are at different months of the year! 😯
If I were you, I’d choose either spring or late autumn, to avoid the heat of summer and also humidity, which is high in Korea.
Yes I know. Humidity is high in my country as well, but not so hot during Summer. Well, I’ll see when the moment is there. It is not an issue right now 😊
As we all would have been aware by now, the health food theorists will tell you to include fermented food to have a healthy diet. Fermented food has the right bacteria (I might be using the wrong word coz my knowledge of such details is not good) for your stomach. Many cultures been eating fermented food since ancient times, in the old days, such culture started due to lack of refrigeration and poverty. Fermented food keep for a long period. Nowadays having such health food calling to eat fermented food the more reason we all go crazy to eat this one and only 1st knowledge of Korean for any foreigner who has never ever known much about Korea, yes, kimchi. I would love to see PSH rolls his sleeves up and physically partake in kimchi making in real, that will be such a good picture of him promoting this unique culture of his country, best thing is to do it on Nov 22nd, 5 days to go, enough time for you to get prepared to roll your sleeve up, Dear Sihoossi?