What Exactly IS Kimchi? 김치 뭐예요?

If you know anything about Korea, you know something about Kimchi (김치)

When you eat a Korean meal, kimchi in some form is almost always on the table. Like many Korean foods, it has a very strong smell and flavor, due to the fermentation process and the usual use of anchovy or fish paste. But if you give it a chance, it's really delicious, and really healthy too!

It's also good to remember that not all kimchi is created equally! The ingredients used and the amount of each ingredient used, as well as how long it's fermented for, all have an effect on taste. Just because you tried it once and didn't like it, doesn't mean you won't like a different variation!

So what is kimchi?

Kimchi begins with napa cabbage 배추. The leaves of cabbage are rubbed with salt, and then left to soak overnight in water. As mentioned in the Awake article, "Salt suppresses the growth of most of the harmful microorganisms and facilitates the production of useful ones."

*You know what that means? It means kimchi, like other fermented foods, produces good bacteria, which is vital for a healthy gut. And a healthy gut makes for a healthy body!*

After the cabbage has soaked, it's rinsed, and each leaf is coated in a layer of paste made from a combination of seasonings (usually garlic, anchovy/shrimp/fish paste, scallions, ginger, Korean red pepper, salt) and hot water. Often a variety of vegetables or fruits like radish, leeks, or pears are also coated in this paste and mixed in with the cabbage. Once all the cabbage leaves are coated and the veggies mixed in, you're done!

You can eat some of it fresh, but  it's usually left to ferment for a few days. Or a few weeks, depending on your taste preference! The longer you wait, the more fermented it will be, and this makes the flavor differ.

The kimchi is usually stored with the leaves in tact, in large plastic tupperware type containers that have handles on the top. When you want some, you take a pair of scissors and cut up the cabbage leaves. I personally keep a small glass container in my regular fridge of already cut up kimchi. When it gets low or run out, I pull out the stored kimchi, and cut up some more.

Modern day Korea has kimchi refrigerators, a fridge just for kimchi, since families usually have a lot of it, and probably so that your main fridge doesn't smell like kimchi all the time too. 

a shiny fancy kimchi fridge advertisement from google

In the days before refrigerators, kimchi was stored in pots. To quote an article from Awake! magazine, "One month before kimjang, crocks were buried in the ground. After the prepared kimchi cabbage heads were neatly placed in the crocks, the cabbage was pressed down with a flat stone and covered with a lid. Because earthenware crocks are porous, the kimchi would keep for a long time."

In the past, it was important to prepare for the winter. Families would often spend 3-4 months worth of paycheck on the ingredients needed to make enough kimchi in late autumn to last for every meal throughout the year. This is a cultural event called kimjang 김장.

Quoting an interview in this mini documentary, professor of Anthropology Ham Han Hee says, "The kimjang culture is about families and neighbors coming together to prepare for the winter. They prepare an immense amount of kimchi that will last through the winter and share it amongst each other."

Kimjang is a piece of Korean culture that, while maybe not a hallmark of all modern families, is still definitely is a part of many. Kimjang is quite an event, as there's much work that goes into preparing all of the ingredients and making the massive amount of kimchi that's produced! For an entertaining, vlog-style look at what modern kimjang can be like, check out this video by Simon and Martina!

Some other kinds of kimchi include: bean sprout, radish, mustard leaf, cucumber.

So. Yummy.

<3강다은 Da Eun

(photos from unsplash)