What is kimchi?
Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, usually napa cabbage and radish, seasoned with chili, garlic, ginger and fish sauce.
To make the most common type, baechu kimchi, cabbage is salted to draw out water, then coated with a paste of red pepper flakes called gochugaru, garlic, ginger, scallions and fish sauce or salted shrimp. It is packed into jars and left to ferment, which gives kimchi its sour, spicy and tangy flavor.
There are hundreds of varieties. Some use radish, cucumber or green onions, and some, such as white kimchi, contain no chili at all. Chili peppers only arrived in Korea in the late 1500s or 1600s, so early kimchi was not red. Kimchi is served with almost every Korean meal and is used in dishes like kimchi stew and kimchi fried rice.
Kimjang
In late autumn, families and neighbors traditionally gather to make large batches of kimchi to last through winter, a custom called kimjang. UNESCO added kimjang to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013. Many Korean homes even have special kimchi refrigerators to control fermentation.
Did You Know?
Kimchi contains live bacteria from fermentation, similar to yogurt. South Korea celebrates Kimchi Day each year on November 22.