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http://e-asia.uoregon.edu KIMCHI A Korean dish made of vegetables, such as cabbage or radishes, that are salted, seasoned, and stored in sealed containers to undergo lactic acid fermentation. 1. Overview With its pungent taste and strong aroma, kimchi is a traditional fermented cabbage dish. The taste of kimchi is unique and comes from the fermentation process. Koreans have been eating fermented vegetables since prehistoric time, and kimchi has been an indigenous Korean food for centuries. A bowl of steamed rice and a dish of kimchi constitute a basic Korean meal. It is an integral part of our diet and a symbol of our traditional food. Through kimchi, Koreans feel a connection with their ancestors. It is indeed a symbol of Korean life. Today, the staple Korean diet is gaining increasing popularity among consumers abroad. It is becoming a favorite dish of foreigners who have tried the taste of this pungent and spicy dish. It is entirely different from Japanese pickled vegetables. In fact, the organizers of the 1998 World Cup in France included kimchi as one of the official foods of the tournament. Kimchi has now become an international food. Kimchi is known both for its taste and for being low in calories. Weight-watchers around the world are searching for tasty foods that are low in calories. Kimchi is made from vegetables, so it is also a good source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. In addition, the organic acid produced during fermentation is believed to help prevent cancer. Usually, a variety of fish and radish are added to enrich the taste. Therefore, the kimchi consumed by modern Koreans is a nutritionally well-balanced food, with plenty of protein and calcium. Kimchi is a part of Korea's cultural heritage and is very popular for its distinctive taste and dietary value as well as the creativity that housewives display in the kimchi-making process. This booklet reviews the function kimchi plays in the Korean diet, shows the role kimchi plays in Korean life, introduces its value in the Korean diet, shares the mouthwatering taste of kimchi and provides recipes for our readers. 2. Kimchi and Koreans Kimchi is the most relished food in Korea. In Korean food culture, no other food has the importance kimchi has. For instance, a meal without kimchi is unthinkable, and even if such existed, the meal is not complete; it is considered to be lacking in style and grace. Rice and kimchi constitute the basic meal for Koreans. The two alone suffice as a meal. Along with soy sauce, soybean paste and red chili pepper paste, kimchi is considered to have the most unique taste representing Korea. As is supported by much research, kimchi has had its place in the history of Korean food for quite a long time, and the methods of making it vary greatly. There are more than a hundred known kinds of kimchi that, but it would be meaningless to figure out how many kinds there actually exist, since Korean women can make kimchi out of practically any edible material. They have made kimchi with all kinds of vegetables, including wild mountain and field herbs and cultivated vegetables. They have even made kimchi with shellfish and seaweeds. The kinds of kimchi vary according to the length of the fermentation period as well, some being edible instantly, while others require a longer fermentation period. The use of kimchi varies also. Aside from kimchi's basic purpose as a side dish, kimchi can serve numerous purposes. The taste of any Korean food is complete only with the proper kimchi accompanying it. For example, sweet potatoes are always eaten with kimchi and rice cakes come with juicy kimchi of a fine tint. Kimchi is even used to wake up a drunk person and make him sober. When experiencing a headache or feeling heavy in the chest, one popular remedy is to get ice-cold dongchimi from a jar and drink it. In the long winter of Korea, as long as there was kimchi left in the jar buried in the ground, one did not worry about side dishes. Kimchi's greatness lies in the fact that it can be modified in innumerable ways. There are kimchi stews, soups, pancakes, fried rice with kimchi, rice and kimchi rolled in sea laver, and so on. Kimchi was also used to judge a woman's ability to make food. There is a saying that a good wife should be able to make twelve kinds of kimchi. Korean people believed that possessing the skill of making kimchi alone would guarantee the woman's ability as a cook, so Korean women took pains to learn how to make good kimchi. Kimchi was created because Korean winters are cold and harsh. It was hard to find vegetables of any sort long ago, and kimchi provided Koreans with the vitamin C that was otherwise hard to get. Moreover, the freshness of the vegetables, the refreshing taste of the organic acids from the fermenting process and the intestinal regulation of the lactic acid all added to kimchi's nutritional value. After red chili pepper was introduced to Korea around the 15th century A.D., it was put into kimchi to add the hot taste and a fine tint, but the wisdom was that it prevented kimchi from becoming rancid as it aged and preserved the properly fermented taste and the fresh crunchiness of the vegetables. Another value of kimchi is that it is not just a dish of vegetables. It is much more than that. One essential ingredient of kimchi is salted and fermented fish. Usually salted and fermented small shrimps and anchovies are a must, and fish such as hairtail, squid and pollack are widely used. Though it is not an ingredient itself, lactic acid bacteria plays an unique role in the fermenting process. All these combined make for a great kimchi. Kimchi is unequaled among the foods of the world as one that not only combines vegetables and animal food in the most harmonic proportions but also raises the nutritional value of both by a chemical process called fermentation. Kimchi also represents the national sentiment of Korea. Even before red chili pepper was introduced, leaf mustard of a violet color, cockscomb and safflower were used to give kimchi a delightful red color. Koreans put a special value on the color red, and the evidence of this tradition can be found in many places. For example, there is the belief that planting red cockscomb around the places where jars were could ward off evil spirits trying to ruin the food inside them and the practice of sprinkling red bean gruel just outside the front door on the winter solstice. Thus, the red color itself represents the spirit of the Korean people. As we have seen, kimchi is more than just a food, it is a culture. It holds much of the secret of traditional Korean food and also the sentiment of the Korean people. Kimchi has been around for a long time, and nowadays it is going through quite a metamorphosis, with new ingredients and methods undergoing new developments. It is also gaining popularity around the world. In Japan, where only the zukemono pickle existed, it is gaining wide popularity. In many other countries, the demand for kimchi as a health food as well as a delicacy has increased. In big international events like the Olympics and the World Cup, kimchi is a favorite item on the menu. Kimchi now has its own entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica. 3. The History of Kimchi Kimchi, an fermented food unique to Korea, originated from the natural environment and the traditional food making skills of Korea. Korean people were an agricultural people, and they maintained a diet consisting mainly of grain, with side dishes mostly vegetables. In winter, to maintain this diet, they devised ways to preserve vegetables. On the Korean Peninsula, wild green herbs that grow in the mountains and the fields as well as cultivated vegetables are used to make kimchi. Thanks to the weather of Korea, the vegetables are generally tender and have an excellent flavor. The distinct four seasons contribute to the wide variety of vegetables, but in winter they were more or less nonexistent; therefore Korean people needed the special wisdom of preserving techniques such as drying or salting. It is relatively easy to dry vegetables, but it is difficult to get the fresh taste of vegetables when they are cooked. On the other hand, if they are salted, they become tender, retain their crunchiness, and are available for long storage. If vegetables and fish are salted in diluted salt water, the maturing process involving self enzymatic process and the fermenting process of halophilic bacteria produce amino acids and lactic acids. These foods are the precedents of kimchi and salted and fermented fish (jeotgal). The salt, through a dewatering process and osmosis, prevents most microorganisms from growing and helps the beneficial fermenting process. Amino acids and lactic acids fermentation not only contribute to the foods preservation but also make a fermented food with a great taste. As we have seen, the origin of kimchi was salted vegetables, and it was for much of humanity in the way of food development. But its transformation from simple salting to fermentation is by no means an easy feat, but one that stands out in the world is history of food processing. Korea's kimchi, with its soaking of vegetables in brine and with all the spices and the salted and fermented fish plus the red chili pepper, has become an unique fermented food without equal in the world.

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