"KIMCHI" makes me salivate

Kimchi (pronounced /ˈkɪmtʃiː/, Korean pronunciation: [kimtɕʰi]), also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, roughly translated, means "to preserve." It is a traditional Korean pickled dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. Its most common manifestation is the spicy baechu (cabbage) variety. Kimchi is the most common banchan, or side dish. Kimchi is also a common ingredient and combined with other ingredients to make dishes such as kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) and kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap). Kimchi is so ubiquitous that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) developed space kimchi to accompany the first Korean astronaut to the Russian-manned space ship Soyuz.

History

Ancient Kimchi

Kimchi can be traced back to ancient times.References to kimchi can be found as early as 2600–3000 years ago. The first text-written evidence of its existence can be found in the first Chinese poetry book, Sigyeong (Hangul: 시경 hanja: 詩經). In this book, kimchi was referred to as ji. The term ji was used until the pre-modern term chimchae (hanja: 沈菜, lit. soaked vegetables), dimchae, and timchae were adopted in the period of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The word then was modified into jimchi, and is currently called kimchi.

Early kimchi was made of cabbage and beef stock only, and in the twelfth century people began to include other spices to create different flavors, such as sweet and sour flavors, and colors such as white and orange.

Composition

Chili peppers drying for Kimchi

Kimchi varieties are determined by the main vegetable ingredients and the mix of seasonings used to flavor the kimchi. The most popular type of kimchi is the baechu (also known as Chinese cabbage) variety but there are many regional and seasonal varieties. Popular variants include ggakdugi which is a kimchi made with cubed radish, pa-kimchi (made with scallions), chonggak-kimchi and oisobagi (hangul: 오이소박이), a cucumber kimchi with hot and spicy seasoning. Kkaennip (hangul: 깻잎) kimchi features layers of perilla and other spices.

The Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul has documented 187 historic and current varieties of kimchi. Although the most common seasonings include brine, scallions and seasonings, ingredients can be replaced or added depending on the type of kimchi being made. Common seasonings also include, ginger, onions, aekjeot (hangul: 액젓, fish sauce) and fresh seafood.

COMMENTS:

I love eating this stuffs sort of makes me craved for pickled papaya and salted fish in the Philippines... haizzzz Just try this one... hehehehe makes me salivates all the time and whenever i've heard of this. Been missing eating this with my classmates b4...