Kimchi: The Inescapable Banchan

You can’t blog about Korea without talking about kimchi, the national dish of Korea. It’s the inescapable banchan (side dish) and it’s served with every Korean meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Kimchi is comprised of fermented vegetables, most commonly cabbage or daikon radishes. It is seasoned with the infamous gochugaru (hot red pepper powder), giving it varying degrees of spiciness.

Cold kimchi has a distinctive flavor, sometimes a bit sour and tingly on my tongue. I never crave kimchi yet eating Korean food feels entirely incomplete without it.

Kimchi developed in 7^th century Korea as a way to preserve vegetables and vitamin C during the winter months. Now there are said to be over 100 types. A different kimchi for each season. A specialized kimchi in each region of the country.

Kimchi is great for digestive health. During fermentation, lactic acid bacteria develops, a ‘good’ bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria helps keep intestinal bacteria in balance. The longer kimchi sits, the more it ferments. The more it ferments, the more sour and strong the taste…and the healthier it is. Some dishes actually require this older, extra-fermenty shin kimchi.

While often served cold as a side dish, there are an array of main dishes that are kimchi-based. I have developed a bit of a taste for a few cooked kimchi dishes in the past four months. These include kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup), kimchi bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), and kimchi jeon (kimchi pancake). But when I think of kimchi I think of it as the cold side dish. This is probably the healthiest way to eat kimchi since I would guess that the healthy enzymes are depleted in the cooking process.

Last month I had the opportunity to make some kimchi when I shamelessly invited myself to a kimchi-making event. After observing the seasoned ajuma (older lady) concoct the red pepper paste, I put on plastic gloves and got down with some cabbage. Each leaf in the head of cabbage had to be lifted and slathered with the paste. I learned alongside three-, four-, five- and six-year-old Korean kindergarteners but my kimchi-making station wasn’t any less of a messy disaster. The directions were all in Korean but if I were to give instructions I would tell you to stroke the kimchi as if you were petting a cat.

So. Then I was sent home with two full heads of cabbage-soon-to-be-kimchi. I was told to let it sit at least a week for ferment. But then I was supposed to…eat it? What to do with so much kimchi! And I don’t particularly like eating plain, cold kimchi. Equipped with the “if you can read, you can cook” mentality, I took my first jaunt into Korean cooking.

 The ajuma preparing the red pepper concoction

Obedient children...I wish I was more familiar with this type.

The hats.

Before it got messy

I am most proud of my kimchi jjigae. 

It was full of kimchi, vegetables, mushrooms, and tofu.

Nothing but healthy, spicy goodness!

I also experimented with kimchi bokkeumbap.

Fried rice is a Chinese influence but very much co-opted into the culture here. It is commonly served with a fried egg sunny-side up. The flavor of the kimchi was much more detectable in this dish than in the jjigae.

My final experiment was kimchi jeon.

I have had other kinds of jeon in restaurants (delicious!) but my first kimchi jeon came out of my very own kitchen. I suppose this means I can’t compare it, but whether or not it tasted like it was supposed to I rather enjoyed it.