Kimchi

Kimchi goes way back in the old days.  Evidences regarding Kimchi can be found in between 2601-3001 years ago.  The earliest reference to it is written in a Chinese poem, Shi Jing.  In this poem, Kimchi is referred to as Ji.  This term is used until pre-modern term started to come around, which is Chimchae, meaning soaked vegetables. Then, it changed into Dimchae, Timchae and finally, during the period of the Three Kingdom of Korea, the word was modified into Jimchi and in this era it is known as Kimchi.

Kimchi is the most famous traditional food that is served with just about every meal in Korea.  It is made from vegetables, widely with Chili pepper.  Also, the Kimchi is often fermented with ingredients like Chinese cabbage, radish, garlic, red pepper, spring onion, shrimp, ginger, salt, and sugar.

Usually, the types of vegetables used to make Kimchi are celery cabbage and white radish.

Traditional jars are commonly used for storing kimchi until it fermented and ready to be eaten.  Other things such as gochujang (hot pepper paste) and doenjang (soybean paste) are also stored in one of these jars.

Care for some trivia? 

• In Korea, there exists a special refrigerator made just for storing Kimchi. Most of the Koreans tend to make Kimchi in such a huge amount because of the harvest of celery cabbages during winter season. That is why they invented a special storage for Kimchi that enables the fermented vegetables to last for a year long. For the love of Kimchi!

• Instead of saying the word "Cheese" when posing for photographs, Korean people say “Kimchi"! How about we give it a try some time? 

Say, Kim-Chi~  (｡◕‿◕｡)