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Published: February 14th 2009
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Every country has its signature dish, some kind of food that immediately makes you think of it. In Korea that dish is hands down Kimchi. You don't tell the kids to "say cheese" when you're taking a picture you tell them to "say kimchi!" Children aren't little tots they are "little kimchi's", and I'm pretty sure that Korea's original slogan was not in fact "Land of the morning calm" but rather "Land of the morning, afternoon, and night kimchi".
Kimchi is certainly not the most delicious national food out there but it is probably the most consistent! If you find yourself in Korea don't worry it won't take long before you get to experience this potent side dish for yourself! A very wise coworker once told me that trying a little of every kimchi everywhere you go is a good idea because it will probably start to grow on you and will give you an idea of what kind you like. For instance you may enjoy a sour kimchi, or a really spicy one. You may like it really crisp or softer. You may enjoy radish more than cabbage or cabbage in water more than cabbage with the hot red spices,
or you may be partial to kimchi made in a certain provence as depending on where it is made it will have different ingredients.
Needless to say after a year I actually do like kimchi and I've refined my kimchi palette, I know what kind I like generally by just looking at it!
So why am I going on and on about this kimchi stuff? Well this past weekend a few coworkers, Korean friends and myself took a 2 hour drive south of Daegu to learn what it takes to make good kimchi! We traveled to our Korean friends aunt's home on Jiri Mountain to learn her kimchi making ways and stay at her great little Minbok (an inn like place). The first thing I learned was this little Emo (Korean for aunt not to be confused with the depressed teens in dark clothes listening to depressing music emo!) was pretty awesome! She was incredibly kind and hospitable, constantly making sure that we were ok and taking the baby when he fussed (naturally as soon as she would talk to him he'd be fine, leaving us all to believe that he doesn't actually know any English but has only picked
up Korean!). We only prepared the cabbage for kimchi on Saturday which entailed salting it with sea salt so it would begin to loose all of it's moisture. While the salt and cabbage got acquainted we peeled garlic and cleaned green onions, leaving our hands smelling incredibly...ah...fresh?! A while later we headed up to a temple.
The temple was really cool. It is built into the mountain so it feels really really old. The whole of Jirisan park is quite beautiful actually. We walked around there and took lots of pictures before heading back down to our accomadation for the night. Emo had a HUGE spread out for us. There were about 4 different kimchi's, some fish stuff and other mountain veggies and to that we added baked potatoes and chicken and broccoli done in a white wine sauce. It was quite a feast!
We all slept great that night on our heated floor and were ready for some hiking in the morning. Naturally after a breakfast that looked a lot like dinner! The hike was gorgeous. We walked through areas that made me think I was home in Ontario and then suddenly the path was surrounded by straight green
bamboo shoots, immediately transporting any thoughts of home out of my head! We ended up back at the temple we had seen before and then headed back...or rather rushed back! You see we had to get started on the kimchi and Emo was waiting for us. I'll tell you one thing I will never run down a mountain again the day after I twist my ankle because I did it again on the way down but instead of just shaking it off and saying, damn! I stopped, leaned forward and fought off the tears that were threatening to stream down my face admitting to the world that I was indeed in some pain. I insisted that everyone keep rushing and hobbled the rest of the way alone...but being on a mountain on a abnormally warm, sunny winter day really isn't all that bad! I eventually made it back and the Koreans fussed over me making sure I was ok. I assured them I was fine just really, really stupid!
Emo showed us how to make 4 different kimchi's and most importantly how to make the seasonings! By later that afternoon we had packed up the cars and headed for home,
all full, exhausted but so happy that we had learned from a kimchi master to make Korea's national dish!
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Tarena
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I went to South Korea with my family and we also had a chance to help make Kimchi...it was so fun and DELICIOUS!!