South Korea
Photo: 국립국어원, CC BY-SA 2.0 kr, croppedKimchi
김치
/kim.tɕʰi/KIM-chee
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- Taste
- SourSpicy
- Made with
- Vegetables
History
Koreans have salted vegetables for winter for well over a thousand years, but the red kimchi most people picture is younger: chilli peppers only reached Korea from the Americas around the 16th or 17th century. Napa cabbage kimchi, rubbed with chilli flakes, garlic, ginger, spring onion and salted seafood, became the standard in the 1800s. Every autumn families and neighbours still gather to make a season's supply in a ritual called gimjang, which UNESCO added to its list of intangible heritage in 2013. Hundreds of kinds exist, from cubed radish to cucumber, and kimchi sits on the table with almost every meal.
Sources
