Five colors and five tastes, Kimchi
There is one food which is always in Korean menu, that is Kimchi. Using the basic materials from land, such as a white cabbage, a radish, an onion, powdered red pepper, and garlic, these materials are mixed with fermented ingredients like tiny salted shrimps, salted anchovies. Kimchi is also easy to store for long period of time.
If the cabbage is uncooked, it becomes a salad, boiled one is a soup and fermented one is a Kimchi. Its taste is natural like salad, nor civilized like soup. It is more like the creation of unification of both tastes. The taste of Kimchi and its excellence is recognized all over the world. If you try Kimchi for the first time, it could be stimulus because it's spicy and salty. However, by undergoing fermentation, the taste becomes rather sour and sweet because of ingredients containing sugar such as radish and other materials. Kimchi contains lot of nutrition, for instance, protein, an amino acid, fiber and lactic acid. It was proved from the researcher that Kimchi can be helpful for constipation and anticancer, also for increase appetite and slowing the aging process.
There are various kinds of Kimchi, Baechu Kimchi (white cabbage), Chonggak Kimchi (radish), Kkandugi (square shaped cut radish), Oisobaegi (cucumber) and Mul Kimchi (many kinds of vegetable in juice) etc. You can also try Bossam Kimchi (Kimchi served with boiled pork and tiny salted shrimps), which is available in Korean restaurant.
Kimchi is not a simple dish at all. It developed and expanded generation to generation and it is also filled with Korean's wisdom composure and sagacity. If you get a chance to try Kimchi in Korea, it will be a good opportunity to appreciate the fantasy of Kimchi.
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