Kimchi Making

A couple weeks ago I went with some friends to a kimchi making event. The kimchi was being made to give to the needy in various communities around Seoul. For those of you who don't know about kimchi, it is pickled/fermented vegetables, usually cabbage, with a lot of hot, red pepper and other spices and seasonings in it. Traditionally Koreans would pack cabbage with the seasonings and spices, place it in a big ceramic pot and bury it in the ground for the fermentation process to take place. Koreans use special kimchi refrigerators to make their kimchi now, or they simply buy it from the store! At any rate, we spent a couple hours one morning stuffing cabbage with all of traditional kimchi seasonings. Fortunately I sat next to some Korean women who taught me the proper form. It wasn’t too long before they were telling me I was doing it like an old Korean woman—quite the compliment! It was fun, and a little bit messy.