Rising Cost of Kimchi Alarms Koreans

By MARK McDONALD

International Herald Tribune

SEOUL, South Korea -- Even in the middle of a loud and bustling outdoor
market, her voice drops to a whisper when she agrees to reveal the two
secret ingredients that make her kimchi so popular with her customers.
"Fermented-anchovy paste and pickled-prune sauce," says Kim Gil-soo,
looking warily, both ways, down the alley in front of her store, called
Prosperity.

"I special-order the sauce from a certain place in the countryside," she
said, still whispering. "I'm quite well known for my kimchi."

But recent sales have been disappointing, Mrs. Kim said, because of an
unavoidable spike in the price of her kimchi, the fiery and pungent
Korean national dish that typically combines cabbage, radishes, red
chili peppers, garlic and salt. The price for one head of long-leafed
Napa cabbage grown in Korea has skyrocketed in the past month, to as
much as $14, from about $2.50. Domestic radishes have tripled in price,
to more than $5 apiece, and the price of garlic has more than doubled.

Kimchi has become so expensive that some restaurants in the capital no
longer offer it free as a banchan, or side dish, a situation akin to
having an American burger joint charge for ketchup, although decidedly
more calamitous here. The politics editor of a major South Korean
newspaper called the kimchi situation "a national tragedy," and an
editorial in Dong-a Ilbo termed it "a once in a century crisis."

Wholesalers and economists have blamed overly rainy weather for the
cabbage shortage, as well as fewer acres having been planted after a
bumper crop and low prices in 2009. The average price for a head of Napa
cabbage last year was $1.40, according to food industry figures.

The opposition Democratic Party also has laid blame for the shortages on
a large river-reclamation project, saying it destroyed farmland that
would have been used for cabbages and other vegetables, a charge the
government has denied.

Meanwhile, there have been reports of cabbage rustling in rural areas,
and the government has suspended tariffs on imported cabbage and
radishes from China, beginning Thursday. The president of South Korea,
Lee Myung-bak, has said that until the crisis eases he will eat only the
cheap and inferior kind of cabbage -- the round-headed variety commonly
found in Europe and the United States.

"There is no reason for regular folks to have to buy items integral to
daily life at higher prices than international prices," Mr. Lee said at
a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, while instructing his economists to more
closely monitor commodity prices that have sent the South Korean
consumer price index to a 17-month high.

The price increases have caused many middle- and lower-income homemakers
to cancel the making of kimchi at home this year, a traditional rite of
autumn that typically brings together mothers, daughters, aunts,
grannies and neighbors. Some families can go through a couple of hundred
heads of cabbage, and it's not unusual for all the bathtubs and sinks in
a house to be filled with bobbing cabbages as they are washed, soaked
and brined.

"I'm probably not going to do it at home this year," said Roh Eun-ja, a
Seoul restaurant owner. "Even if the price of cabbage comes down and I
do make kimchi, I'll be downsizing. Not so much this year."

Mrs. Roh has two daughters, both in their 30s, and she said they learned
to make kimchi "by looking over my shoulder, by tasting and doing, like
all Korean girls are supposed to."

One daughter works at an Outback steakhouse, the other at an upscale
department store, and they have little time to make kimchi on their own,
Mrs. Roh said, lamenting the loss of another tradition to the "ppali
ppali" or "hurry hurry" lifestyle of modern South Korea.

"It's also more expensive to make it on your own," Mrs. Roh said, "so
more and more people buy it ready-made now. That's what my daughters
do."

Supermarkets have reportedly had difficulty keeping packaged kimchi in
stock. A pouch of the popular Chongga Jip brand, made solely from Korean
ingredients, sold this week for $4.05 a pound -- about half the price of
homemade.

Some Koreans are taking the kimchi crisis in stride, saying it is a blip
in the market. At her food stall in the sprawling Mo Rae Ne market in
western Seoul, Lee Young-ae still serves free kimchi to the vendors and
laborers who come by for a $5 plate of roasted pig cheeks, blood sausage
and her famous soondae soup.

"The prices will go down," she said. "Sometimes they're high, sometimes
they're low. Easy come, easy go. That's life."

The making of kimchi is more art than science, more a craft than a
repeatable recipe. There are hundreds of variations, with varying
ingredients, colorations, textures and levels of heat. As well as a
condiment, kimchi is eaten in Korea as a main dish, in soups, stews or
with fried rice. There are kimchi burgers, kimchi bacon rolls and kimchi
pizza.

"Even if it's pickled and fermented, if it's your national dish and
you're in Asia, believe me, they'll find a way to make it special," said
the celebrity chef Bobby Chinn, the host of World Café Asia, a travel
and cooking television show. "For Asians it's a popular alternative to
salads."

The cabbages are not usually shredded or dismembered, and the salted
leaves are slathered with spices, sauces and pastes. The intact cabbages
are then placed in earthenware jars and buried in the ground. (Apartment
dwellers and urbanites now use stainless steel containers or special
kimchi refrigerators.) The cabbages then pickle and ferment into the
eye-watering dish served year-round in Korea, at breakfast, lunch and
dinner.

Most Koreans see kimchi as a staple food, even a daily necessity, a kind
of health food. During the SARS panic in Asia in 2003, the rumor spread
widely that kimchi was an effective antidote.

For most Westerners, however, kimchi remains an unacquired taste. It can
offend not only with its taste but also with its odor, which can linger
on a person for hours. And for those unused to its fire and fury, even a
small dish of kimchi can appear less as a delicacy than as a kind of
incendiary device.

"To a Western palate, with all the other options out there, kimchi won't
rank very high," Mr. Chinn said.

A gathering was held in Seoul last week to promote Korean food, with
European master chefs coming in for panels and demonstrations. Michel
Troisgros, the renowned French chef from Roanne, listened to a Korean
official hold forth on the wonders of fermentation and an ambitious
project to export Korean foods like kimchi.

"I think you have to stop talking about fermentation," Mr. Troisgros
told the man. "It's not sexy."

On Oct 16, 3:54*pm, (Victor Sack) wrote:
> * * * * * * * * Rising Cost of Kimchi Alarms Koreans
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * By MARK McDONALD
>
> * * * * * * * * * International Herald Tribune
>
> SEOUL, South Korea -- Even in the middle of a loud and bustling outdoor
> market, her voice drops to a whisper when she agrees to reveal the two
> secret ingredients that make her kimchi so popular with her customers.
> "Fermented-anchovy paste and pickled-prune sauce," says Kim Gil-soo,
> looking warily, both ways, down the alley in front of her store, called
> Prosperity.
>
> "I special-order the sauce from a certain place in the countryside," she
> said, still whispering. "I'm quite well known for my kimchi."
>
> But recent sales have been disappointing, Mrs. Kim said, because of an
> unavoidable spike in the price of her kimchi, the fiery and pungent
> Korean national dish that typically combines cabbage, radishes, red
> chili peppers, garlic and salt. The price for one head of long-leafed
> Napa cabbage grown in Korea has skyrocketed in the past month, to as
> much as $14, from about $2.50. Domestic radishes have tripled in price,
> to more than $5 apiece, and the price of garlic has more than doubled.
>
> Kimchi has become so expensive that some restaurants in the capital no
> longer offer it free as a banchan, or side dish, a situation akin to
> having an American burger joint charge for ketchup, although decidedly
> more calamitous here. The politics editor of a major South Korean
> newspaper called the kimchi situation "a national tragedy," and an
> editorial in Dong-a Ilbo termed it "a once in a century crisis."
>
> Wholesalers and economists have blamed overly rainy weather for the
> cabbage shortage, as well as fewer acres having been planted after a
> bumper crop and low prices in 2009. The average price for a head of Napa
> cabbage last year was $1.40, according to food industry figures.
>
> The opposition Democratic Party also has laid blame for the shortages on
> a large river-reclamation project, saying it destroyed farmland that
> would have been used for cabbages and other vegetables, a charge the
> government has denied.
>
> Meanwhile, there have been reports of cabbage rustling in rural areas,
> and the government has suspended tariffs on imported cabbage and
> radishes from China, beginning Thursday. The president of South Korea,
> Lee Myung-bak, has said that until the crisis eases he will eat only the
> cheap and inferior kind of cabbage -- the round-headed variety commonly
> found in Europe and the United States.
>
> "There is no reason for regular folks to have to buy items integral to
> daily life at higher prices than international prices," Mr. Lee said at
> a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, while instructing his economists to more
> closely monitor commodity prices that have sent the South Korean
> consumer price index to a 17-month high.
>
> The price increases have caused many middle- and lower-income homemakers
> to cancel the making of kimchi at home this year, a traditional rite of
> autumn that typically brings together mothers, daughters, aunts,
> grannies and neighbors. Some families can go through a couple of hundred
> heads of cabbage, and it's not unusual for all the bathtubs and sinks in
> a house to be filled with bobbing cabbages as they are washed, soaked
> and brined.
>
> "I'm probably not going to do it at home this year," said Roh Eun-ja, a
> Seoul restaurant owner. "Even if the price of cabbage comes down and I
> do make kimchi, I'll be downsizing. Not so much this year."
>
> Mrs. Roh has two daughters, both in their 30s, and she said they learned
> to make kimchi "by looking over my shoulder, by tasting and doing, like
> all Korean girls are supposed to."
>
> One daughter works at an Outback steakhouse, the other at an upscale
> department store, and they have little time to make kimchi on their own,
> Mrs. Roh said, lamenting the loss of another tradition to the "ppali
> ppali" or "hurry hurry" lifestyle of modern South Korea.
>
> "It's also more expensive to make it on your own," Mrs. Roh said, "so
> more and more people buy it ready-made now. That's what my daughters
> do."
>
> Supermarkets have reportedly had difficulty keeping packaged kimchi in
> stock. A pouch of the popular Chongga Jip brand, made solely from Korean
> ingredients, sold this week for $4.05 a pound -- about half the price of
> homemade.
>
> Some Koreans are taking the kimchi crisis in stride, saying it is a blip
> in the market. At her food stall in the sprawling Mo Rae Ne market in
> western Seoul, Lee Young-ae still serves free kimchi to the vendors and
> laborers who come by for a $5 plate of roasted pig cheeks, blood sausage
> and her famous soondae soup.
>
> "The prices will go down," she said. "Sometimes they're high, sometimes
> they're low. Easy come, easy go. That's life."
>
> The making of kimchi is more art than science, more a craft than a
> repeatable recipe. There are hundreds of variations, with varying
> ingredients, colorations, textures and levels of heat. As well as a
> condiment, kimchi is eaten in Korea as a main dish, in soups, stews or
> with fried rice. There are kimchi burgers, kimchi bacon rolls and kimchi
> pizza.
>
> "Even if it's pickled and fermented, if it's your national dish and
> you're in Asia, believe me, they'll find a way to make it special," said
> the celebrity chef Bobby Chinn, the host of World Café Asia, a travel
> and cooking television show. "For Asians it's a popular alternative to
> salads."
>
> The cabbages are not usually shredded or dismembered, and the salted
> leaves are slathered with spices, sauces and pastes. The intact cabbages
> are then placed in earthenware jars and buried in the ground. (Apartment
> dwellers and urbanites now use stainless steel containers or special
> kimchi refrigerators.) The cabbages then pickle and ferment into the
> eye-watering dish served year-round in Korea, at breakfast, lunch and
> dinner.
>
> Most Koreans see kimchi as a staple food, even a daily necessity, a kind
> of health food. During the SARS panic in Asia in 2003, the rumor spread
> widely that kimchi was an effective antidote.
>
> For most Westerners, however, kimchi remains an unacquired taste. It can
> offend not only with its taste but also with its odor, which can linger
> on a person for hours. And for those unused to its fire and fury, even a
> small dish of kimchi can appear less as a delicacy than as a kind of
> incendiary device.
>
> "To a Western palate, with all the other options out there, kimchi won't
> rank very high," Mr. Chinn said.
>
> A gathering was held in Seoul last week to promote Korean food, with
> European master chefs coming in for panels and demonstrations. Michel
> Troisgros, the renowned French chef from Roanne, listened to a Korean
> official hold forth on the wonders of fermentation and an ambitious
> project to export Korean foods like kimchi.
>
> "I think you have to stop talking about fermentation," Mr. Troisgros
> told the man. "It's not sexy."

==
There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO.
Leave it for the peasants.
==

On Oct 16, 9:00*pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:08:40 -0700 (PDT), Roy wrote:
> > There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO.
> > Leave it for the peasants.
>
> Learn to snip your posts.
>
> And kimchi is thr food of gods. *Some of the best flavors come from
> fermentation. *The only thing "rotting" is the pink stuff between your
> toes.
>
> -sw

==
Yes, I should have trimmed the posting...good point.

I once worked for a Korean-Canadian couple and as a matter of course I
got a free lunch every day at their restaurant. I didn't care for
their kimchi and rarely sampled it. Perhaps one can acquire a taste
for it but I'd just as soon have fresh cabbage salad with shredded
cabbage, chopped apple, vinegar, sugar and cream as per my mother's
recipe.
==

Roy wrote:
> There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO.
> Leave it for the peasants.
> ==

You obviously aren't Korean.
--
Jean B.

On 10/16/2010 10:08 PM, Roy wrote:
> On Oct 16, 3:54 pm, (Victor Sack) wrote:
>> Rising Cost of Kimchi Alarms Koreans
>>
>> By MARK McDONALD
>>
>> International Herald Tribune
>>
>> SEOUL, South Korea -- Even in the middle of a loud and bustling outdoor
>> market, her voice drops to a whisper when she agrees to reveal the two
>> secret ingredients that make her kimchi so popular with her customers.
>> "Fermented-anchovy paste and pickled-prune sauce," says Kim Gil-soo,
>> looking warily, both ways, down the alley in front of her store, called
>> Prosperity.
>>
>> "I special-order the sauce from a certain place in the countryside," she
>> said, still whispering. "I'm quite well known for my kimchi."
>>
>> But recent sales have been disappointing, Mrs. Kim said, because of an
>> unavoidable spike in the price of her kimchi, the fiery and pungent
>> Korean national dish that typically combines cabbage, radishes, red
>> chili peppers, garlic and salt. The price for one head of long-leafed
>> Napa cabbage grown in Korea has skyrocketed in the past month, to as
>> much as $14, from about $2.50. Domestic radishes have tripled in price,
>> to more than $5 apiece, and the price of garlic has more than doubled.
>>
>> Kimchi has become so expensive that some restaurants in the capital no
>> longer offer it free as a banchan, or side dish, a situation akin to
>> having an American burger joint charge for ketchup, although decidedly
>> more calamitous here. The politics editor of a major South Korean
>> newspaper called the kimchi situation "a national tragedy," and an
>> editorial in Dong-a Ilbo termed it "a once in a century crisis."
>>
>> Wholesalers and economists have blamed overly rainy weather for the
>> cabbage shortage, as well as fewer acres having been planted after a
>> bumper crop and low prices in 2009. The average price for a head of Napa
>> cabbage last year was $1.40, according to food industry figures.
>>
>> The opposition Democratic Party also has laid blame for the shortages on
>> a large river-reclamation project, saying it destroyed farmland that
>> would have been used for cabbages and other vegetables, a charge the
>> government has denied.
>>
>> Meanwhile, there have been reports of cabbage rustling in rural areas,
>> and the government has suspended tariffs on imported cabbage and
>> radishes from China, beginning Thursday. The president of South Korea,
>> Lee Myung-bak, has said that until the crisis eases he will eat only the
>> cheap and inferior kind of cabbage -- the round-headed variety commonly
>> found in Europe and the United States.
>>
>> "There is no reason for regular folks to have to buy items integral to
>> daily life at higher prices than international prices," Mr. Lee said at
>> a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, while instructing his economists to more
>> closely monitor commodity prices that have sent the South Korean
>> consumer price index to a 17-month high.
>>
>> The price increases have caused many middle- and lower-income homemakers
>> to cancel the making of kimchi at home this year, a traditional rite of
>> autumn that typically brings together mothers, daughters, aunts,
>> grannies and neighbors. Some families can go through a couple of hundred
>> heads of cabbage, and it's not unusual for all the bathtubs and sinks in
>> a house to be filled with bobbing cabbages as they are washed, soaked
>> and brined.
>>
>> "I'm probably not going to do it at home this year," said Roh Eun-ja, a
>> Seoul restaurant owner. "Even if the price of cabbage comes down and I
>> do make kimchi, I'll be downsizing. Not so much this year."
>>
>> Mrs. Roh has two daughters, both in their 30s, and she said they learned
>> to make kimchi "by looking over my shoulder, by tasting and doing, like
>> all Korean girls are supposed to."
>>
>> One daughter works at an Outback steakhouse, the other at an upscale
>> department store, and they have little time to make kimchi on their own,
>> Mrs. Roh said, lamenting the loss of another tradition to the "ppali
>> ppali" or "hurry hurry" lifestyle of modern South Korea.
>>
>> "It's also more expensive to make it on your own," Mrs. Roh said, "so
>> more and more people buy it ready-made now. That's what my daughters
>> do."
>>
>> Supermarkets have reportedly had difficulty keeping packaged kimchi in
>> stock. A pouch of the popular Chongga Jip brand, made solely from Korean
>> ingredients, sold this week for $4.05 a pound -- about half the price of
>> homemade.
>>
>> Some Koreans are taking the kimchi crisis in stride, saying it is a blip
>> in the market. At her food stall in the sprawling Mo Rae Ne market in
>> western Seoul, Lee Young-ae still serves free kimchi to the vendors and
>> laborers who come by for a $5 plate of roasted pig cheeks, blood sausage
>> and her famous soondae soup.
>>
>> "The prices will go down," she said. "Sometimes they're high, sometimes
>> they're low. Easy come, easy go. That's life."
>>
>> The making of kimchi is more art than science, more a craft than a
>> repeatable recipe. There are hundreds of variations, with varying
>> ingredients, colorations, textures and levels of heat. As well as a
>> condiment, kimchi is eaten in Korea as a main dish, in soups, stews or
>> with fried rice. There are kimchi burgers, kimchi bacon rolls and kimchi
>> pizza.
>>
>> "Even if it's pickled and fermented, if it's your national dish and
>> you're in Asia, believe me, they'll find a way to make it special," said
>> the celebrity chef Bobby Chinn, the host of World Café Asia, a travel
>> and cooking television show. "For Asians it's a popular alternative to
>> salads."
>>
>> The cabbages are not usually shredded or dismembered, and the salted
>> leaves are slathered with spices, sauces and pastes. The intact cabbages
>> are then placed in earthenware jars and buried in the ground. (Apartment
>> dwellers and urbanites now use stainless steel containers or special
>> kimchi refrigerators.) The cabbages then pickle and ferment into the
>> eye-watering dish served year-round in Korea, at breakfast, lunch and
>> dinner.
>>
>> Most Koreans see kimchi as a staple food, even a daily necessity, a kind
>> of health food. During the SARS panic in Asia in 2003, the rumor spread
>> widely that kimchi was an effective antidote.
>>
>> For most Westerners, however, kimchi remains an unacquired taste. It can
>> offend not only with its taste but also with its odor, which can linger
>> on a person for hours. And for those unused to its fire and fury, even a
>> small dish of kimchi can appear less as a delicacy than as a kind of
>> incendiary device.
>>
>> "To a Western palate, with all the other options out there, kimchi won't
>> rank very high," Mr. Chinn said.
>>
>> A gathering was held in Seoul last week to promote Korean food, with
>> European master chefs coming in for panels and demonstrations. Michel
>> Troisgros, the renowned French chef from Roanne, listened to a Korean
>> official hold forth on the wonders of fermentation and an ambitious
>> project to export Korean foods like kimchi.
>>
>> "I think you have to stop talking about fermentation," Mr. Troisgros
>> told the man. "It's not sexy."
>
> ==
> There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO.
> Leave it for the peasants.
> ==

Rotten cabbage no but fermented cabbage as in kimchi or sauerkraut is
good eating.

On Sat, 16 Oct 2010 23:54:10 +0200, Victor Sack wrote:

> Rising Cost of Kimchi Alarms Koreans
>
> By MARK McDONALD
>
> International Herald Tribune

i can see that in korea this would be a very big deal.

your pal,
blake

George wrote on Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:11:56 -0400:

> On 10/16/2010 10:08 PM, Roy wrote:
>Rotten cabbage no but fermented cabbage as in kimchi or sauerkraut is
>good eating.


Sauerkraut and Kimchi are perfectly acceptable in small quantities to me
but I would not go much out of my way to get them.

That's not quite true I guess, since I really would go quite a way to
get Alsatian Choucroute Garnie. (There are a number of recipes for
this, which is cooked sauerkraut with sausage, ham, pork, smoked duck
etc. I like the version where the kraut is heated with Riesling wine.)

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On 10/17/2010 7:27 AM, blake murphy wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Oct 2010 23:54:10 +0200, Victor Sack wrote:
>
>> Rising Cost of Kimchi Alarms Koreans
>>
>> By MARK McDONALD
>>
>> International Herald Tribune
>
> i can see that in korea this would be a very big deal.
>
> your pal,
> blake

No Kimchee = no Koreans. This sounds dumb to us but a Korean would laugh
and say it's true.

Victor Sack wrote:
>
> chili peppers, garlic and salt. The price for one head of long-leafed
> Napa cabbage grown in Korea has skyrocketed in the past month, to as
> much as $14, from about $2.50. Domestic radishes have tripled in price,
> to more than $5 apiece, and the price of garlic has more than doubled.

How can it be so high? I paid less than a dollar
for a head a few days ago. Does Korea have import
controls that prevent American Napa cabbage from
entering the country?

On an unrelated topic, I watch a fair amount of
Korean-language television, and even though I don't
understand the language it seems apparent to me
that there are distinct male and female versions
of the language. I don't know of any other language
that way, with the possible exception of Japanese.

On Oct 17, 11:27*am, "James Silverton" >
wrote:
> *George *wrote *on Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:11:56 -0400:
>
> > On 10/16/2010 10:08 PM, Roy wrote:
> >Rotten cabbage no but fermented cabbage as in kimchi or sauerkraut is
> >good eating.
>
> Sauerkraut and Kimchi are perfectly acceptable in small quantities to me
> but I would not go much out of my way to get them.
>
> That's not quite true I guess, since I really would go quite a way to
> get *Alsatian Choucroute Garnie. (There are a number of recipes for
> this, which is cooked sauerkraut with sausage, ham, pork, smoked duck
> etc. I like the version where the kraut is heated with Riesling wine.)
>
> --
>
> James Silverton
> Potomac, Maryland
>
> Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

==
I like hot sauerkraut with pork hocks cooked till the meat almost
falls of the bone but I still don't care for kimchi...it just has a
different taste which turns me off. Perhaps its the type of cabbage
used...I'll check this out later.
==

On 2010-10-17, Mark Thorson > wrote:

>
> How can it be so high? I paid less than a dollar
> for a head a few days ago. Does Korea have import
> controls.....

You didn't read the article, did you? Very bad crop year, and yes,
they've dropped import tariffs. OTOH, greed is still greed, no matter
the culture or language.

nb

In article >,
"Jean B." > wrote:

> Roy wrote:
> > There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO.
> > Leave it for the peasants.
> > ==
>
> You obviously aren't Korean.

It's still a good warning. If someone has never had kimchee before, and
sees a terrific sale for a five gallon jar of it, best to pass.

When I was a kid, and my father got the jar (probably a pint, which
lasted for a long time) of kimchee out, the kitchen cleared, instantly.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA

On 2010-10-17, dsi1 > wrote:

> out that they were indeed odd and nutty.....

LOL

I can relate. My brewing mentor was way beyond "nutty" about brewing
beer, approaching stark raving bonkers! He not only had an entire
refrigerator dedicated to beer, but two LARGE chest freezers with
dedicated digital themostats. This was in addition to the $8-10K in
beer refrigeration/storage/dispensing (taps) equipment! At one time,
he had 16 beers on tap, everyone as good, usually better, than
anything one could purchase at the best stores. He was waaaaay beyond
a hobbyist.

nb

Roy > wrote:

> There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO.
> Leave it for the peasants.

I must be a peasant then. I eat a bit of kimchi and/or sauerkraut and
sour pickles nearly every day. Fortunately, the price of kimchi (and,
for that matter, of Napa cabbage) is not nearly as high here as it is in
Korea.

Victor

On 10/17/2010 10:30 AM, Sqwertz wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 10:10:23 -1000, dsi1 wrote:
>
>> I don't know too much about the new appliances being built but they are
>> beautiful appliances that take up a lot of space.
>
> You can get a decent one for about $800 and they are about the size of
> a dishwasher. I know somebody who has one.
>
> -sw

Do they drive a Jaguar? :-)

"George" wrote

> Rotten cabbage no but fermented cabbage as in kimchi or sauerkraut is
> good eating.

I agree and request you *please* consider *trimming* next time ok?

Dan Abel wrote:
> In article >,
> "Jean B." > wrote:
>
>> Roy wrote:
>>> There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO.
>>> Leave it for the peasants.
>>> ==
>> You obviously aren't Korean.
>
> It's still a good warning. If someone has never had kimchee before, and
> sees a terrific sale for a five gallon jar of it, best to pass.
>
> When I was a kid, and my father got the jar (probably a pint, which
> lasted for a long time) of kimchee out, the kitchen cleared, instantly.
>
Sure, folks who are not accustomed to it might be wise to approach
it with some caution.
--
Jean B.

On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:52:35 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:

> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 07:56:03 -1000, dsi1 wrote:
>
>> No Kimchee = no Koreans. This sounds dumb to us but a Korean would laugh
>> and say it's true.
>
> Are you saying they will keel over and die without kimchi? Don't he
> natural laws of survival at least put "Invade a nearby country" (that
> has more cabbage) above "Keel over and die"?
>
> -sw

is there *any* cabbage in north korea any more? i heard they were eating
grass clippings.

your pal,
blake

On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:32:45 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:

> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:15:34 -1000, dsi1 wrote:
>
>> On 10/17/2010 10:30 AM, Sqwertz wrote:
>>> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 10:10:23 -1000, dsi1 wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't know too much about the new appliances being built but they are
>>>> beautiful appliances that take up a lot of space.
>>>
>>> You can get a decent one for about $800 and they are about the size of
>>> a dishwasher. I know somebody who has one.
>>
>> Do they drive a Jaguar? :-)
>
> 1993 Toyota Paseo.
>
> -sw

they know good food is more important than an automobile.

your pal,
blake

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:34:26 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:

> On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:50:08 -0400, blake murphy wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:32:45 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:15:34 -1000, dsi1 wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 10/17/2010 10:30 AM, Sqwertz wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 10:10:23 -1000, dsi1 wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't know too much about the new appliances being built but they are
>>>>>> beautiful appliances that take up a lot of space.
>>>>>
>>>>> You can get a decent one for about $800 and they are about the size of
>>>>> a dishwasher. I know somebody who has one.
>>>>
>>>> Do they drive a Jaguar? :-)
>>>
>>> 1993 Toyota Paseo.
>>
>> they know good food is more important than an automobile.
>
> You and I are good examples of that.
>
> I don't even think they drive the car. It failed the emissions test
> last year so it's probably not currently registered. But they live in
> downtown San Jose, so they can walk to/from most places. I doubt they
> take the bus anywhere (nobody would want to sit next to a bunch of
> kimchi-eating and smelling people anyway).

i've been a city boy since i went to school in new york. in a city with
good public transportation (especially a subway) keeping a car makes little
sense.

your pal,
blake

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:18:07 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:

> On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:46:56 -0400, blake murphy wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:52:35 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 07:56:03 -1000, dsi1 wrote:
>>>
>>>> No Kimchee = no Koreans. This sounds dumb to us but a Korean would laugh
>>>> and say it's true.
>>>
>>> Are you saying they will keel over and die without kimchi? Don't he
>>> natural laws of survival at least put "Invade a nearby country" (that
>>> has more cabbage) above "Keel over and die"?
>>
>> is there *any* cabbage in north korea any more? i heard they were eating
>> grass clippings.
>
> Kimchi is not just cabbage. It's cucumbers, daikon, perilla leaves,
> leeks/green onions, and certain seafoods. They are not shriveling up
> and dying just because they don't have any cabbage.
>
> Of course the article doesn't mention that. Because then it wouldn't
> sounds as sensational (or accurate)
>
> -sw

well, sure. but it sounded like all the previously cheap vegetables had
suddenly skyrocketed in price.

On Oct 17, 2:28*am, Roy > wrote:
> On Oct 16, 9:00*pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:08:40 -0700 (PDT), Roy wrote:
> > > There is nothing sexy about rotten cabbage. Kimchi is over-rated IMHO..
> > > Leave it for the peasants.
>
> > Learn to snip your posts.
>
> > And kimchi is thr food of gods. *Some of the best flavors come from
> > fermentation. *The only thing "rotting" is the pink stuff between your
> > toes.
>
> > -sw
>
> ==
> Yes, I should have trimmed the posting...good point.
>
> I once worked for a Korean-Canadian couple and as a matter of course I
> got a free lunch every day at their restaurant. I didn't care for
> their kimchi and rarely sampled it. Perhaps one can acquire a taste
> for it but I'd just as soon have fresh cabbage salad with shredded
> cabbage, chopped apple, vinegar, sugar and cream as per my mother's
> recipe.

Nasty. I wouldn't touch your mother's cabbage salad.

Obviously, tastes differ, so there's no point in you dissing kimchee.

Cindy Hamilton