Anyone ever watch Kimchi Chronicle on PBS? Chicago’s WTTW is having Kimchi Chronicle marathon this evening.
Do the food on the show make you hungry? What do you think you would try? What wouldn’t you even think of trying? What Korean foods have you tried so far? What do you think of the show?
Ooops mods, this thread probably belongs in Cafe Society.
I’m checking WTTW and I have David Garrett: Rock Symphonies
Oh, WTTW-2, ie, their “Create” channel. Sorry. The marathon will be on until 5AM though!!
They were also on WHAC (Wisconsin Public TV) during the day today so I assume all public stations are doing the marathon.
Huge Jackman(and hs wife) and Heather Graham are guests on the shows if anyone’s fan.
I saw the first one. It was OK. I do like kimchi. Yum.
Mod
Moved from IMHO to Café Society
Haven’t seen or heard of this program, but I’ve made my own kimchi.
How did it turn out?
Tasted like kimchi. Wasn’t hard at all, but I’m fairly experienced with fermented foods.
I used this recipe. I didn’t use the pear, sesame, or Korean anchovy sauce in it. It’s pretty forgiving. Basically, all you need is some vegetables, the right amount of salt, and let it sit for a few days to ferment. Do seek out the Korean ground chiles, as they’re different in flavor than ay North American peppers I’ve had, and are key to getting the right flavor. Also, I actually used a little leftover store-bought kimchi when I was mixing things up to help the fermentation along (already made kimchi should serve as a good source of microorganisms for the fermentation.)
This is the step I didn’t know about. I bought a store bought freshly made jar of kimchi and stuck in my fridge when I got home because I liked the taste of fresh kimchi as it was and I thought it would ferment in the fridge; wrong. It was okay for a while then it started to taste funky like rotting vege, ie, if you don’t ferment first they rot. Now I know you have to start the fermenting process or get to somewhere near fermented to the point of how you like it, in room temperature with the jar lid slightly unscrewed before refrigerating (you can tell by rising liquid level so put something underneath the jar to catch over flowing liquid, just in case).
I just think a lot of people don’t know how kimchi should taste and get their opinion about kimchi trying out ‘bad’ kimchi. BTW I absolutely love perfectly ripe cucumber kimchi!
Odd. I’ve kept kimchi in the fridge for, well, a couple of months and it continued fermenting and getting more and more sour, until I used it all up in kimchi jjigae. The fridge will slow down the fermentation, but it shouldn’t kill it, at least not in my experience.
mmmmm…kimchi…mmmmmm
Oh, wait, upon re-read: is this unfermented kimchi then? I didn’t even know such a thing existed.
That’s really weird. Kimchi should ferment just fine in the fridge. You just have to remember to dump a little of the fluid out or suffer a stinky fridge.
Now that I think about it, I’ve never run across a single family (in America or in Korea) that didn’t keep their kimchi in a fridge. Actually, many Koreans have separate kimchi fridges for the purpose. My own family has a separate full sized fridge where we keep the kimchi, and we separate traditional American and Korean foods between the two.
I’m wondering if you simply don’t like very fermented kimchi or somehow got a bad batch. There are lots of people who like relatively fresh kimchi (I’m not one of them), and they all claim that the more fermented kimchi tastes spoiled.
I don’t know the show, but the best restaurant in Bozeman is Korean. I’m not a big fan of kimchee itself, but I loves me some bulgogi and bi-bim-bob (especially with the sauce the chef makes for the bulgogi, it’s a perfect blend of sweet, spicy, and tangy).
Freshly made kimchi is unfermented, ie, until it gets fermented.
In the fridge it will ferment but they seemed to go bad. It happened a couple of times until I asked around: leave freshly-made unfermented kimchi out for a day or two first, to get the fermentation process started(?), then put it in the fridge.
I also heard that you need to compact kimchi down so no air pockets get trapped inside that can also cause kimchi to go bad.
I didn’t know about this until it happened to me. Sour is fine as fermented kimchi will eventually turn vinegary. Kimchi that’s gone bad will have a certain rotting funk even though it will continue to ferment. I don’t really know the exact science behind it.
I’ve just never seen completely unfermented kimchi sold, which is what perplexed me. I thought fermentation is what makes kimchi kimchi, as opposed to spiced cabbage. I think that’s would be called got chorri, but I’m not an expert in Korean food.
I never found fermented kimchi to be really vinegary. It’s got a lactobaccilus and pediococcus taste to it–that of naturally fermented pickles or sauerkraut. It’s distinct (to me) from a vinegar (acetic) taste. It’s a little “rounder” than vinegar, perhaps a little sweeter, but also funkier.
Fresh kimchi should still ferment in the fridge, store bought or not. We do this at home all the time, actually, whether it’s bought in a store or not.
The idea of leaving it out for a day or two really is just to kickstart the fermentation, so you can shave a few days or a few weeks off the time in the refrigerator. It shouldn’t prevent it going bad at all.
It can still go “bad”, but it usually takes more than a few weeks. Even then, it’s still usually ok to eat (won’t make you sick).
I’m still wondering if maybe you just aren’t familiar with extremely fermented kimchi. You never get it in restaurants or stores (too fresh, even in stews). It’s really something you only experience at home. Whether you like it or not depends on personal preference. A lot of Koreans like their kimchi barely fermented while others like it with that slightly funky smell that might be described as rotting.
I’ve seen “old” kimchi at specialty Korean shops. That’s what I normally get for when I make kimchi jjigae. It’s got a hell of a funky kick to it. I’ve never been to Korea, so I don’t know how funky the kimchi gets, but this is pretty assertive. I’ve left it in my fridge for two or three months and it didn’t really seem to get any more funky or sour.