Wandering the cooler section of Safeway yesterday I saw a small container of kimchi. I don’t know what inspired me to pick it up. I could smell it through the plastic container. For some reason I then put it in my basket and bought it. Now it’s sitting in my fridge and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it.
So what do I do with this kimchi? 
Ear it as you would kraut or pickles. Good with sandwich.
Besides eat it, you mean?
So just eat it cold? I thought maybe it should be heated up and eaten with rice or noodles maybe?
Any and all of those are fine. Cold straight out of the jar, or put it in a recipe like kimchi bokkeumbap - kimchi fried rice.
I second the post above mine - this recipe for kimchi fried rice looks delicious.
I think I’ll try the kimchi fried rice!
I serve it as a side, much like coleslaw.
I envy you. I keep a jar in the fridge, but my wife can’t stand the smell and cooking it makes the smell even stronger. I have to eat it cold from the jar in the back bedroom after she’s gone to sleep like some kind of sad dope fiend.
Throw it in with some stir-fry.
I like it cold, right out of the container. I can’t find kimchi here in whitey-land. There are plenty of places in Ottawa proper where I’m sure it’s sold, but not out here in the sticks.
I’ve mentioned this before, but my first experience with kimchi was in southern Ontario as a teenager. My brother hung around with the only ethic kid in our school at the time: from Korea. He gave us some of his mum’s home-made kimchi and it was ambrosia. The most delicious thing I’d ever tasted. I yearn for some of that.
Moving IMHO to Cafe Society.
I eat it straight from the container.
A while back, I had a recipe for a beef stew with cabbage, and since I didn’t have any fresh cabbage, I decided to use some kimchi instead. That provided just the right amount of spice, and the stew was very good.
Kimchi stew with rice cakes is one of my very favorite meals.
Forbidden love is the most delicious of all.
Kimchi stir-fry is probably the easiest if you want to cook it up, but kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) or buddae jjigae (look under “varieties” on the kimchi jjigae link) is one of my favorite meals in the world. You’ll need a few more ingredients, though, although you can probably improvise something reasonable.
Great minds.
I like it best as a side to snack on as I’m eating something else. Goes great with good ol’ barbecue and a lot of other stuff that’s not the least bit Oriental.
I like it on the side partly because I’m a bit of a lightweight when it comes to hot foods, so I’d rather have my hot and normal to select from and adjust.
I never had kimchi until I spent some time in Hawaii, living on the cheap. The Korean BBQ joints in non-tourist areas had some of the best food, at townie prices, and whatever else you ordered, you’d get a few dishes of different kimchis. Wow, yum.
So, apparently one of my local stores just recently started selling kimchi. I had no idea, but I had mentioned my hankering for kimchi to a very good friend of mine and she googled which stores near me had kimchi.
I had to ask customer service where I could find it, and they only knew it was a recent addition to the store, and I’d have to ask some one in “produce.” Sigh. I asked the girl at the deli counter, and she led me back behind the employee only doors to a produce guy who then led me to the kimchi: in the produce isle between baby carrots and bok choy. There were two variants: mild and hot. I bought the hot of course, who wouldn’t?
I haven’t opened the jar yet…
I’d like to thank my friend for her awesome googling powers that led me to my kimchee purchase.
I’ll sample it tonight and report back soon.