KIm Chee
 

Maybe this can be like the tea connoisseur thread, but for Kim Chee.

It's fermented cabbage, with lots of garlic, the national dish of Korea. Many people not from Korea find it disgusting, and everyone finds it smelly even if they like it. This stuff can come out in your sweat and make you stink for days. The taste and smell can take getting used to.

My local grocery store got bought out and changed over to a Mexican grocery, and so almost anything but the most plain, bare bones food is gone. Other ethnic stuff, like Kim Chee, vanished, and every once in a while I get a craving that it becomes kind of a hassle to fulfill.

Does anyone know of a place you could mail order Kim Chee from, that they would personally recommend? I'm in the mood to stink up the place a little lately, and have been without my Kim Chee fix for too long.

Re: KIm Chee
 

Where do you live?

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I opened this hoping for pictures of some hot newcomer in the porn/modelling industry. I was disappointed.

Swede

Re: KIm Chee
 

is it always served cold? i tried some at a restaurant and i thought it was pretty boring. spicy cold cabbage.

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is it always served cold? i tried some at a restaurant and i thought it was pretty boring. spicy cold cabbage.

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A standard is a stew made with pieces of pork, water and kim chee. It also varies in quality from place to place, and, to be honest, jar to jar. Mom used to make tubs of it every fall.

Re: KIm Chee
 

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is it always served cold? i tried some at a restaurant and i thought it was pretty boring. spicy cold cabbage.

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it's soooooooooooooooooooo bad. boring is way too high a compliment.

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is it always served cold?

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Sorry to hear you cant get your fix.

I love kim chee. There is a decent place across the street from my office where I can satisfy the urge when I get it.

I found this on google

Re: KIm Chee
 

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is it always served cold?

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Ive had good stir fried kim chee, with pork and tofu and some vegetables or rice cakes. It was good. Then again, I love it cold, hot, in stew, whatever. Also, the spicier the better.

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is it always served cold?

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It's served often cold but is found in a large variety of things. There's water kimchi, radish kimchi, spicy tofu kimchi soup (kimchi chigae), cucumber kimchi, radish kimchi... etc. etc. It also varies a LOT in terms of how it tastes based on how skillful the chef is. If you go to a really good Korean restaurant (well reviewed in the area) you'll probably think it's good stuff. But who knows some people just don't like it.

It's hard to find good kimchi at stores IMO. Especially Costco, never buy kimchi from there. It's horrible. My recommendation is to find a traditional Korean grandmother. Most of them in my experience are very good at making kimchi, and they often do it in very large amounts.

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I get mine from a local farmer's market that happens every weekend.

Anything that that around you?

Regards,
Woodguy

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I'm confused. I've only had it in tiny amounts as a side with a lot of white rice. I thought it was a kind of pickled condiment. It's really hot right?

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In Los Angeles.

Re: KIm Chee
 

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is it always served cold? i tried some at a restaurant and i thought it was pretty boring. spicy cold cabbage.

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It's served either cold or room temperature.

There are many different kinds of kim chee, differing in hotness, amount of garlic, etc. Kim Chee is usually basically cabbage, but it can also be pickled radishes or other vegetables. The main thing is they're fermented with plenty of garlic, salt, and usually but not always some chilis for bite.

If you had a dull one, that's what I'm wanting to avoid, so I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations. There are better and worse Kim Chee's.

Re: KIm Chee
 

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is it always served cold? i tried some at a restaurant and i thought it was pretty boring. spicy cold cabbage.

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it's soooooooooooooooooooo bad. boring is way too high a compliment.

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Not many people find garlic and/or chili's all that boring. Quite the opposite. They're intense flavors.

Re: KIm Chee
 

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Sorry to hear you cant get your fix.

I love kim chee. There is a decent place across the street from my office where I can satisfy the urge when I get it.

I found this on google

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Yeah I saw that place and might try them.

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Any particular reason you don't just drive to K-town?

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There are other supermarkets around me, but they take more driving and they stock it haphazardly. It can become like an afternoon trying to find a damn jar of the stuff. I've never seen any kimchi in the farmers markets I've been to.

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I'm bumping into some recipes on the net, but they say let it sit for 2 days or so. I thought you were supposed to let it sit for a lot longer than that. Does anyone know if just a couple days is enough?

Re: KIm Chee
 

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I've never seen any kimchi in the farmers markets I've been

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That sucks.

The two farmer's market's that I go to each have 2-3 Korean Food booths.

The stuff I buy stinks up the whole house the second I open the jar.

Life is good.

Regards,
Woodguy

Re: KIm Chee
 

I live in the Valley, and it would easily take three hours between street traffic and freeway traffic just to get to the northern part of it. Plus, Koreatown in L.A. has surprisingly few Koreans in it. It's mostly Latinos now, even some Filipinos. But the Korean businesses are sparse, and I can't remember a Korean grocery there.

Re: KIm Chee
 

Heh. That's the kind I like -- the stuff you eat only on Fridays or Saturdays so you have the weekend to sweat it out.

Re: KIm Chee
 

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I live in the Valley, and it would easily take three hours between street traffic and freeway traffic just to get to the northern part of it. Plus, Koreatown in L.A. has surprisingly few Koreans in it. It's mostly Latinos now, even some Filipinos. But the Korean businesses are sparse, and I can't remember a Korean grocery there.

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Are you sure you were in Koreatown?

Also, Kim Chee is rad. I also like Kim Bap(sp?).

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I work with a bunch of Koreans that have it with every meal. I don't think it really smells that bad. Also, I have been told there are over 100 different types of Kim Chee.

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I lived in Koreatown for like 8 years.

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i like it fresh. i hate it when its been fermented for a long time, too sour.

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in hawaii we make kim chee hamburgers, kim chee fried rice and all sorts of other cooked dishes. the hamburgers rock. also mix in some crumbled up potato chips and you have the best home made burger.

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I lived in Koreatown for like 8 years.

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OK, I know there are a lot of latin people there now, but I go everyonce in a while for K-BBQ and I see lots of Korean businesses.

Anyway, where in the valley do you live? In Glendale, off the 134 freeway at the Pacific exit, if you get out and head north, there is a Hangook Market on the left hand side. It's big, they'll have everything you need.

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when i said boring, i meant that it tasted like cabbage with hot sauce. there wasn't any kind of embedding of flavors.

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I hate Kim Chee. I've never had it though.

What I did have was a year in Korea where every meal the dog gone cooks would out the dog gone Kim Chee next to the jello. And every time the Kim Chee spill over would wind up in the Jello. So no jello for me for a year, not red w/ bananas, orange with pineapple, nothing. Screw Kim Chee [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

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I opened this hoping for pictures of some hot newcomer in the porn/modelling industry. I was disappointed.

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This is the first pic I thought of

http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com.../kamala/09.jpg

Re: KIm Chee
 

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There's water kimchi, radish kimchi, spicy tofu kimchi soup (kimchi chigae), cucumber kimchi, radish kimchi...

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You're like the Korean Bubba.

~D

Re: KIm Chee
 

If you can't find kimchee in any part of LA, I think you have problems. I don't live in LA, but I bet I could find a decent Korean market within 25 minutes of your house.

Still, just hit K-town someday and keep the kimchee for awhile. Get the garlic stem and the mu kimchees. Yummm.

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When's your next BBQ? I'm there.

Re: KIm Chee
 

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I opened this hoping for pictures of some hot newcomer in the porn/modelling industry. I was disappointed.

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This is the first pic I thought of

http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com.../kamala/09.jpg

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LOL, same here.

Re: KIm Chee
 

Such a wonderful food, kind of like a hot, garlicky sauerkraut. Good for breakfast, too, though most things are good for breakfast when it's the winner of Fridge Survivor.

Yeah, in LA there should be a decent Korean or other Asian market that should carry it nearby. If not, make some, and no, you don't have to bury it in the backyard.

Re: KIm Chee
 

[ QUOTE ]
I opened this hoping for pictures of some hot newcomer in the porn/modelling industry. I was disappointed.


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Here are a couple pictures from the first page of results from a GIS for kim chee:

http://www.wmpg.org/archivefiles/PAIP/PAIP22/paip22.jpg
http://madaboutmadtv.tripod.com/site...by_kimchee.jpg

Re: KIm Chee
 

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I live in the Valley, and it would easily take three hours between street traffic and freeway traffic just to get to the northern part of it. Plus, Koreatown in L.A. has surprisingly few Koreans in it. It's mostly Latinos now, even some Filipinos. But the Korean businesses are sparse, and I can't remember a Korean grocery there.

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There's a Korean market on the corner of Sherman Way and White Oak.

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You probably had shitty kim chee.

It's wonderful stuff.

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Love kimchee. I feel for Blarg.

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is it always served cold?

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No, Astroglide, it can be used as an ingredient in other dishes, like kimchee chigae (soup dish). Mmmm....chigae.