Low Sodium Kimchi?

The Korean Food and Drug Administration is starting a campaign to reduce the amount of sodium in Korean Kimchi. It's about time!

Koreans eat kimchi at every meal, but there is so much salt in it, that it pushes the average Koreans daily sodium intake to over 4,553 milligrams. Remember, the WHO's recommendations is only 2,000 a day.

I always knew it was salty (due to the high amounts needed during the fermentation process), but never knew it was this high. I only eat it once a day, typically at lunch, maybe two times if I eat Korean for dinner. When I cook at home, I take special care not to add any salt to my cooking because I know I'm getting plenty in my school lunches.

I just wonder, if kimchi is that salty, how much salt is in the other dishes at school lunch??

Gwangju Kimchi Festival, 2009 (광주 김치 문화 축제 2009)

Lessons Learned- Don't try the 홍어

I learned a very important lesson last night that I should have learned 10 months ago. I went out to dinner with two English teachers, Mihey and Youngran, and the two PE teachers, Mr. Kim and Mr. Ahn. The restaurant we went to was in Damyang, a small town to the east of Gwangju. I was told we'd be having a traditional Korean meal, which didn't suprise me, because they say every food we eat is "traditional Korean food."

The restaurant was on a road in Damyang which is famous for its restaurants. The funny thing was, all the restaurants looked like mushrooms! On the way back, they were lit up with neon lights, of course, so that made them look pretty strange. Anyway, it was incredibly scenic. The light rain and the lush, green mountains made it seem like we were hours away from Gwangju. Here's a picture of the back side of the restaurant at dusk. Our table was overlooking this pond.



This is the type of restaurant where there's no menu. You simply sit down, and they bring out the courses. Yep, courses. We had three courses last night, now lets see if I can remember what all we had!

Appetizer- Best described as a green salad submerged in cold soup, and tea to drink.

First course~


Starting from the very top: crab-in-shell kimchi; Right- ROTTEN fish*, kimchi, and pork pieces; Center- marinated chicken, some sort of pink vegetable, onion, and shredded laver; Far Bottom- mashed potatoes with purple dressing; Left- seasoned shrimp and bean sprouts; Far Left Top- seasoned tofu; Far Left Bottom- green salad.

*Yes, really, rotten fish. Here's the lesson I learned: Don't eat something you're unsure of if not everyone is eating it. For example, Mr. Ahn saw me eat a piece of the kimchi plain, which apparently you're not supposed to do. He demonstrated the best way to eat it- spread a piece of the kimchi out on your plate, place the pork on top of it, and the fish on top of that. Then, eat it all in one, giant bite. Well, I like all of those things separate, so why not try them together, right? Remember at this point, I didn't know the fish was ROTTEN! So, I do just as he says, but as soon as I begin chewing this massive amount of food, I can tell something's just not right. Of course, the four other teachers are watching me expectantly. I'm sure the faces I was making were pretty amusing. The kimchi and pork was good, but I couldn't place my finger on how the fish tasted. It faintly reminded me of how I think nail polish remover would taste. I didn't end up eating the whole thing, it was so bad I literally had to spit out the rest of the fish in my napkin! I also came across some strange piece of cartilage while eating it, gross! I felt bad, but I can't even begin to describe how bad it tasted.

I asked Mihey afterwards what the deal was with the fish. She explained that this type of fish is caught, then let to rot for three or four days!!! Apparently, it's the only fish that can be "prepared" like this. Mr. Ahn was also describing it to me in broken English, and somewhere along the way, he said "ammonia," and that's exactly how it tasted! I'm assuming when the fish rots, it tastes like ammonia!!!! So if you're ever in Korea, don't try the '홍어' or 'hongeo.'

So, on an happier note, here's course two (sorry it's a bit blurry)~



Starting from the top right- seasoned green lettuce to mix in with your rice; Bottom Right- marinated garlic and mushroom; Center- three cooked fish; Left side- different kinds of kimchi. The seasonings in the circle dishes are for your rice.

Not pictured- Course Three: An extra large rice bowl, bean sprout soup, warm scorched rice soup, and milk coffee.

Everything was pretty delicious, aside from that fish. And the best part is, only 12,000 won! At the current exchange rate, that's only $9.99!

Food of the Week- Kimchi (김치)

Koreans eat so much of this super-spicy condiment (40 pounds of it per person each year) that natives say “kimchi” instead of “cheese” when getting their pictures taken. The reddish fermented cabbage (and sometimes radish) dish—made with a mix of garlic, salt, vinegar, chile peppers, and other spices—is served at every meal, either alone or mixed with rice or noodles. And it’s part of a high-fiber, low-fat diet that has kept obesity at bay in Korea. Kimchi also is used in everything from soups to pancakes, and as a topping on pizza and burgers.

Why to try it: Kimchi (or kimchee) is loaded with vitamins A, B, and C, but its biggest benefit may be in its “healthy bacteria” called lactobacilli, found in fermented foods like kimchi and yogurt. This good bacteria helps with digestion, plus it seems to help stop and even prevent yeast infections, according to a recent study. And more good news: Some studies show fermented cabbage has compounds that may prevent the growth of cancer.

I personally really enjoy kimchi. It's spicy and helps cure any sickness, or so the Koreans say! At first, I couldn't get used to the taste, but I look forward to having it at lunch every day. There are hundreds of kinds, my favorite is the classic Kimchi. Typically I have some at home, but the kind that my schools have is the best, I think it is the freshest.

Here is just one website specifically for 김치!
http://www.kimchi.or.kr/eng/

Kimchi Festival

One of the things that Jeollanam-do province is known for is it's food. Here is an excerpt from my travel book:

"Considered the 'rice bowl of Korea,' the two Jeolla Provinces are a veritable cornucopia of food. In the late spring, ample rains water the fields, and the farmers can be seen bent over, planting even rows of rice. As might be expected with such an agricultural region, the women from this area are considered the best cooks in Korea.

The conspicuous lack of heavy industry in the Jeolla provinces does have advantages, as the region has perhaps the cleanest air and best-preserved natural environment in Korea. A ride through the countryside reveals scenes that are only a memory in more devolped provinces. The Korean curve motif is everywhere in this pastoral scene- in the sublte curves of terraced rice paddies, the rolling curves of mountains, hills, and burial mounds, and the upcurved roofs of traditional farmhouses.

Gwangju competes with Jeonju for honors such as "best food in Korea" and "the most food served in Korea." This is because in the past, wealthy landlords established gracious food standards, and because the lush Honam Plain in Jeollanam-do has provided food for the city's gormets."

This describes Gwangju perfectly. A lot of times if you are hungry before you go out downtown, you're better off to NOT get food, because you are always served food when you order a drink. They don't want you to drink on an empty stomach! For example, downtown last night our free bar food was (unlimited) sweet potatoes, deep fried mushrooms, rice cakes in red sauce, and nuts. Other times, we've gotten squid or fish jerkey, popcorn, rice cakes, and other light snack foods.

Anyhow, since Ben and Neil were visiting from Busan for the weekend, we decided to hit up the Kimchi Festival together. The boys were a little late arriving, because they had a very late (or early!) night that ended with them eating at 4am at a 24 hour bulgabi restaurant.

I got to the fest grounds next to the World Cup Stadium around 11:30 am, and met up with a girl Megan from Korean class and her co-teacher. We walked around for a bit before everyone else came and saw lots of things. There were many white booths set up on the Southern Providence Food Street where you could eat to your hearts content. There were huge slabs of pork, octopus on a stick, various kinds of kimchi, and lots of Soju and Maekju. The smells were overwhelming, but in a good way. Inside one of the stadiums, we could sample and buy different kinds of kimchi. It was great. I must have had samples of 15 different kinds. I couldn't tell you what they all were though!

There was a special booth called "Foreigners Making Kimchi." I really wanted to do it, but I knew that I wasn't going to be going home until after midnight, and didn't want to be carrying around a pail of cabbage and spices with me all day. I happened to see Steve and Linda Brown (also EPIK teachers, about 50 years old) and they had made some kimchi already. They said it was a lot of fun, but wasn't easy!

For lunch, our menu was on a piece of paper, all in Korean. Alli, Emily, Brian, and I did our best to order by just pointing at one. We figured that it would be pork, because there was so much of it at this booth. We first had their kimchi, which was delicious, then they brought out a second kind of kimchi, which we determined after 10 minutes was our main course. There were dark bits of something in it. It was kind of earthy, like a mushroom, but also kind of meaty. Alli is somewhat a vegetarian, no red meat, so we had to figure out what it was. We eventually found out that it was snails. It wasn't bad, but not what any of us had expected. That's what happends when you just randomly point to something on a menu, hope for the best!

Gwangju Kimchi Festival

Here is the link for the Kimchi Festival. On this website, there is information about past festivals, how to make kimchi, event details, and all sorts of random bits about kimchi!

http://www.kimchi.gwangju.kr/eng/main.html

I'm pretty excited for this, to say the least!