K is for kimchi

Kimchi to Koreans may be what atsara is to Filipinos, but in truth, it is much more than that. A side dish to mains like Samgyupsal and Bulgogi, kimchi is also a cooking ingredient for Korean soups, stir-fries, and fried rice. It is also served as pulutan paired with makgeolli, a light, white rice wine, or soju, a distilled liquor made from rice, barley, or sweet potato. But if we take a closer look at kimchi’s flavor profile, we will find that it can complement many Filipino dishes, too.

Kimchi comes in many forms. It can be prepared with various vegetables like radish, cucumber, sayote, mustard leaves, and perilla leaves, but the most common form of kimchi is the baechu kimchi made with Kimchi Cabbage or Baguio pechay. While this humble, traditional dish has endured for centuries in Korea, it is only now becoming more mainstream and readily available in the Philippines. How much do Filipinos really know about kimchi? Can it be paired with other types of food, apart from Korean dishes?

Working and cooking from home

Shimkeun “Summer” Huh Gonzalez is the woman behind Kimchi Dynasty, a pandemic-born homebased business fueled more by passion and desire for quality kimchi than for profit. Her Busan-style kimchi has bright, balanced flavors of umami mingled with spicy and sour, topped with a fragrant aroma that can only be obtained by proper fermentation. High-quality kimchi, even though it has been fermented for months, “has to be malutong,” according to Gonzalez. Its kimchi juice called kimchi googmul must have a homogeneous color, usually bright red-orange (unless it is white kimchi made without the red chili pepper powder).

Read more: https://mb.com.ph/2021/11/11/k-is-for-kimchi/