That's all I need

On days when youre just plain tired from work or dont feel like cooking but are hungry, what do you do? Personally, nothing satisfies my hunger like steamed white rice and some Kimchi. I make my own kimchi because it's hard to find kimchi that doesnt contain shrimp or fish paste/powder mixed into it. For one, I am vegetarian so no i will not eat shrimp or fish paste/powder and for two, I am allergic to seafood. I just cant have it. As i was saying, kimchi is delicious. What it is, is essentially pickled vegetables. The most popular one is cabbage kimchi. It is pickled with spices. I like the cucumber kimchi. OH!! and the radish one too.
When I am hungry and dont want to cook anymore, or just want a snack, kimchi is all I need!
Here's a little history on kimchi courtesy of wikipedia. Enjoy!





Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean pickled dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings, most commonly referring to the spicy baechu (cabbage) variety. Kimchi is the most common banchan, or side dish. Kimchi is also a common ingredient and combined with other ingredients to make dishes such as kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) and kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap). Kimchi is so ubiquitous that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) developed space kimchi to accompany the first Korean astronaut to the Russian-manned space ship Soyuz.

The history of Kimchi can be traced back to ancient times. References to kimchi can be found as early as 5600–8000 years ago.[2] The first text-written evidence of its existence can be found in the first Chinese poetry book, Sigyeong (Hangul: 시경 hanja: 詩經). In this book, kimchi was referred to as “Ji”. The term Ji was used until the pre-modern term “Chimchae” (hanja: 沈菜, lit. soaked vegetables), "Dimchae", and "Timchae" was adopted in the period of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.[3] The word then was modified into "Jimchi", and is currently called "Kimchi".

Early kimchi was made of cabbage and salted water only, and in the 12th century people began to include other spices to create different flavors, such as sweet and sour flavors, and colors such as white and orange.

Kimchi varieties are determined by the main vegetable ingredients and the mix of seasonings used to flavor the kimchi. The most popular type of kimchi is the baechu (also known as Chinese cabbage) variety but there are many regional and seasonal varieties. Popular variants include ggakdugi which is a kimchi made with cubed radish, pa-kimchi (made with scallions), chonggak-kimchi and oisobagi (hangul: 오이소박이), a cucumber kimchi with hot and spicy seasoning. Kkaennip (hangul: 깻잎) kimchi features layers of perilla and other spices.

The Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul has documented 187 historic and current varieties of kimchi. Although the most common seasonings include brine, ], scallions and seasonings and ingredients can be replaced or added depending on the type of kimchi being made. Common seasonings also include, ginger, onionsaekjeot (hangul: 액젓, fish sauce) and fresh seafood.

Kimchi can be categorized by main ingredients, regions or seasons. Korea's northern and southern sections have a considerable temperature difference.[5] Northern regions tend to have longer winters compared to the southern regions of Korea.

Kimchi from the northern parts of Korea tend to have less salt as well as less red chilli and usually do not have brined seafood for seasoning. Northern kimchi often has a watery consistency. Kimchi made in the southern parts of Korea, such as Jeolla-do and Gyeongsang-do, uses salt, chili peppers and myeolchijeot (Hangul: 멸치젓, brined anchovy allowed to ferment) or saeujeot (hangul: 새우젓, brined shrimp allowed to ferment), myeolchiaekjeot (Hangul: 멸치액젓, "kkanariakjeot" 까나리액젓, liquid anchovy jeot, similar to fish sauce used in Southeast Asia, but thicker). In the Seoul area saeujeot is preferred.

Saeujeot (hangul: 새우젓) or meyolchijeot is not added to the kimchi spice-seasoning mixture, but is simmered to reduce odors, eliminate tannic flavor and fats, and then is mixed with a thickener made of rice or wheat starch (Hangul: 풀). This technique has been falling into oblivion for the past 40 years.

Other brined jeot can be used, but are no longer common as modern commercialization has made aekjeot (액젓; either myeolchijeot or saeujeot) more affordable and convenient.

White kimchi (baek kimchi) is baechu seasoned without chili pepper and is neither red in color nor spicy. White radish kimchi (dongchimi) is another example of a popular kimchi that is not spicy. The watery white kimchi varieties are a popular ingredient in a number of dishes such as cold noodles in "dongchimi" brine (dongchimi guksu) and is eaten widely during the summer months.