> > > -Faux "doesn't think it smells that bad" Pas
> >
> > Maybe your local Koreans make it to a different recipe. The stuff we get here doesn't smell all that bad when you're just looking at a plateful in a restaurant, but you ought to try being around someone's back yard when they're unearthing next year's supply.
>
> There are two "flavors" of Kim Chee: Summer and Winter. The summer is milder. "Americanized" Summer Kim Chee is what you usually encounter in restaurants. Winter Kim Chee is most likely what Brunnen-G has had the exquisite pleasure of encountering.
>
> When I was in the Army, I could always tell when one of the guys' Korean in-laws were in town and had had Kim Chee FOR BREAKFAST!?!

*scratches head* Well, I don't see anything wrong with having kimchee for breakfast. Cut it into small chunks with a knife, pour a little milk over it... Gives you fibre just like your Shreddies, ya know? :-)

Seriously, though, kimchee is made from cabbage, garlic, salt, and chili, but it has to be made from the right kind of cabbage. That's Chinese cabbage with the pale green crinkly-corrugated leaves, also called "Nappa" by the Japanese. You can't make it from descendants of the tightly curled "western" cabbages, because that type is descended from, ahem, wild Skunk cabbage... It'd give off enormous amounts of smelly *sulfur* as it ferments. Ugh.

Admittedly, I've eaten kimchee in 3 different places and even tried to make it by myself. I've only had consistently good kimchee from a single restaurant source. So I imagine it's harder to make it properly than we think. But I do enjoy it when it's good, because then it's great.

Wolfspirit