Kimchi
Kimchi, also written as kimchee, is a traditional Korean side dish consisting of salted and fermented vegetables, most often napa cabbage or Korean radish. A wide selection of seasonings are used, including gochugaru, spring onions, garlic, ginger, and jeotgal. Kimchi is also used in a variety of soups and stews. Kimchi is a staple food in Korean cuisine and is eaten as a side dish with almost every Korean meal.
There are hundreds of different types of kimchi made with different vegetables as the main ingredients. Examples of variants include baechu-kimchi, kkakdugi, chonggak-kimchi, and oi-sobagi. Traditionally, winter kimchi, called gimjang, was stored in large earthenware fermentation vessels, called onggi, in the ground to prevent freezing during the winter months and to keep it cool enough to slow down the fermentation process during summer months. The process of making kimchi was called gimjang and was a way for the whole village to participate. The vessels are also kept outdoors in special terraces called jangdokdae. Recently, household kimchi refrigerators are more commonly used.Etymology
''Ji''
The term ji, which has its origins in archaic Korean dihi, has been used to refer to kimchi since ancient times. The sound change can be roughly described as:
The Middle Korean form dihi is found in several books from the Joseon period. In Modern Korean, the word remains as the suffix -ji in the standard language, and as the suffix -ji as well as the noun ji in Gyeongsang and Jeolla dialects. The unpalatalized form di is preserved in P'yŏngan dialect.''Kimchi''
Kimchi is the accepted word in both North and South Korean standard languages. Earlier forms of the word include , a Middle Korean transcription of the Sino-Korean word wikt:沈. appears in Sohak Eonhae, the 16th-century Korean rendition of the Chinese book, Xiaoxue. Sound changes from Middle Korean to Modern Korean regarding the word can be described as:
The aspirated first consonant of became unaspirated in, then underwent palatalization in. The word then became with the loss of the vowel in Korean language, then kimchi, with the depalatalized word-initial consonant. In Modern Korean, the hanja characters 沈菜 are pronounced chimchae, and are not used to refer to kimchi, or anything else. The word kimchi is not considered as a Sino-Korean word. Older forms of the word are retained in many regional dialects: jimchae, jimchi, and dimchi.
The spelling "kimchi" originated from the McCune–Reischauer transcription kimch'i.History
Early history
Samguk Sagi, a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, mentions the pickle jar used to ferment vegetables, which indicates that fermented vegetables were commonly eaten during this time. Attributed to the earliest kimchi, the Goguryeo people were skilled at fermenting and widely consumed fermented food. During the Silla dynasty, kimchi became prevalent as Buddhism caught on throughout the nation and fostered a vegetarian lifestyle.
The pickling of vegetables was an ideal method, prior to refrigerators, that helped to preserve the lifespan of foods. In Korea, kimchi was made during the winter by fermenting vegetables, and burying them in the ground in traditional brown ceramic pots called onggi. This labor further allowed a bonding among women within the family. A poem on Korean radish written by Yi Gyubo, a 13th-century literatus, shows that radish kimchi was common in Goryeo.
Kimchi has been a staple in Korean culture, but historical versions were not a spicy dish. Early records of kimchi do not mention garlic or chili pepper. Chili peppers, now a standard ingredient in kimchi, had been unknown in Korea until the early seventeenth century due to it being a New World crop. Chili peppers, originally native to the Americas, were introduced to East Asia by Portuguese traders. The first mention of chili pepper is found in Jibong yuseol, an encyclopedia published in 1614. Sallim gyeongje, a 17‒18th century book on farm management, wrote on kimchi with chili peppers. However, it was not until the 19th century that the use of chili peppers in kimchi became widespread. Recipes from the early 19th century closely resemble today's kimchi.
A 1766 book, Jeungbo sallim gyeongje, reports kimchi varieties made with myriad ingredients, including chonggak-kimchi, oi-sobagi, seokbak-ji, and dongchimi. However, napa cabbage was introduced to Korea only at the end of 19th century, and whole-cabbage kimchi similar to its current form is described in Siuijeonseo, a cookbook published around that time.Modern history
During South Korea's involvement in the Vietnam War, the industrialization and commercialization of kimchi production became increasingly important because the Korean government wanted to provide rations for its troops. The Korean government requested American help to ensure that South Korean troops, reportedly "desperate" for the food, could obtain it in the field.
In 2008, South Korean scientists created a special low-calorie, vitamin-rich "space kimchi" for Yi So-yeon, the first Korean astronaut, to take to space. It was bacteria-free, unlike normal kimchi in which bacteria are essential for fermentation. It was feared that cosmic rays might mutate the bacteria.
South Korea developed programs for adult Korean adoptees to return to South Korea and learn about what it means to be Korean. One of these programs was learning how to make kimchi.1996 kimchi standard dispute with Japan
In 1996, Korea protested against Japanese commercial production of kimchi arguing that the Japanese-produced product was different from kimchi. In particular, Japanese kimchi was not fermented and was more similar to asazuke. Korea lobbied for an international standard from the Codex Alimentarius, an organization associated with the World Health Organization that defines voluntary standards for food preparation for international trade purposes. In 2001, the Codex Alimentarius published a voluntary standard defining kimchi as "a fermented food that uses salted napa cabbages as its main ingredient mixed with seasonings, and goes through a lactic acid production process at a low temperature", but which neither specified a minimum amount of fermentation nor forbade the use of any additives. Following the inclusion of the kimchi standard, kimchi exports in Korea did increase, but so did the production of kimchi in China and the import of Chinese kimchi into Korea.2010 kimchi ingredient price crisis
Due to heavy rainfall shortening the harvesting time for cabbage and other main ingredients for kimchi in 2010, the price of kimchi ingredients and kimchi itself rose greatly. Korean and international newspapers described the rise in prices as a national crisis. Some restaurants stopped offering kimchi as a free side dish, which The New York Times compared to an American hamburger restaurant no longer offering free ketchup. In response to the kimchi price crisis, the South Korean government announced the temporary reduction of tariffs on imported cabbage to coincide with the kimjang season.Kimchi-related items have been inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by both South and North Korea. This makes kimchi the second intangible heritage that was submitted by two countries, the other one being the folk song "Arirang" which was also submitted by both the Koreas. "The culture of kimjang" was the subject of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: kimchi is not registered by itself.Submitted by South Korea (inscribed 2013)
, the tradition of making and sharing kimchi that usually takes place in late autumn, was added to the list as "Gimjang, making and sharing kimchi in the Republic of Korea". The practice of Gimjang reaffirms Korean identity and strengthens family cooperation. Gimjang is also an important reminder for many Koreans that human communities need to live in harmony with nature.Submitted by North Korea (inscribed 2015)
North Korean kimchi-making was inscribed on the list in December 2015 as "Tradition of kimchi-making in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea". North Korean kimchi tends to be less spicy and less red than South Korean kimchi. Seafood is used less often and less salt is added. Additional sugar is used to help with fermentation in the cold climate.Kimchi Day
In the United States, the states California, Virginia, Maryland and New York, and the capital city Washington D.C. have issued proclamations declaring 22 November as 'Kimchi Day' to recognize the importance of the dish as part of Korean culture.2012 effective ban by China of Korean kimchi imports
Since 2012, the Chinese government has effectively banned the import of Korean kimchi through government regulations. Ignoring the standards of kimchi outlined by the Codex Alimentarius, China defined kimchi as a derivative of one of its own cuisines, called pao cai. However, due to significantly different preparation techniques from pao cai, kimchi has significantly more lactic acid bacteria through its fermentation process, which exceeds China's regulations. Since 2012, commercial exports of Korean kimchi to China has reached zero; the only minor amounts of exports accounting for Korean kimchi are exhibition events held in China.2017 boycott in China
A 2017 article in The New York Times said that anti-Korean sentiment in China had risen after South Korea's acceptance of the deployment of THAAD in South Korea. Government-run Chinese news media encouraged the boycott of South Korean goods, and some Chinese nationalists vowed not to eat kimchi. The move was criticized by other Chinese nationalists, who noted that China officially considered Koreans an integral ethnic group in the multinational state, and that kimchi is also indigenous to the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.