My wife has been reading about the importance of fermented foods for gut health. She’s decided to try it and got some kefir. Unfortunately, kefir smells like a dirty gym stock and tastes like it smells. Bleh!

I decided to try kimchi instead. It tastes absolutely amazing. It’s a prepared brand (Cleveland) but it’s all natural ingredients. It has a bit of sugar in it but i think that’s to keep the fermentation active.

It does have onions in it, which I normally cannot have as is a migraine trigger but so far it hasn’t affected me. Maybe being fermented it removes the migraine inducing stuff. Don’t know.

I’ve been putting it over rice for lunch and it’s quite enjoyable.

I make about half cup of minute rice with butter, cayenne powder, ginger and black pepper. Then I scoop a couple servings of the kimchi over it. Good stuff. I can recommend it.

Mark, if you have any interest in making kimchee, I can email you a recipe and instructions. My (Korean) wife is actually making some as I type this. It requires nothing special, aside of two or three ingredients you can get at an Asian market, or Amazon.
And you’ll need a very good storage container. Something like a lock lock or a snapware container that is a gallon or two.

You can also fry the kimchee in a pan first and then use it w/ rice (you can add rice to the pan and fry together or just add it to fresh rice).

With kimchee, you can make kimchee jige which is triple the fermented foods.

Cabbage kimchee is the staple (you can get uncut or pre-cut versions) but also popular are daikon (radish) or cucumber kimchee. My fav is the daikon.

If you have access to an asian market, there may be several korean brands available. I've been partial to the CJ and Jongja brands if you see them.

Beancooker - I have a couple recipes for kimchee but also open to other recipes. I'd be interested in your wife's recipe if it's convenient for you.

Now grill a large piece and try it

Yes, good stuff.

Yup good stuff and Cleveland brand is the good one in the refrigerated case. A lot of krauts and kimchis are pasteurized, ruining any benefit to gut biome. Cleveland has the active bacteria.

I just recently started fermenting my own sauerkraut and hot sauces. I got my mango habenero hot sauce perfected. Also fermented some tomatoes and made a tomato sauce. I believe as soon as you heat these things up you lose a lot of the beneficial probiotics. Fermenting is so easy. As few or as many ingredients you want to use and time. You can buy fermenting jars with air locks rather cheaply. I got an old fermenting crock that was made in Germany for kraut. Bought it from an old gal in a small town. Her husband died and she couldn't use it anymore. She literally cried when I left with it.

When I make a fresh batch of kraut I plan on dropping off a few jars for her.

I haven't made a batch in a few years. Nobody in the house will stand for it. It's hard enough even to eat it indoors.

I think the rest of the family should buck up.

I love kimchi.

Freshly made, spicy or not, different authentic varieties. It's all good.

Kimchi is to Koreans what salsa is to Mexicans.

The kimchi from Trader Joe's is excellent, the spicy variety. I like their kefir too, sorry Mark.

While serving ( U S Army 1969-70) in South Korea the locals would bury the containers in the ground for the time of the fermintation process as well as long term storage... Liked it... It was different... very tasty and would get your attention.......... drill sgt.

I can eat a pint of it straight for a snack.

I especially like it in soup form

https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kimchi-guk

Plus I can vary that to whatever’s in the fridge.

Kimchi is good stuff, you're supposed to eat it WITH other items, it's not a side-dish like a salad, but an additive.

As for kifir....I've never come across an awful smell, all the stuff I have had, I found to be like a yogurt smoothie. Smell wasn't an issue, as the majority of them are fruit flavored, like yogurt.

It's been a few years since I have been to a gun show. ArtieS and I went to the one in Orlando today (there aren't enough people in the world to buy all the AR-15s that I saw).

After we left the show, we stopped at a Korean restaurant and had a really outstanding meal. With Kimchi, of course. The place was doing a brisk business, and I believe that we two were the only non-Asian people there. Great food, we decided that it's definitly worth going back again.

Better late than never! It goes really well with stir fry's, soups, sandwiches, plain rice, etc.
We just did an awesome hotpot with it.

It’s something I’ve not had but have been wanting to. I get nervous about picking a brand or how to eat it. Hopefully we have the Cleveland brand around here. I’d give it a whirl over rice like Mark says.

Nice pic! Is that chinese style? One of my favorite condiments i only use with Chinese style hot pot (hoar gwo). I love satay jang.

We go a few times a year to a local Korean restaurant. They serve about 15-20 banchan. We're always taking home leftovers. I'm itching to go now.

There is a Korean restaurant here that serves radish kimchi as a side. It's like crack to me....

Also makes a good hot dog topping.