Popping my Kimchi
The other day I finally opened the bottle of Kimchi I had picked up at the grocery store last week. This is my first time with Kimchi and I don’t know what makes a good Kimchi or what a typical way to eat Kimchi is.
The bottle warned that overflow was possible due to the fermentation, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I popped the cap off… over the sink. There was some fizzing and bubbling and the general mass of cabbage came closer to the top of the bottle, but nothing quite as drastic as I had been fearing. The smell was sweet, though I didn’t stick my nose into it.
So I took a fork and pulled out some chunks of the Kimchi and plopped it onto a plate. It looks like limp white, green, and red cabbage with some random other vegetables tossed in for good measure. In other words, it looked like a normal vegetarian meal to me!
I’m not sure how to describe the flavor experience. The Kimchi has a slightly delayed hot and spicy flavor that doesn’t quite match up to any pepper I’ve ever tasted. Nice, but then it got a little too warm for my weak tongue … and then it felt like the Kimchi was fizzing on my tongue like some Pop Rocks or a really spoiled food. It was disturbing. Overall, the Kimchi was too hot and too fizzy for me to eat by itself.
So I piled it onto some wheat bread with some swiss cheese and Morningstar Breakfast Strips. That was weird and good and … weird.
I need to find out what Kimchi is good to eat with since I really don’t think I’m going to get used to the way it feels to eat it by itself.