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I finally went to the Asian market that opened up recently in my town. Spent a bunch of money and I'm now in possession of, among other things, kimchi. Proper Korean-style kimchi. Nicely sour, hot but not blow-your-face-off hot, and above all, not vegan.
The thing is, the store where I work carries 3 or 4 kinds of kimchi. All of them seem to be made primarily for westerners. All of them are vegan. (A lot of Korean kimchis, though I don't think all, contain a little bit of shrimp.) Some of them, I'm fairly sure, use different chiles than the relatively mild Korean ones. I've tried a couple of them and they all tasted wrong to me. So I haven't had kimchi in a while. Earlier today, while I shopping in the Asian market, I hesitated before buying any. "Did I ever really like kimchi or am I just mis-remembering?"
Happy to report that I do actually like kimchi, I even broke out the chopsticks, which is another thing I haven't done for a while. But I would have felt stupid eating kimchi with a fork. And now I'm looking at my empty bowl and wondering if I should have some more.
ETA: The store was missing a few things I hoped it would have--no tianjin preserved vegetable, none of the really good dashi powder that's just bonito and kombu, and weirdly no Pearl River Bridge soy sauce except the mushroom kind. I don't know why I'm having so much trouble finding Chinese/Chinese-style soy sauces. Probably a supply chain issue, I guess. (They're available on Amazon but I'd rather not.) Also they had a vegetable labeled "gai lan" that looked very much like Shanghai baby bok choy to me, and nothing whatsoever like any gai lan I've ever seen before.
The thing is, the store where I work carries 3 or 4 kinds of kimchi. All of them seem to be made primarily for westerners. All of them are vegan. (A lot of Korean kimchis, though I don't think all, contain a little bit of shrimp.) Some of them, I'm fairly sure, use different chiles than the relatively mild Korean ones. I've tried a couple of them and they all tasted wrong to me. So I haven't had kimchi in a while. Earlier today, while I shopping in the Asian market, I hesitated before buying any. "Did I ever really like kimchi or am I just mis-remembering?"
Happy to report that I do actually like kimchi, I even broke out the chopsticks, which is another thing I haven't done for a while. But I would have felt stupid eating kimchi with a fork. And now I'm looking at my empty bowl and wondering if I should have some more.
ETA: The store was missing a few things I hoped it would have--no tianjin preserved vegetable, none of the really good dashi powder that's just bonito and kombu, and weirdly no Pearl River Bridge soy sauce except the mushroom kind. I don't know why I'm having so much trouble finding Chinese/Chinese-style soy sauces. Probably a supply chain issue, I guess. (They're available on Amazon but I'd rather not.) Also they had a vegetable labeled "gai lan" that looked very much like Shanghai baby bok choy to me, and nothing whatsoever like any gai lan I've ever seen before.
