4 ms·

Fun fact, the spicy pepper was only introduced after the Portuguese brought it to East Asia. The original Kimchi was not spicy and red.

by pwaai 8y ago

vram22 8y ago
>Fun fact, the spicy pepper was only introduced after the Portuguese brought it to East Asia. Yes. Not only to East Asia, to India too, and probably to many other countries. In fact, maybe to Africa too, since they had colonies there too. I've had piri piri dishes in Goa, and heard or read that it came from Africa via the Portuguese.
girzel 8y ago
Was it basically sauerkraut? People in north-eastern China (across a river from North Korea) all eat something basically indistinguishable from sauerkraut.
- mikekchar 8y ago
  Kimchi is usually made with fish sauce (which stinks to high heaven when fermenting, but adds super umami when finished). I'm being stupid and reading the comments before I enjoy TFA, so maybe it is all explained there, but for me (even more than the hot peppers) that fish sauce really defines kimchi, though I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
  - girzel 8y ago
    Interesting. The Chinese stuff is definitely just salt, no fish sauce.
  - pwaai 8y ago
    You are accurate in that fish sauce is the original but people switched to shrimp sauce because it was less pungent. I think when you salt the veggies and then coat it with a mix of garlic pepper paste and wait for fermentation to occur, flavor is produced. Like if you ate a newly seasoned Kimchi you can tell it's not ripe until it eventually develops its flavor after fermentation has taken place.
  - yongjik 8y ago
    Not just fish sauce, but usually a lot of tiny shrimps, and occasionally whole oysters and octopuses thrown in, depending on the region. I once heard a coworker saying "In my town, kimchi is half cabbage and half oysters." (To which another coworker jokingly replied, "That's because you grew up in a rich family! Hah, half oysters!")
- MDib 8y ago
  Yep! It's called Xian Cai (salted vegetable) or Suan Cai (sour vegetable) and like basically any other cuisine, there are dozens of variations on it across China. If you look at the picture on the wiki [1] you'll see that it's fermented almost exactly like sauerkraut, albeit whole not sliced. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suan_cai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suan_cai

Fun fact, the spicy pepper was only introduced after the Portuguese brought it to East Asia. The original Kimchi was not spicy and red.

by pwaai 8y ago

Fun fact, the spicy pepper was only introduced after the Portuguese brought it to East Asia. The original Kimchi was not spicy and red.

vram22 8y ago

>Fun fact, the spicy pepper was only introduced after the Portuguese brought it to East Asia. Yes. Not only to East Asia, to India too, and probably to many other countries. In fact, maybe to Africa too, since they had colonies there too. I've had piri piri dishes in Goa, and heard or read that it came from Africa via the Portuguese.

girzel 8y ago

Was it basically sauerkraut? People in north-eastern China (across a river from North Korea) all eat something basically indistinguishable from sauerkraut.

mikekchar 8y ago
Kimchi is usually made with fish sauce (which stinks to high heaven when fermenting, but adds super umami when finished). I'm being stupid and reading the comments before I enjoy TFA, so maybe it is all explained there, but for me (even more than the hot peppers) that fish sauce really defines kimchi, though I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
- girzel 8y ago
  Interesting. The Chinese stuff is definitely just salt, no fish sauce.
- pwaai 8y ago
  You are accurate in that fish sauce is the original but people switched to shrimp sauce because it was less pungent. I think when you salt the veggies and then coat it with a mix of garlic pepper paste and wait for fermentation to occur, flavor is produced. Like if you ate a newly seasoned Kimchi you can tell it's not ripe until it eventually develops its flavor after fermentation has taken place.
- yongjik 8y ago
  Not just fish sauce, but usually a lot of tiny shrimps, and occasionally whole oysters and octopuses thrown in, depending on the region. I once heard a coworker saying "In my town, kimchi is half cabbage and half oysters." (To which another coworker jokingly replied, "That's because you grew up in a rich family! Hah, half oysters!")
MDib 8y ago
Yep! It's called Xian Cai (salted vegetable) or Suan Cai (sour vegetable) and like basically any other cuisine, there are dozens of variations on it across China. If you look at the picture on the wiki [1] you'll see that it's fermented almost exactly like sauerkraut, albeit whole not sliced. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suan_cai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suan_cai