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The typical cabbage Kimchi also has a number of regional variants as well. Instead of salted shrimp, I've seen it made with small clams, or other things. It als

by bane 8y ago

The typical cabbage Kimchi also has a number of regional variants as well. Instead of salted shrimp, I've seen it made with small clams, or other things. It also makes it difficult to be a vegan in Korea (though its getting easier as that type of thing becomes more common) as literally everything has some kind of animal protein in it in some way even if it doesn't superficially appear to. Kimchi is a living, aging, food, and its flavor profile will change dramatically over time -- leading to different uses in and with different foods at each stage. For example, there's a point where it starts to sour and the taste explodes with savory complexity -- and it's at that point where it excels as a condiment with pork. These days, it's easier to just buy it at the grocery store. We buy it in 5lb bags and let it sit out for a few days to kickstart the fermentation again before putting it into jars in our fridge. My Mother-in-law has a dedicated Kimchi fridge that's at a more optimal temperature for the controlled fermentation. You can find a Korean grocer in most major U.S. cities and there will be a chiller section that looks something like this: http://www.chicagonow.com/chewables-chicago/files/2012/11/IMG_1205.jpg http://www.chicagonow.com/chewables-chicago/files/2012/11/IM... It's also worth it to explore some of the other fermented foods that Koreans regularly use. Two of my all time favorites are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doenjang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doenjang and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssamjang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssamjang. Doenjang can be used to quickly create an incredibly delicious broth as part of one of my favorite stews called Doenjang-jjigae. Recipe here https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/doenjang-jjigae https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/doenjang-jjigae

vram22 8y ago
>Doenjang-jjigae Why the double j in the word? Seen it before, not commonly seen in other languages (AFAIK), even if it is a transliteration (if that's the right term, I'm not a linguist). Does it mean extra emphasis of the j when saying the word.
- bane 8y ago
  Korean has some unusual consonants that are difficult to hear by non-Korean speakers but have an interesting representation in Hangul (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul) The non-aspirated consonant ㅈ at the beginning of a syllable is pronounced more or less like an English 'j'. But in Korean there's a "tense" version of many of these consonants that are pronounced with more emphases. These are represented by writing the non-aspirated consonant twice. So ㅈ becomes ㅉ which transliterates to "jj". The aspirated forms are also slightly different -- for ㅈ the aspirated form is ㅊ and pronounced more or less like the English "ch". Korean consonants take on different pronunciations at the end of syllables and can modify in the middle or words and that's more complicated. The nice part is that this means that you really only have to learn about 8 "core" consonants and then how they modify for each case and position. Korean vowels also have a similarly compact, easy to learn system that's different from the consonants -- there's only 5 "core" ones. It means you only have to really memorize about 11 symbols and their modified and combined forms to read and write. It takes about a week for the average non Korean speaking adult to be able to become basically literate in Korean Hangul! Here's a list of the consonants that follow this rule (in the initial syllabic position) if you're interested: Non-aspirated, stressed, aspirated ㄱ - g - ㄲ - gg - ㅋ - k ㄷ - d - ㄸ - dd - ㅌ - t ㅂ - b - ㅃ - bb - ㅍ - p ㅅ - s - ㅆ - ss - NA ㄹ - r/l - NA - NA ㅁ - m - NA - NA ㅇ - 'nothing' - NA - ㅎ - h ㅈ - j - ㅉ - jj - ㅊ - ch
  - vram22 8y ago
    Thanks, interesting stuff. I wouldn't have thought that a language could have so few symbols. Sanskrit and Hindi scripts have letters like the non-aspirated and aspirated ones in your list, but I don't think they have the stressed kind, although letters (both vowels and consonants) have repeated consecutive occurrences (at least two) in words.

by bane 8y ago

vram22 8y ago

>Doenjang-jjigae Why the double j in the word? Seen it before, not commonly seen in other languages (AFAIK), even if it is a transliteration (if that's the right term, I'm not a linguist). Does it mean extra emphasis of the j when saying the word.

bane 8y ago
Korean has some unusual consonants that are difficult to hear by non-Korean speakers but have an interesting representation in Hangul (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul) The non-aspirated consonant ㅈ at the beginning of a syllable is pronounced more or less like an English 'j'. But in Korean there's a "tense" version of many of these consonants that are pronounced with more emphases. These are represented by writing the non-aspirated consonant twice. So ㅈ becomes ㅉ which transliterates to "jj". The aspirated forms are also slightly different -- for ㅈ the aspirated form is ㅊ and pronounced more or less like the English "ch". Korean consonants take on different pronunciations at the end of syllables and can modify in the middle or words and that's more complicated. The nice part is that this means that you really only have to learn about 8 "core" consonants and then how they modify for each case and position. Korean vowels also have a similarly compact, easy to learn system that's different from the consonants -- there's only 5 "core" ones. It means you only have to really memorize about 11 symbols and their modified and combined forms to read and write. It takes about a week for the average non Korean speaking adult to be able to become basically literate in Korean Hangul! Here's a list of the consonants that follow this rule (in the initial syllabic position) if you're interested: Non-aspirated, stressed, aspirated ㄱ - g - ㄲ - gg - ㅋ - k ㄷ - d - ㄸ - dd - ㅌ - t ㅂ - b - ㅃ - bb - ㅍ - p ㅅ - s - ㅆ - ss - NA ㄹ - r/l - NA - NA ㅁ - m - NA - NA ㅇ - 'nothing' - NA - ㅎ - h ㅈ - j - ㅉ - jj - ㅊ - ch
- vram22 8y ago
  Thanks, interesting stuff. I wouldn't have thought that a language could have so few symbols. Sanskrit and Hindi scripts have letters like the non-aspirated and aspirated ones in your list, but I don't think they have the stressed kind, although letters (both vowels and consonants) have repeated consecutive occurrences (at least two) in words.