Kimchi

One of the oldest Korean specialty food dating back to 2,000 years, Kimchi is the beloved spicy sidekick at every Korean table. It's made by salting and preserving fermented cabbage in a bed of pepper, garlic, ginger and scallion. 

In traditional preparation, kimchi is often allowed to ferment underground in jars for months. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made from napa cabbage, radish, scallion, or cucumber as a main ingredient.

Kimchi can be categorized by main ingredients, regions or seasons. Korea's northern and southern sections have a considerable temperature difference. There are over 180 varieties of kimchi with the most common kimchi variations are baechu kimchi (배추김치, napa cabbage kimchi), baechu geotjeori (배추겉절이, unfermented napa cabbage kimchi), bossam kimchi (보쌈김치), baek kimchi (백김치, white kimchi), dongchimi (동치미, water-based kimchi), chonggak kimchi (총각김치, young radish kimchi), kkakdugi (깍두기, daikon kimchi), oisobagi (오이소박이, cucumber kimchi), and pa kimchi (파김치, green onion kimchi).