Thursday, December 08, 2005

Culture: Kimchi refrigerators

You know that the Koreans are DEAD SERIOUS about their kimchi (pickles) when:
  1. They eat it EVERY meal


  2. They have special Kimchi refrigerators (김치냉장고) for making that stuff!
Always remember this: If you marry a Korean person, you'd probably have to live with two refrigerators. One for the normal stuff, and possibly a kimchi refrigerator with a capacity of a whopping 180 Liters! This is the largest I've spotted by far.

For comparison sake: 180L is equivalent to 120 LARGE coke bottles, or about 4 full tanks of petrol/gasoline in a mid-sized car!

Now that's A LOT of Kimchi!

My American housemate X has a Korean wife of 15 years. Apparently her kimchi refrigerator hasn't been quite enough. So over the years, some of the stuff slowly snuck its way over into the normal fridge.

Keep in mind that X doesn't quite do the whole kimchi thing. Unfortunately he has had to put up with kimchi-flavored cheese on some days... Oh joy.

I guess the best solution would be to buy her an even BIGGER refrigerator! Click 'HERE' to download a copy of this sales brochure I got.

297 Liters?? *Gulp...

4 Comments:

At December 08, 2005 2:07 PM, Blogger Lori Stewart Weidert said...

I love Kimchi, but I can never work my way through a jar of it...plus the smell of it *does* kind of...taint everything else in the frig.

 
At December 08, 2005 8:29 PM, Blogger Chris said...

One other note - in my officetel, the kimchi fridge is in the place where an oven would normally be. So, I only have a small toaster oven (plus the mandantory microwave oven). No cookies or pizza for me.

However, let me advise you of one solution. I don't keep THAT much kimchi on hand, so I use the top drawer for kimchi, and reserve the bottom drawer for beer, soju, and sansachun!

-Chris

 
At December 09, 2005 8:05 AM, Blogger Kurios1978 said...

gnightgirl: Don't worry. I prefer to enjoy it only at the restaurants too. :)

Chris: I salute you... There are not too many 'foreigner' whom I know, including myself, who would be too keen on that stuff to even keep it at home.

Come to think yet... I could probably be wrong. Just found out yesterday that a good Irish girl-friend of mine does stock kimchi in her fridge! Its funny what your friends tell you when they read your thoughts on your blog. :P

 
At December 09, 2005 10:37 PM, Blogger Chris said...

Speaking of kimchi eating, let me add this. I am always "discovering" food combinations in korea that taste delicious together. Two weeks ago, as I prepared to return to usa, I was cleaning out the fridge. Among the items were kimchi and some hard boiled eggs. I took those with me, along with some crackers, to one of my favorite bars. While I was waiting for my beers, we craked out these "snacks".

By accident, I happened to put some kimchi in my mouth while I was still chewing the egg. Wow - it was DELICIOUS. Who would have thought? Several times after that, I also learned you can buy hard-boiled (or fire-cooked) eggs and kimchi at the convenience store for a quick snack! The bar tender, inspired by my discovery, decided to make a kimchi-cracker sandwich, and reported it, too, was delicious.

YMMV....

-Chris

 

Post a Comment

<< Home