A Taste Of Korea

Here are snapshots of the light refreshments served at the gallery for the evening. I didn’t get many food shots as the buffet table was packed with people jostling for space as they picked at the food spread. On the left is the spicy vegetable kimchi.

Kimchi was the mainstay of the evening. There were two types of kimchi served – vegetables and seafood, of which I only had a taste of the former. This was also the first time that I disovered that there’s a seafood kimchi. With my limited knowledge of Korean cuisine, I had always thought kimchi’s just vegetables. But hey..they have a seafood variety. Kimchi is a common side dish featured in every Korean meal. It is a traditional dish made of fermented vegetables and of the common spicy variety known as baechu. This dish is so versatile that it can be made into kimchi fried rice and kimchi stew. Did you know that a space kimchi was developed so that the first Korean astronaut had it on board the Soyuz space ship?

The most popular type of kimchi is the baechu, made from Chinese cabbage. There are also varieties made from cubed radishes, scallions and cucumbers. A total of more than 100 varieties of kimchi have been documented by the Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul. Common seasonings used for kimchi are garlic, brine, scallions, ground chilli pepper, ginger, onions and fish sauce as well as fruits or fresh seafood. The use of fish sauce has since been replaced with salted fermented anchovies and small shrimps.

The taste of kimchi differs from the northern and southern parts of Korea. Kimchi from the northern part of the country are more watery, less salty and spicy and brined seafood are not used for seasoning. The southern version is more like what we Msians love – spicy!

Eating kimchi is healthy as you get a high dosage of dietary fibre and vitamins from the various types of vegetables. Kimchi is listed as one of the top five World’s Healthiest Food.

Seafood kimchi

For the less exotic of the evening - cocktail sausages and mini toasted bread.
My friend wasn't too sure about this one but from the looks of it...I would safely bet it's something Msians are familiar with - muachi, glutinous rice balls coated with peanuts. This Korean version is coated with cocoa powder.