Kimchi is a Korean staple; a dish that is served at almost every meal, along with cooked rice and other foods. It is usually made with Chinese cabbage and radishes, and often quite spicy.

The beginnings of Kimchi can be traced back hundreds of years. Long ago, before refrigerators, Kimchi was created as a way to preserve food and feed families during the cold winter months, when fresh vegetables were hard to find. -- Kind of like making pickles from fresh cucumbers. Vegetables were salted and mixed with different spices, then buried underground in pots. Inside the pots, the Kimchi would ferment and create a one-of-a-kind flavor. Today, you are probably familiar with another fermented food - sauerkraut, although Kimchi has a very different taste.

There are more than one hundred different types of Kimchi made in Korea today. The type varies depending on the vegetables and spices used, and their preparation. There are also regional differences. The northern part of Korea has colder winters, making it possible to use less salt to preserve the Kimchi. The people who live in the southern part of Korea add more salt to their Kimchi, as well as fish sauce and other foods found close to the sea.

And although one of the key ingredients is hot red pepper, this wasn’t always the case. When Kimchi was first created, red peppers were not grown in Korea. It was not until 1592, when the Japanese invaded Korea, that red peppers were introduced. Since then, many Korean recipes traditionally use this spice, including Kimchi.

This dish is so important to Korea, that many companies used to give their employees "Kimchi bonuses", money to buy all of the ingredients used for winter Kimchi making - an event called "Kimjang". Trucks filled with fresh cabbabes, turnips, and other vegetables supply neighborhood Kimjang markets. And long ago, when the size of an average family was quite large, families would buy between 70 to 100 heads of cabbage to prepare for winter.