March 6, 2007
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Gettin’ Jigae with it
My friend jglee just took her bar exam, and a group of us went out to celebrate by getting Korean food at ChoCho’s. Yum!
June’s dad was raised in Korea, so she grew up with a taste for it. I like some of it — the slightly sweet BBQ, a bit of the red sauce that goes on lettuce wraps, and the neat ways you can cook raw eggs while eating them. But I draw the line at kimchi. Like politics, kimchi is divisive. Some people think it’s culinary heaven on earth, while I think it should be outlawed under the Geneva convention. June’s mom once brought us a jar from California. She sealed it in 3 layers of ziploc bags before bringing it on board the aircraft. But mere glass and plastic cannot contain the beast… During the flight, a stewardess walked up and down the aisle, sniffing, and spraying some kind of air freshener. When a passenger complained that he was allergic to the spray, the attendant replied in a loud voice, “Well, if some passeneger nearby would keep his shoes on, I wouldn’t have to spray!” Such is the power of kimchi.
The package eventually made its way to our house. But the first time I opened the fridge, I knew it had to go. I made June give it away. Then I learned that even Koreans keep a separate fridge for kimchi. The same way pharmaceutical labs keep a separate freezer for their biohazards.
On a happier note, I found out that Sensata is back-dating our employment start dates from the time we first joined SMaL! (Cypress did not do this.) So I will start with 6 years of seniority at Sensata and begin accumulating 4+ weeks of vacation a year.
Comments (16)
LOL!
hilarious. actually, some hard-core koreans dig a hole in the ground and keep the kimchi there
Yay 4 week vacations! More trips together! bryanche has 4 weeks vacation now too!
ah the kimchee on the plane. you never bring it on the plane, put it in the cargo.
I’ve always wondered what it tastes like to kiss someone who eats kimchi on a regular basis. I figure that eating something so strong on a long-term basis has got to have some effect on one’s flavor. However, I also figure that if both of the people kissing eat kimchi regularly, then each will be used to the taste of kimchi and won’t notice its effects on the other person. I tried asking my sister-in-law, who is Chinese and married to a Korean, what it tastes like to kiss her husband. But, she won’t tell me. =p
i think my first experience with kimchi sucked thousand year old eggs multiplied by a googleplex. Now I’m much more ambivalent. I don’t go hogwild about this stuff, but I do like the salted spiciness.
Awesome with the 4+weeks vacation/year!!!!
i’ve just been informed by my wife, after gleefully sharing your post with her, that the reason kimchee is stored in a separate fridge is because it keeps/ferments best at a certain temperature! sort of like wine i guess. i’m skeptical, but she insists it’s not because of the smell.
(hanna)
my former coworker said when he was dating a korean dude back in college, his partner’s mom would send kimchi. it got so bad for my coworker, he told his partner one day, “honey, it’s either him or the kimchi. someone’s gotta go.” and he’s exact words: “the kimchi stayed. i went.”
luckily for me, jason’s puerto-rican/southwestern palette loves kimchi more than i do.
for me, i think the korean fermented mung beans paste (dwen-jang) smells 100000xs worse than kimchi.
hahaha, I never noticed that kimchi smelled like feet, but now that you mention it…
i’ve had patients who’ve eaten kimchee before they see me. that sour aromatic smell! i feel bad for dentists with korean patients!
So based on *actual* work hours, you effectively have something like 9+ weeks of vacation per year. And that’s a conservative estimate.
(sniff, sniff) alas, my lost kimchee. it just means i gorge on it every time we go to a korean restaurant. and then ed gets to kiss my kimechee breath, mwahahah. =)
Why do you think we have 2 fridges at my place? LOL.
i actually like kimchi but i think there are some fermented things that are far worse. natto (fermented japanses soy beans) literally smells and tastes like sweaty, dirty, old, socks. YUM!
you know… the kimchi that my roomie and i keep in our fridge doesn’t seem to stink up the fridge so bad. Rather… it’s the molding food and rotting meat that she occasionally forgets about that makes it smell bad. But then again, maybe our kimchi isn’t strong/flavorful enough! =P
hey! my mom grew up in korea…i wonder if june’s dad and my mom know each other. hahaha.