Ooh That Smell: Kimchi Crisis in South Korea

Koreans eat kimchi--the spicy, fermented cabbage-based dish--at nearly every meal. But an unusually long stretch of bad weather nearly halved the latest cabbage crop, causing prices to soar. At markets in Seoul, shoppers were up before dawn fighting to buy heads of napa cabbage that once cost about $4 but now go for as much as $14. On Thursday, NPR reported that the government temporarily suspended tariffs on Chinese-imported cabbage and other produce this week, part of a plan to rush an additional 100 tons of the staple into supermarkets and stores. The Seoul city government, meanwhile, is providing the busiest markets with 300,000 heads of napa cabbage at just 70 percent of the market price — enough to feed 10,000 households. Kimchi (cabbage fermented in white radish, garlic and chili paste seasoning) is low in calories, rich in vitamins, and like pickles or coleslaw in this country, in South Korea it appears as a free side dish in local restaurants from steakhouses to pizzerias.

Here's a traditional recipe.