Kimchi: a traditional Korean dish made with salted, fermented vegetables. Records indicate it is at least 2,000 years old, though the modern kimchi as we would recognise it – napa cabbage generously coated with a thick paste of garlic, ginger, gochugaru chilli flakes, and fish sauce – only became widespread in the late 19th century.

When it comes to food, we all find ourselves craving the familiar, unadulterated tastes of childhood

When it comes to food, we all find ourselves craving the familiar, unadulterated tastes of childhood

The importance of kimchi to Korean national identity and culture is hard to overstate. Many Koreans eat kimchi every day, if not at every meal. During the Vietnam War, South Korea’s President Park personally implored Lyndon Johnson to help provide kimchi rations to demoralised Korean soldiers at the front. Johnson approved this request, at a cost of about $2 million annually, catalysing the industrialisation and mass commercialisation of kimchi. More recently, the South Korean government spent years and millions of dollars on R&D to get a space-certified kimchi ready in time for the nation’s first astronaut aboard the ISS in 2008.

Though some Koreans sought to distance themselves from kimchi after the war, associating it with deprivation and shameful colonial-era memories........

© The Spectator